Anouska Hempel and boutique London hotels.

Blakes was the first modern "boutique hotel" and its influence lives on strongly today

In the 1970s there was no such thing as a ’boutique hotel’.  In fact there was hardly any such thing as ‘hotel design’ – most hotels were highly conservative.  This was still the era of place mats with stagecoach and hunting scenes on them and menus with upholstered red plastic covers.

Then Anouska Hempel brought modern design to Blakes Hotel in 1978 and created the modern genre of luxury boutique hotels.

What was new?  Well for a start, each room was different, using an eclectic mix of style influences including Turkish, Chinese, and Indian.

A boutique hotel was opulent, but not in the ‘Grand Hotel’ style – this is luxury to be privately enjoyed rather than ‘on show’.  And the hotel’s character was meant to be distinctive – quite different from other hotels.  It was above all a bit of an adventure to stay in – not stuffy, not corporate.  Your great-aunt wouldn’t stay there and nor would your accountant.

I’m wondering whether Blakes also set another trend that’s just making a comeback – opening upmarket hotels in downmarket areas.  While officially Blakes is in South Kensington, it’s not all that far from the grungier Earls Court – which was much scruffier back in the 1970s than it is now.

Check the best rate for Blakes Hotel from 30+ hotel booking sites

Although Blakes has seen better days, hopes are high that its renovation will restore it to its former glory

Blakes is undergoing a two-year refurbishment which will add a gym, says Luxury Travel magazine.  It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Shoot forward 20 years from the founding of Blakes, and Anouska Hempel (now Lady Weinberg) opened The Hempel, another luxury hotel.  Where Blakes was about opulence and abundance, The Hempel was influenced by Zen and minimalism.  Blakes was warm and The Hempel was cool.

Anouska Hempel has been far more influential in the world of hotel design than her bare CV might indicate; she’s designed only four hotels but they have been references for the modern hospitality sector.  Like Philippe Starck, another influential hotel designer, she works in other media too, such as fashion and fountain pens as well as hotels and restaurants.

Check the best rate for the Hempel Hotel from 30+ hotel booking sites

Where Blakes is eclectic and warm, The Hempel is about creating a sense of Zen-like calm and minimalism

Blakes and The Hempel have styles that are easy to describe – and relatively easy to imitate.  But I think Anouska Hempel’s influence goes way beyond introducing oriental influences to the design of western hotels – and far beyond any particular style.  What she did was to bring a sense of drama into hotel design, so that a hotel became a piece of theatre.

Nowhere is this legacy more evident than the current top-rated London hotel on TripAdvisor – a boutique 5 star London hotel by Red Carnation with 30-odd rooms – where each room is individual, the head barman makes a mean martini and staff have even been known to break into song.

Book direct with the Egerton House Hotel at the best guaranteed rate

The 5 star boutique Egerton House hotel is one of several hotels taking over the mantle of Blakes by delivering guests a truly individual experience

Anouska Hempel also made hotels personal.  Instead of  making a homogenised product that wouldn’t offend anybody – as the hotel industry had been trying to do until her arrival – she set out to make a distinctive hotel for a particular type of customer: a hotel with a personality.  Her hotels are love-or-hate and never ‘just okay’.  When you see hotels as individual as The Rookery, 40 Winks or Rough Luxe, remember that it was Anouska Hempel who freed hotels from the drudgery of just being ‘good’.

Get the best-value London hotel deal from 30+ booking sites in 1 click

Photo credits: Blakes Hotel, The Hempel Hotel, Egerton House Hotel.

Tagged as: Blakes Hotel, Egerton House Hotel, Hempel Hotel