LONDON, U.K. WHITE CITY HOUSE From small beginnings in 1995, in cramped Georgian premises at 40 Greek Street in London’s Soho - a place for the capital’s creative community to booze, schmooze and snog after the pubs shut - Soho House (complete with its quintessentially London DNA) has developed into an allembracing live-work-play-sleep concept and expanded across the world. With over 70,000 members worldwide and currently expanding at the rate of at least two new Houses every year, it’s hard to keep track of how many Soho House outposts there are currently, but a good guesstimate would be twenty as of 1st September 2018. And as the empire has grown so new Houses have included Cowshed spas, barbershops and hair salons, plus of course swimming pools and gyms - the one at White City covers 21,000ft2 and includes a second pool and a hammam. Set in the former BBC headquarters, West London may have been routinely overshadowed as a cool, creative hub for a number of years by its trendier easterly cousin, but it’s now been put firmly back on the artistic map by the opening of White City House earlier this year - Soho House’s newest and largest members’ club and hotel in the British capital. Inspired by the iconic building’s impressive history, a brash 60s design aesthetic is very obvious throughout. 45 hotel rooms are complemented by two floors of club space on the 9th and 10th floors offering panoramic vistas of West London. Another floor is dedicated to members’ events, and then there’s a rooftop pool and bar, three-screen cinema and one of the largest gyms in London. There’s even a special roast duck oven to cook the birds to crisp, succulent perfection as part of the Asian-inspired menu in the ninth-floor restaurant. www.whitecityhouse.com
Sep-Nov 2018 The Cultured Traveller 35