Once a byword for backpacker beds and tired hospitality, Earls Court has found an unlikely new landmark. Alex Larman checks into the Templeton Garden — bunnies, Nyetimber and all — and finds a four-star stay that outclasses almost everything else in West London…
When did Earls Court change so utterly as a part of London? It was once home to London’s biggest indoor gig venue and otherwise enjoyed a reputation as playing host to a mixture of Australian backpackers and a gay community that found Soho a bit too energetic. Well, the Earls Court Exhibition Centre has been demolished and now awaits transformation into housing, the backpackers and gays have gone elsewhere, and many of the area’s white-stuccoed properties now cost virtually as much as their neighbours in Chelsea and Kensington, making the once-valued affordability a thing of the past.
Still, most of Earls Court’s hotels are as old-fashioned and uninspiring as they ever were, returning to a largely bygone age of indifferent, or worse, hospitality. Which is why the Templeton Garden is such a joyous experience. Occupying a considerable part of the street on which it’s based, it offers 156 rooms and suites, designed by Thurstan design studio – the people responsible for the Soho House group – and boasting a sense of comfort, style and accessibility that few other four-star hotels in London can come close to offering.
Part of the Miiro group, it opened last April to immediate acclaim and it isn’t remotely hard to see why it’s been so popular with everyone from solo travellers to luxury-seeking families. With the amenities of a boutique hotel but the slick and stylish feel of somewhere far bigger and grander, this is one of West London’s very best places to stay.
We were fortunate enough to be staying in one of the hotel’s garden suites, which boasts everything from a vast in-room free-standing bath to a huge four-poster bed, both of which make for a very comfortable and welcome night: this before the equally appreciated bottle of Nyetimber waiting for us, the Le Labo bathroom products and, best of all, access to our very own private, secluded part of the hotel’s impressively spacious garden.
Our daughter was especially pleased to find Templeton Garden’s permanent guests in the form of a quartet of impossibly sweet bunnies who have their own part of the garden to roam around in, and should you wish to take a coffee or drink outside, on a fine day, this won’t be a problem.
The food and drink aspect of the hotel has been given a lot of thought, and it pays off very well, especially in the Sprout bar, which seriously raises the game for West London hotel bars. All of the drinks here are geared around unusual and innovative ingredients, which might sound gimmicky but thanks to the genuine enthusiasm and expertise of bar manager Will, everything you drink will be utterly delicious. I loved a Scottish girolle old fashioned, which uses mushrooms to give real depth and flavour to this best-known of cocktails, and a tomato collins splits the difference between a Bloody Mary and a negroni to create the perfect summer drink.
We could in truth have spent all evening in Sprout, but then this would be to miss out on an equally delicious dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Pippin’s, which specialises in modern British cuisine but with a twist. So starters of tuna tartare and shrimp cocktail use fresh seafood to dazzling effect, just as Wagyu steak (complete with delicious bearnaise) and prawn linguine take these brasserie staples and do something genuinely exciting with them.
It helps that the short but well-chosen wine list has some real highlights on it – we loved the English white wine from Sussex, and the ice cyder that accompanies dessert is, for my money, even better than a sweet wine – and the children’s menu offers some decidedly grown-up options (salmon for a main being so preferable to the usual battered cod) that will turn any 10-year old into a mini-gourmand.
We slept excellently – and the shower in the bathroom was a particular delight for a morning ablution – before it was time for a suitably comprehensive breakfast, once again in Pippin’s, where there’s the nice option to build your own selection of full or not-so-full English to your own specification. Then after a last tour of the garden and a final perusal of the bunnies, it’s time to head off. “We hope you’ve had a really lovely stay”, the ever-charming manager says as we depart. What I want to say – but don’t – is that Templeton Garden has transformed Earls Court as a place to visit, and stay, completely. We, and everyone else of any taste, will be back.
Templeton Garden, 1-15 Templeton Place, London SW5 9NB. For more information, including details of the St Germain Summer Pop-Up, please visit www.miirohotels..com.
