Refuel in Style at The Soho Hotel

Follow your nose and ‘Refuel’ your senses at The Soho Hotel’s bar and restaurant. It’s hard to find a more vibrant spot in Soho, with walls lined in a floral fabric, bright orange and pebble pillars and kitschy collections, complete with a new state-of-the-art kitchen and fine wine fridge.

The Soho Hotel was built on the site of an old NCP car park. In homage to the hotel’s past, we collected vintage oil cans and containers. A large collection of objects always look interesting when displayed together.

Hollweg had a brilliant mind: a painter and sculptor whose work can be viewed in the Tate Gallery, grandson of the painter Edward Wadsworth and son of the Olympic ice hockey player, Joachim Von Bethmann-Hollweg. His response was never going to be predictable.

When looking at the finished piece, I feel like I’m in the passenger’s seat of a classic open top and behind the wheel is Mr Toad of Toad Hall.  If you don’t believe me, go and see it for yourselves, there are a thousand stories to be told by Hollweg in this painting.

Behind the bar, I wanted to create a long mural to define the space. We commissioned the artist Alex Hollweg to do just this. We explained that the mural should reference the restaurant’s past as a car park. We wanted it to be inspired by a Rousseau jungle painting, but with the wreck of a car being munched between the dense leaves – wild nature taking back.

To continue the story told in the mural, we bought collections of vintage Dinky Cars from eBay which we placed within Perspex cases to create one of a kind coffee tables. Trash turns to treasure in this quirky and fun design.

An assault on the senses and not to be missed, we would love to welcome you to our spanking new home in the heart of Soho.

It’s hard to miss the Botero fat cat in The Soho Hotel’s entrance (Tim Kemp’s pride and joy). The entire hotel was built around this sculpture which had to be craned in first.  He is such an integral part of the hotel’s identity that we decided to create our own applique cats on the backs of the Crosby chairs in Refuel, in an ode to this gentle giant. Each smiling face is hand stitched.