Walk down Berners Street in Fitzrovia and the façade of the former Berners Hotel looks much as it did a century ago—a Grade II–listed Georgian structure, a UK heritage designation that protects buildings of special architectural or historic interest. Its columned portico and ornate moldings anchor it to Edwardian London. Behind those doors, however, lies Ian Schrager’s reinvention of the property, which reopened as The London EDITION in 2013. More than a decade on, it remains one of the city’s most stylish hotel icons, outlasting trends in London’s fast-moving hospitality market.
The Vibe
Schrager, best known for Studio 54 and pioneering the boutique hotel, has always blurred the line between accommodation and scene. At The London EDITION, the lobby steals the show. A billiards table sits under a lavish 19th-century stucco ceiling. A massive chrome orb chandelier by Ingo Maurer dangles from above, reflecting the buzz of the crowd below. Pools of warm light fall over high-backed couches, while an open fire flickers at one end of the room.
It’s an entertaining mix of guests and locals. Finance professionals rub shoulders with bright young creatives. Some sprawl on sofas with laptops open, while others linger over gin and tonics. The noise level is deliberate—a hushed lobby, it is not. You’re only steps from Soho, but the EDITION pulls you inward with its constellation of bars and social spaces. Schrager has long argued that a hotel should be a gathering place as much as a bed for the night. Here, that idea is carried out in full.
Who’s it for?
The sociable and style-driven. Guests who want a hotel that doubles as a night out. Londoners booking dinner at Berners Tavern or a drink at the Punch Room mix with international visitors who prefer their hotels plugged directly into the cultural scene. The property attracts bright young creatives, finance professionals, and design-minded travelers who like their nights loud and their mornings with good coffee, perfectly scrambled eggs, and strong WiFi.
Rooms and Suites
The 173 rooms and suites upstairs provide a counterpoint to the buzz downstairs. Design firm Yabu Pushelberg created interiors that feel more like a private yacht than a city hotel. Oak floors and wood-paneled walls warm up otherwise minimalist spaces. Crisp white linens and oversized beds add comfort, with faux-fur throws draped across them for texture. Each room features a photograph by Hendrik Kerstens, the Dutch artist known for portraits that play with themes of old and new, heritage and modernity.
While the smallest rooms verge on compact, they come well-equipped with slim desks and lounge chairs. Higher categories expand into suites with soaring windows, larger bathrooms, and, in some cases, a fully stocked gin trolley ready for martinis. Bathrooms follow a clean, white-tiled aesthetic, with rain showers as standard and tubs in only a handful of rooms. The bath products are by Le Labo and feature a custom black tea scent enriched with vitamin E and aloe vera.
One of Schrager’s signature moves turns his hotels into lifestyle brands, and here nearly everything in the room—from bedding to throws and fragrances—can be purchased through EDITION’s online shop.
Eating and Drinking
Dining is not an afterthought at The London EDITION; rather, like all EDITIONs around the world, it’s central to the brand identity. Berners Tavern, helmed by Jason Atherton, remains one of the city’s hardest reservations to nab, more than a decade after opening. The vast room—with its ceilings soaring and walls peppered in hundreds of gilt-framed contemporary paintings—feels like dining inside a private art gallery. Yet the mood is lively, even boisterous, come lunch, energy aided by friendly yet polished service.
The menu blends comfort dishes with British ingredients and refined techniques. Think starters of roasted wild mushroom focaccia; for larger plates, charcoal-grilled pork chops, line-caught cod with fennel and yuzu, or grass-fed steaks seared over open flame.
For two diners willing to agree on one main, large-format dishes like côte de boeuf or an eight-hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder come presented whole for tableside carving, a reminder that spectacle is part of the experience. Dessert continues the theme with the Flaming Alaska, a meringue dome flambéed in front of you.
Berners also offers daily lunch, weekend brunch, a Sunday roast, and a special “early Berners” menu for theatergoers who need to dine to catch their curtain time.
Just off the lobby, the Punch Room trades grandeur for intimacy. Modeled on a Victorian gentlemen’s club, the wood-paneled space favors velvet banquettes and candlelight. Bowls of punch arrive laced with unusual flavors—jasmine tea, oak moss, and cardamom—served in ladles rather than glasses.
The latest menu, The Recipe Book, combines long-standing house favorites with new creations. The signature Milk Punch blends Hennessy Fine de Cognac, Havana Club rum, Somerset cider brandy, green tea, lemon juice, pineapple, spiced syrup, and milk into a clarified drink with surprising finesse.
Newer additions push the format further: “A Sweet Treat” layers whisky, cream cheese, matcha, sherry, lemon juice, sugar, and milk into something evocative of dessert-meets-cocktail. Each recipe is printed with precise measurements and methods, encouraging guests to recreate them at home.
The Punch Room isn’t unique to London—it provides a nightlife anchor in EDITION properties from Barcelona to Shanghai—but this outpost helped define the concept. More than a hotel bar, it has become a destination in its own right.
The lobby bar, meanwhile, hums as the social engine of the property. By day, guests linger with coffee under the glittering chandelier, with digital nomads and California tech bros collaborating over laptops. By night, the energy builds as bartenders mix martinis and negronis for Fitzrovia regulars. During the holidays, a massive Christmas tree illuminates the space.
With three distinct venues, the EDITION eliminates the need to leave the building for a night out—dinner, drinks, and late-night conversation move from room to room, under one roof.
Amenities
Likely due to space constraints, wellness doesn’t feature as a focus. There’s no spa, for example, but a compact gym covers cardio and weights. Guests looking for more elaborate treatment menus will need to look elsewhere—which, in London, won’t be far.
What the EDITION does offer is 24-hour in-room dining from Berners Tavern and minibars with playful touches like iced coffee and Earl Grey lip balm instead of the usual sodas and crisps.
For corporate functions and private dinners, the property has several meeting and event spaces.
The Verdict
The London EDITION reimagines a Georgian landmark as both hotel and stage. The lobby doubles as a bar, the dining room ranks among London’s toughest reservations, and the suites offer a calm retreat above the fray. Twelve years later, the hotel still commands relevance in a market that constantly reinvents itself. Travelers can plug into London’s cultural and culinary life without leaving the hotel, while locals treat it as their neighborhood club. The London EDITION shows that some hotels, like fine wine, improve with age.
The London EDITION, 10 Berners St, London W1T 3NP, United Kingdom