I’ve got three words for you: zany, zantastic and zuberrific! Ok, ok, I made the last two up. You have to admit those words sure did catch you’re eye, right? Do you ever wonder how much time and consideration goes into thinking up a name for your new establishment? Well, for The Zetter Hotel renovators, it was pretty simple; named after the old business, The Zetter Football Pool Company. They purchased this old Victorian warehouse in the middle of the Clerkenwell neighborhood. Today, Clerkenwell is one known as the fashionable residential area of London. It is also one of the oldest cities in London and used to be known for it’s beautiful spas and tea gardens.
Vintage modern are the perfect words to describe this hotel. Incorporated throughout the entire hotel are bright retro floral patterns; all rooms have a different print and color scheme. The bedding and wall colors are all very neutral which works perfectly with the old Victorian chairs that have been reupholstered. There are 59 rooms in this boutique hotel, each room comes with a variety of Penguin paperback books, 4000 free music tracks you can enjoy, self-controlled air conditioning and even pink mood lighting if you’re feeling really vintage. Also included are an in-room safe, TV and free wifi. Talk about perks, and that’s just to name a few.
Not only is The Zetter cool on the outside, it’s super cool on the inside as well. It takes a lot of energy and materials to convert, renovate and design a warehouse into a hotel. Restauranteurs Michael Benyan and Mark Sainsbury wanted an “eco-friendly hotel”. The Zetter states, “Sustainability and environmental awareness were at the heart of the decision-making process when building The Zetter. As a result, it has been designed to be an energy efficient hotel, using sustainably sourced and environmentally sensitive building materials and controlled by an intelligent building management system.
Some eco friendly features include:
- A borehole [a narrow shaft drilled underground typically used for extracting water] underneath the building to provide each guest fresh spring water. It is also used to flush toilets and cool bedrooms.
- An energy loop system: a bit technical, but basically it means we swap energy around – so as you heat your room, it helps us cool our fridges.
- Natural light and ventilation: this is provided by The Zetter’s central semi-elliptical atrium.
- Occupancy detection systems in the bedrooms: so that when you aren’t there, minimal energy is burned.
- Also, when a bedroom window is opened the air conditioning has been designed to cut out – just like that!
- All the timber used in the building’s construction was bought from sustainable sources, and all the paints used in our interiors are environmentally-friendly.
- We recycle all glass and paper used by the hotel and its guests.”
St John’s Square
86-88 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5RJ
T: +44 (0)20 7324 4444
F: +44 (0)20 7324 4445
Before commenting on the Stafford Hotel’s amenities, rooms and other reasons it’s a worthy accommodation in London, I would like to touch upon a very overlooked but highly essential feature of this hotel – one that is, in my humble opinion, so important, that it would sway my decision to stay here given a situation where I’d have to choose between two or more hotels. That feature is: free internet access. I personally feel this should be free in all hotels and if they charge anything more than 5 dollars (or pounds) per day, it’s a true fleecing of the client. All I have to say is, “Bravo, Stafford Hotel – and thank you.” As someone who needs the internet while traveling for work reasons, I very much appreciate this free amenity.