The Sanderson Hotel in London is cool. The fact that it’s located in a plain old high rise building that was the site of a former fabric company and looks completely lifeless from the outside, makes it extra cool because that means that the Sanderson is ironic and irony is considered very cool. On the other hand the inside of the Sanderson is a haven of well-designed, obvious cool created by the master of cool design worldwide, Philippe Starck. Non-stop social hour takes place in the lobby where cool people can rest their bums on Salvador Dali’s thick, red Lips or chill out inside one of the futuristic astro-balls chairs which are suspended from the ceiling. The Sanderson features a full service spa known as Agua, Suka restaurant and two bars: the Purple Bar and the Long Bar. The hotel isn’t really family friendly but that’s okay because children cramp the style of cool people. The Long Bar is as lanky as the name would suggest spanning what seems like half of the 1st floor of the hotel. Long Bar becomes very animated at night with a mixed crowd of locals, the occasional celebrity, tourists and Euro über goobers: a really cool scene. The elevators are fun, Sci-fi dungeon-like star, comet and purple sky boxes that lead you up to your room. The rooms are interesting, not very practical at all, but special. Curtains divide different sections of the room and the only thing separating the main room from the bathroom is a see-through glass divider –great for voyeurs. The counters don’t provide very much space which is okay because traveling light is the best way to travel and stay in step with the minimal theme. Who wants a bunch of junk from home all over the clean hotel counters anyway? One of the best parts about the Sanderson is the courtyard. The guestrooms are arranged around the hotel’s center open courtyard which offers much needed counter-balancing warmth to the rest of the hotel. The Sanderson will be up for refurbishment in 2010, its 10th anniversary. It will be interesting to see what they do with the hotel. Whatever they end up doing, odds are it will be cool.

50 Berners St London, W1T 3NG, United Kingdom +44 20 73001400