Soho House Berlin
Author: Agnita Vāvere0 COMMENTS
Opened in 2010, Soho House is one of the most outstanding new arrivals on Berlin's hotel scene. It is the third of Soho House's expanding network of hotels / private members' clubs, with the other two being located in New York and London.
Berlin's Soho House perfectly befits its name, circumventing traditional hotel parameters with a modern and easy-going club atmosphere. It is located in a former Bauhaus-style department store building that was built in 1928. For a time before the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the edifice also housed the Communist Party archives of the German "Democratic" Republic.
Instead of an official hotel lobby in which guests are formally registered, one enters a foyer with a bar, restaurant and the opportunity to acquaint oneself with the Soho House club programme, which can include film screenings, music evenings and literature readings.
Soho House also lacks the usual grand entryway with a red carpet and convenient vehicle access. Instead, taxi drivers must quickly let their passengers off in a no parking zone and hope to avoid a fine.
Furthermore, you won't find the typical hotel guests, laden with suitcases and travel bags, but mostly young, energetic and active patrons. Soho House is popular with entrepreneurs and executives, creative artists and youthful couples on weekend getaways. As business meetings alternate with arts presentations, the guests make use of all of the establishment's facilities, sip on cocktails and meet with other club members.
The guest rooms at Soho House have been designed to make patrons feel comfortable, and not simply to serve as a place for spending the night. They are like a home within a club, with high ceilings, parquet floors, wide spaces for rest and relaxation, a bath in the middle of the room, a sauna, etc. The interiors have been assembled with carefully chosen antique furniture and contemporary design objects, such as decorative pillows of various shapes, metal shelves, Art Deco lampshades, and perhaps a record player and accompanying record collection.
The top-floor bar, for its part, has a strong and magically attractive appeal. The eclectic and relaxed interior of the spacious premises conveys the feeling that the club has already been in operation for at least 30 years or more. Its unforgettable charm stems from its Art Deco furniture, light fixtures, low tables that can accommodate large parties of guests, and a Miami-style heated swimming pool on the rooftop terrace, with a marvellous view of the rooftops of Berlin's Mitte district. However, if you are not a hotel guest or a Soho House club member, then you will probably not be able to place an order at the bar, for in this regard, Soho House strictly abides by its snobbish and elitist members' club concept, even in the democratic city of Berlin.
Torstraße 1
02/2011
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