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The Mandrake, Fitzrovia - hotel review

The Mandrake
The Mandrake

Step through a dark tunnel into a hidden jasmine courtyard in Fitzrovia and into a unique hotel which lulls you into dreamy hedonism.

Where is it?

On Newman Street, one of the quieter, more discreet streets of Fitzrovia but just a short walk from Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus. Even when you have the address, it is not obvious to find. You should look for the doorman standing at the front, with a dark velvet corridor behind and prepare for a journey into another world.

The hotel is quite a contrast to the surrounding street - still largely offices - and in its own world. But, when you do choose to step out, you are just a few steps away from the Oxford Street and the ever more lively Charlotte Street and Mortimer Street, and Soho is just five minutes away.

Style

The wonder of this hotel is the courtyard, rising three stories. It is like an optical illusion, with iron railings encircling it, and jasmine draping down.

There is no corporate design at the Mandrake. Every detail has a little human touch - of eccentricity - from a plush snug lounge to the delights of the courtyard bar, to stuffed animals. In the rooms themselves, in which you can see the hand of the designer in a lamp here, a picture there.

It is as though you’ve been invited into a private home in a South East Asian country, in which a masqued ball is about to be thrown. Even the bar staff look like they’ve come off a casting couch. Velvet, feathers, light and dark: there’s an edge of danger to place.

Everything points back to the name of this hotel: the mandrake. A Mediterranean plant, it was used as a hallucinogen and narcotic, and while there’s none offer, the hotel aspires to induce this effect.

(The Waeska bar)
(The Waeska bar)

Food & Drink

Once you’ve visited the Waeska bar in the Courtyard, you keep being drawn back. It is not just the atmosphere - particularly wonderful on a warm summer’s night with the smells of jasmine infusing your evening - but the performance put on by the bar staff and the intriguing and original cocktail lists in which pine kernels and betel nut milk appear.

When I visited, they had just won a Tio Pepe cocktail competition with a concoction of sherry, blood orange and saffron. They mixed me one on request - it was heaven.

In addition to this there’s a private cabana bar for hotel guests - the Jurema - with a glasshouse of medicinal and botanical plants.

The restaurant is Serge & Le Phoque, overlooking the courtyard and picking up its buzz. It is French - the menu is lively with ideas and ingredients as to what could excite the palate. It changes regularly and even from table to table, they say, based on the savoir faire of the chefs. For lovers of hearty seafood, the chef isn’t shy when it comes to octopus or sharing platters of paella.

Also, unusually, wines available by the glass extend quite far up the price range so you can mix and match the finest with each course.

Facilities

If you are looking for the checklist of a business hotel, this might not be for you. All the standards are there: good coffee machines and wifi in the rooms.

There’s no gym - it doesn’t fit with the vibe - but there are unusual holistic courses available in the hotel including “gong baths” in which you bathe in Tibetan sounds.

But what really sets it apart is the outside space, along the jasmine terrace, with the glass house and lounging areas for guests, whatever the weather. The room service is sharp and they will lay out a feast on the terrace for you.

It is so unusual to have such outside space in a London hotel, and they make it an experience.

(The Penthouse suite at The Mandrake)
(The Penthouse suite at The Mandrake)

Which room?

An excellent question - each is special. If you’ve got the wallet, try the Penthouse, a top floor extended studio with white leather sofas, marble, light pouring and the exquisite multi-person bath with a rain roof - open it and you can bath in rain or look at the stars. If you are planning a small but opulent party, you can book it here.

Just across from the Penthouse is an incredible Mandrake suite, like something from an Angela Carter novel. The bed is under a velvet canopy, with lush rugs and lights and a roll top bath. There’s a beautiful play of light and dark - you are just five steps from the light of the balcony and yet in a deliciously exotic private space.

There are also the Mandrake and Newman rooms, your starting point for a taste of the hotel, or the Terrace Rooms which look into the courtyard, and further suites, each with a little Mandrake signature to them. Nothing is identikit here.

Toiletries are from Grown Alchemist, an Australian brand, again continuing the botanical theme.

What to Instagram

The jasmine courtyard, from almost every angle; breakfast on the terrace, the cocktails and the doorman, the stuffed peacock/goat above the bar. This place is a visual heaven - you won’t be short of pictures.

Best for?

Those in the mood for a sensual adventure. It will even feel like a holiday if you are a native London.

Details:

Rooms start from around £300 a night rising to around £1000 for the Mandrake suite and £3000 for the Penthouse.

20-21 Newman Street, London W1T 1PG (+44203 1467770/ enquiries@themandrakehotel)

Serge et le Phoque (+44 203 1468880/ restaurant@themandrake.com)

themandrake.co