Hostel Takeover

St. martins Lane

[below)

LOCATION: West End. OWNER: Ian Schrager. DESIGNER: Philippe Starck with Anda Andrei. FEATURES: Rooms that can be lit in different colors, according to the guest's mood, by adjusting a dial; the Light Bar, with "infinity of mirrors" effect; garden gnomes I lobby CLIENTELE: Prada-Gucci tribe.

Great Eastern, Hotel

LOCATION: Attached to Liverpool Street station. OWNERS: Sir Terence Conran and Wyndham International.

DESIGNER: Conran & Partners. STYLE: An 1884 Victorian railroad hotel, restored and finished with classic modern furniture by Mies,

Eames, Jacobson, and Conran. DETAILS: Antimacassars on chairs; five restaurants, three bars. CLIENTELE:

Trysting City boys and stylish Swedes.

The Hempel

LOCATION: Bayswater. OWNER AND DESIGNER: Anouska Hempel. STYLE: Severe minimalism with touches of severe maximalism. FEATURES: Portland-stone floors; stark, white 2001 corridors; Surrealist-Asianfurniture groupings. CLIENTELE: "Sprockets" meets Falun Gong.

The Halkin

LOCATION: Belgravia. OWNERS: Christina and Bernard Ong. DESIGNER: Studio Associato di Architettura. STYLE: Contemporary Italian. FEATURES: Staff uniforms by Armani; soap and shampoo by Bulgari. CLIENTELE: Eurotrash banned from the Connaught.

myhotel

LOCATION: Bloomsbury.

OWNER: Andrew Thrasyvoulou. DESIGNER: Conran & Partners. STYLE: London row house on the outside, Asian moderne on the inside, DETAILS: Designed according to feng shui principles; each guest has a "personal assistant responsible for their happiness"; tipping discouraged. CLIENTELE: Tony Robbins postgraduates.

The phenomenon of boutique hotels started in New York spread across the United States. Now it's starting in London and spreading across Europe" says hotelier Ian Schrager, who is due to unveil Sanderson, an $82 million extravaganza in Soho, this spring. Everywhere you look in London, row houses are being hitched together and chintz is being swagged. Bernard and Christina Ong, who opened the Italo-mod Metropolitan and Halkin hotels in the 90s, are bankrolling the London Four Seasons at Canary Wharf (which opened in December). Tim and Kit Kemp, who own the Covent Garden Hotel, are opening Charlotte Street, in Soho, this spring. The 52-room converted dental warehouse will have a health club and screening room, much like Gordon Campbell Gray's vaunted One Aldwych, near the West End. Sir Terence Conran's Great Eastern Hotel, attached to the Liverpool Street station, opened in February. Mohamed A1 Fayed, owner of Harrods and the Paris Ritz, is planning a hotel across the street from his department store. Meanwhile, Schrager plans to top everybody by announcing a London I.P.O. and the development of four more projects with Philippe Starck. "The boom won't stop," Schrager declares.

MATT TYRNAUER