The Waterhouse at South Bund, Shanghai
Opened July 2011, The Waterhouse at South Bund is an energetically conceived and executed 19-room boutique hotel with a capacity to surprise.
You will find yourself standing on Shanghai’s old Docklands and you would never guess how this eccentric hotel finds its place here. From the outside you could get glimpses of what you will find in the interior of The Waterhouse.
Starting with a 1930s warehouse in Shanghai's old docklands, Singaporean lawyer-turned-hotelier Loh Lik Peng embarked on a total renovation, stocking the interiors with his trademark designer furniture (Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Hans Wegner, et al), which gives the property added polish. Large windows illuminate the sleek interiors, and many bedrooms have a terrace or balcony; hi-tech features (bedside control panel, iPod docking station, cable TV) are supplied in abundance.
Clever juxtapositioning allows glimpses of the rooms from the public areas and vice versa. Conformist hotel design this is not. The restaurant, Table No 1 by Jason Atherton, does a neat take on modern European cuisine, under London chef Scott Melvin. But the hotel's pièce de résistance - as in all the best Shanghainese hangouts - is the rooftop bar terrace, with its metropolitan and river panoramas. The lobby lounge's fireplace and library both deserve plaudits, as does the gym.
This unique hotel has been selected as the N4 in the “TOP 10 LUXURY HOTEL, CHOOSE BY DESIGNERS”
