This is Rough Luxe. Half rough, half luxury. A little bit of luxury in a rough part of London. A little bit rough in a luxurious London. This home –  which used to be a brothel – was transformed by internationally acclaimed designer Rabih Hage in 2008.

This is the antithesis of a conventional luxury hotel: an unprepossessing Georgian building in King’s Cross where cracked, peeling paintwork and shreds of faded wallpaper sit alongside attention-grabbing artworks both ancient and modern and weathered retro areas give way to sumptuous designer comforts.
In this little six-bedroom boutique hotel – once a brothel – architect Rabih Hage has kept the raw, half-renovated look and spiced it all up with designer touches and a collection of works of art. Connected to the contemporary art gallery The Mews, the walls are peeling, the wood isn’t sanded or varnished, the rooms are sometimes too small, sometimes too big, and the TVs date back to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The charm operates, there is no doubt, between the contradictions, the past and the present. And if you still don’t trust us, Vogue magazine held a fashion shoot there and Wallpaper keeps raving about it.

Imperfection here is the key to happiness.

From 150£/night.
1 Birkenhead Street WC1H 8BA London