The Standard, London

About

The Standard London stands opposite St Pancras like a building enjoying its second act a little too much. Built in the Seventies as the Camden Town Hall Annexe, this once unloved Brutalist block came close to demolition more than once. Then The Standard arrived, recognised the beauty in its orderly concrete geometry, added a red exterior lift and turned a former civic office into its first hotel outside America. London, naturally, pretended it had loved the building all along. The pleasure here lies in the contrast. Outside, the façade keeps its disciplined municipal stare. Inside, the mood changes to Seventies futurism with saturated colours, curved lines, glossy finishes, plants, velvet and a touch of nightclub confidence. The rooms are not beige sanctuaries for people who fear personality. Some frame the Gothic fantasy of St Pancras like a private theatre set; others come with terraces and outdoor bathtubs, an act of optimism in a city where clouds have tenure. This is a hotel with public life in its bloodstream. Double Standard gives you the better looking cousin of a London pub. Decimo, high on the tenth floor, brings Peter Sanchez Iglesias’s Spanish Mexican cooking, fire and mezcal to a room with skyline views. Sweeties leans into cocktails and DJs, while the rooftop offers a 360 degree reminder that King’s Cross has become one of London’s great reinventions. Do not come here for Mayfair hush, ancestral portraits or a lobby that smells faintly of old money. Come for architecture rescued from bad reputation, rooms with wit, food with heat and a social pulse that keeps the building awake. The Standard is not the quietest choice in London, but it is one of the more memorable ones. It knows exactly what it is: clever, urban, playful and just polished enough to get away with it.