I’ve lived in New York lengthy sufficient to not be stunned by the clip at which its neighbourhoods are reinvented. However the transformation of the Bowery – named for the eponymous Manhattan artery stretching from the southern fringe of Chinatown as much as the East Village – is nothing in need of surprising.
America’s authentic skid row, for greater than two centuries it was a slum of final resort for no-hopers of all stripes; a fetid assortment of flophouses for the chronically unfortunate and inebriated. At the same time as neighboring NoLita and the East Village sprouted blocks of style boutiques and stylish bars, the Bowery remained a degenerate no man’s land, seemingly resistant to gentrification. After which the Bowery Hotel opened.
Anybody unfamiliar with its historical past would possibly readily assume it had been right here eternally – a good-looking relic from an age when buildings have been product of brick and marble, as an alternative of metal and particleboard. The foyer, sectioned off with classic leather-based screens and outsized unique palm timber, is lined with darkish, carved wooden panels of the sort you’d discover in an elegantly decrepit English nation pile.
Opulent Edwardian and artwork deco antiques in various states of tasteful decay are organized all through atop fabulously tatty oriental carpets. Spanish-style iron lamps that might have doubled as mediaeval torture units preserve the room simply shy of whole darkness. A large, hand-painted mural of the Bowery circa 1860 gives further interval cues.
In actuality, it was constructed from scratch – the palm timber are silk, and the panelling was salvaged from outdated buildings in Philadelphia. However you solely know that as a result of I advised you.
We discover our room as tastefully appointed because the foyer guarantees. The furnishings are new, however in step with the theme; antique-looking Persian carpets, deep inexperienced velvet chairs, a white-marble-topped desk.
The room, a nook King, isn’t significantly giant, perhaps 300 sq ft, but it surely’s Manhattan in spite of everything. Like each different area within the lodge, the proportions are what an architect would possibly name ‘human’.
Essentially the most nice shock is the home windows, that are floor-to-ceiling on two sides of the bed room, and have a direct view of the Empire State Constructing uptown.
For now, no less than, the lodge is the best constructing within the neighbourhood, affording unfettered views of the motion down under. After an evening spent in numerous states of undress, it solely happens to Mrs Smith and I after check-out that the view from the road is equally excellent.
Even higher than the view is the toilet. The bathtub, specifically. With patinated bronze Waterworks fixtures, it’s extra like a small pool. The lady on the entrance desk tells us we’re among the many fortunate few to have one, and to ensure we take full benefit…
The lodge’s house owners, Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode, are celebrated New York nightlife vets liable for a string of phenomenally profitable eating places and bars all through the town. Like all world-class hoteliers, they’ve a unifying aesthetic imaginative and prescient for every of their properties (the Bowery is their second lodge, after the nautical-themed Maritime in Chelsea) and carry it out to the fullest extent potential.
Though a desk on the Waverly Inn, MacPherson and Goode’s celeb-packed playpen du jour within the West Village, is likely to be out of the query except you ‘know somebody’, there’s Gemma downstairs in the event you’re within the temper for an informal Hollywood star sighting (one was within the banquette subsequent to ours).
The meals is traditional Northern Italian with little fuss or fanfare, served in a gorgeous room designed by Taavo Somer, the brains behind acclaimed taxidermy-and-comfort-food hotspot Freeman’s, which is simply down the block.
The bar contained in the foyer is probably the most ‘executed’ of all of the lodge’s public areas, and is reserved solely for company. With its zinc bar and high-end boho, World of Interiors-ready decor – roe deer heads on carved picket plaques, high-backed membership chairs, a stuffed pit bull – it’s the sort of room you’ll wish to linger in for a number of rounds.
In a metropolis as hectic as New York, the necessity to escape the madding crowd after an extended day of pavement pounding is an important consider any getaway plan. Because it settles into its indisputably stylish self, I can solely think about the homey Bowery Lodge is destined for jet-set immortality.
And the way proper he was… Discover out extra about the Bowery and browse all our New York hotels
In a earlier life Christopher Tennant labored as an editor and author at titles together with Self-importance Truthful, New York Journal, Speak, the New York Put up’s ‘Web page Six’ column, and Radar, the pop-culture journal and web site he co-founded in 2003. He additionally authored The Official Filthy Wealthy Handbook in 2008. However, ever the collector, he’s now he’s turned his hand to artwork (he had a present final yr at the Vanderbilt Museum) and lighting design (out there from Tennant New York).
This overview was first printed method again in 2008 so some lodge particulars are sure to have modified. All pictures shot by Louis AW Sheridan throughout a way more current go to
