Madrid’s Gran Hotel Inglés re-opens

A hotel bedroom with a bed, a metal framed bed bench, a metal framed wood coffee table, a lamp, an alcove with a bathtub, an alcove with a toilet, a large TV on the wall and a blue and yellow floral patterned rug.

(Image credit: TBC)

Since 1853, the Gran Hotel Inglés hotel had entertained a kaleidoscope of VIPs from Virginia Woolf to Henri Matisse, but after 165 years, the grand old pile in Madrid’s historic Barrio de las Letras quarter was showing its age.

Happily, the Rockwell Group has just completed a stylish tip-to-toe renovation, keeping intact the fine bones of Juan Jose Sanchez Pescador’s original design whilst breathing new life and modernity into the public spaces and 48 rooms. The lobby’s 20ft-high ceiling sparkles once more with chandeliers, whilst the bedrooms are swathed in leather, wallpaper prints of vintage hotel postcards, and marble.

In-house restaurant, Lobo 8, meanwhile, frames oak columns against chef Willy Moya’s comforting menu of traditional tapas and Madrilenian classics like calamari sandwiches, and braised bull-tail stew. A particularly nice touch is the hotel’s library of some 600 volumes curated by Spanish publisher Zenda, which are also available to guests on Kindles.

A hotel bedroom with a bed, a metal framed bed bench, two chairs, a round coffee table, two side tables, square patterned wall decorations, a blue and yellow floral rug, wooden floors and an angled roof.

A hotel bathroom with a white sink counter, twin round mirrors, a large shower with a clear glass door, a large standing mirror, cupboards, a round seat and wooden floors.

A hotel room lounge with a grey sofa, a round coffee table, a floor lamp, orange covered chairs, a round dining table, square patterned wall decorations, wooden floors and an angled roof.

ADDRESS

Calle Echegaray 8

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Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.