Hotel review: Town Hall Hotel – a successful coalition

Daring design is front, centre, top, middle and bottom at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green – well placed among its vibrant neighbours: the Young V&A museum, Columbia Road Flower Market and Brick Lane.

The seriously stylish hotel is home to 97 rooms: 10 double bedrooms and 87 suites with fully fitted kitchens. Plus, one of London’s largest suites, the De Montfort Suite – a triple-height ceiling, 1,659-square-foot space which sleeps two but can dine up to 20 (and is well coveted among global celebs…).

Image credit: Town Hall Hotel

Externally, almost Jekyll-and-Hyde in design, the hotel’s Grade-II-listed Portland stone façade reflects historic London and the site’s former role as the local counsel hub. In complete contrast, an incredibly detailed, laser-cut aluminium shell by DROO (Da Costa Mahindroo Architects) and NAME Architecture envelops the 2010-roof and rear extension, anchoring the building firmly in both the present and the future.

Echoing the hotel’s seamless blend of modernity and heritage, an antique safe greets guests just beyond the grand doorway – its door left ajar, a white neon glow spilling from within. It is a striking metaphor for the Town Hall Hotel itself: a vibrant, contemporary spirit (the neon light) encased within a strong, classical architectural skeleton. Thoughtful details like this define the property and firmly establish it as a benchmark of considered design.

Stepping into the Art Deco main lobby, a marble starburst centralises the floor space and gently greets guests with the comforting embrace of heritage. An angular, brass-topped check in desk also cements the building to its 1910-history, as does a gallery wall of black and white images showcasing the property’s bygone eras. While the fluid lines of 7os seating, set against the backdrops of 21st-century artworks, draws the lobby into modernity. Even the guestroom key cards play their role in the transportive historical design narrative, displaying Lady Justice in a contemporary illustration style.

Off the main lobby, guests find the entrance to Da Terra, the hotel’s two Michelin-star fine-dining restaurant by Chef Rafael Cagali, alongside a grand staircase – reminiscent of the Titanic’s – leading up to the Assembly Room, Restaurant Elis, and event spaces that have appeared in several Guy Ritchie films and BBC dramas, including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch (a firm favourite of mine); and Atonement.

A continued patron of the arts, for a second year running, the hotel has leant its main staircase walls to the London College of Fashion, hosting the MA Fashion Photography 2025 exhibition ‘The Everyday & The Epic’.

Throughout the property, contemporary art and furniture – some delightfully eccentric (I’m talking about you, brush-able hair chair) – mingle with carefully restored period features. Wood panelling, brass accents, and stained-glass windows remain in their original 1910 setting, seamlessly celebrated in the modern day. The Council Chamber, once a site of municipal deliberation, as it originally was, now hosts weddings, panels and film screenings. Elsewhere in the building, the Bethnal Hall and Secretary’s Room, in all their wood-panelled glory, retain original wall mechanisms that allow the spaces to expand or divide as needed. This is an incredibly dynamic hotel.

Set across the hotel’s four floors, each of the 97 bedrooms has been individually designed, many with a contemporary aesthetic. My own room, tucked at the rear, embodied unfussy Scandi calm. Despite initial concerns that the outer aluminium shell might darken the space, its larger-than-expected cut-outs filtered generously stippled daylight and provided ample views across London, late into the evening.

Bright and airy, the rooms feature spacious lounges and dining areas, fully fitted kitchens, and semi-opaque walls that pour generous light into the bathroom, avoiding the gloom often found in windowless and enclosed hotel bathroom spaces.

The most iconic of its bedrooms, the De Montfort Suite, situated discreetly on the ground floor, is divided by architectural glass panels and includes a mezzanine bedroom overlooking the main space, two bathrooms, a sitting area, a study, and a vast open floor beneath a plaster-detailed arched ceiling. Clear glass and mid-century furniture contrast beautifully with vibrant stained-glass panels that cast colour across the white-and-wood interior, while two plaster statues by Henry Poole add a note of classical grandeur.

Reflecting its commitment to craft, in 2022 the hotel collaborated with local makers Jan Hendzel Studio to transform two suites into gallery-style living spaces, encouraging creative interaction through tactile, naturally ‘imperfect’ materials that proudly reveal the maker’s hand.

The Town Hall Hotel’s Restaurant Elis offers a relaxed yet refined take on Brazilian-Italian heritage, serving rustic, heartfelt dishes alongside elegant snacks and an excellent wine list. Breakfast is a highlight – the pancakes are divine – but it is the room itself that lingers in memory: ceilings as tall as the room is long, Crittall windows flooding the space with light, and cool blue walls softened by mid-century wooden furniture. The result is a quietly glamorous, warm setting that channels Italian Riviera chic through an East London lens.

Image credit: Town Hall Hotel

On the basement level, light still shines. Beneath the ground, an unexpected treasure: the hotel’s swimming pool. Encased in stone and bathed in soft, dappled light, it feels almost cinematic – a tranquil, urban sanctuary below the bustle of Bethnal Green. And, though the pool is a modern addition to the site, the building’s heritage continues through in the design, with the original brass filigree grates on the upper floors replicated here.

Originally built ‘for the people‘, the Town Hall Hotel continues to serve them – not through bureaucracy, but through beauty, culture, and damn good hospitality. It is a building continues to celebrate its past while fearlessly embracing the present and future: a living piece of London history that is as bold as it is welcoming – a very successful coalition.

Main image credit: Town Hall Hotel