BOHEMIAN AND EVOCATIVE, THE NoMAD HOTEL OPENS IN LONDON
The hip Nomad hotel is London’s latest hotspot, situated inside a former courthouse complete with an avant-garde art collection, a destination restaurant and its own police cells.


Tucked inside a 19th-century former magistrate’s court and police station, across the street from Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House, NoMad London marks the brand’s first international outpost.

It’s also the first property without Parisian architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia at the helm. Instead, acclaimed New York–based studio Roman and Williams has taken the wheel this go-round. Known for their sumptuous interiors, seen in hotel projects like the Ace Hotel New Orleans and Chicago Athletic Association, principles Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch interpreted the NoMad aesthetic—rich textiles, antique furniture, and a collection of over 1,600 postwar American and European avant-garde works curated by longtime collaborator Be-Poles—while interweaving influences from the United Kingdom and New York, the brand’s provenance

To some it’s known as the place where luminaries such as Oscar Wilde and Vivienne Westwood once stood trial.

Now its 91 rooms fill old jail cells and magistrates’ offices, reconfigured by the design masterminds Roman and Williams to offer significantly more comfortable layouts than those historical figures endured. The gilded clawfoot bathtubs and downstairs restaurant—in an airy atrium somewhat reminiscent of the Manhattan location—may not bear any resemblance to the building’s past life, but the Victoriana décor, remaining cell doors, and dramatic entryway, sized to accommodate horse-drawn carriages, are reminders of the stories these walls could tell.


As is a signature trait of all NoMad hotels, the restaurant is being overseen by restaurateur Will Guidara and Michelin-starred chef Daniel Humm. Among their ventures outside the NoMad group, the pair are also in charge of three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, which was voted number one on 2017’s list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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