Why you should experience W London in London, England.
W London is an electric luxury hotel where Soho's nocturnal creativity, West End performance culture, fashion instinct and restless visual energy converge behind a glass façade conceived to become part of the performance after dark.
Set along Wardour Street near Coventry Street and just steps from Leicester Square, the hotel occupies a purpose-built complex by Jestico + Whiles whose translucent outer skin uses ceramic frit applied to optically corrected glass to capture projected light while preserving views from the guestrooms behind it. The 17,000-square-meter building turns that envelope into a vast animated canvas, allowing changing patterns of tinted illumination to give the architecture markedly different daytime and nighttime personalities. Concrete developed the original interiors around the same duality, using a drifting cloud of mirror balls, circular illuminated reception pods and photographic installations by Marcel van der Vlugt to transform arrival into a sequence informed by the entertainment district outside. The result is a hotel where architecture, illumination and interior theater turn the building itself into an active participant in the performance culture of Leicester Square and Soho.
What you should know about W London.
W London is best known for opening in February 2011 as the first W hotel in the United Kingdom, introducing 192 guestrooms alongside branded residences at the geographical intersection of Soho, Chinatown, Theatreland and Covent Garden. The project brought together developer McAleer & Rushe, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Jestico + Whiles and Amsterdam studio Concrete, while its architecture and interiors collected recognition including a 2011 MIPIM award, FX International Design Awards for hotel and lighting design and finalist positions across the European Hotel Design Awards and Gold Key Awards. A major reinvention culminated in 2019 when all 192 guestrooms, including 28 suites, received structural and interior upgrades designed by Concrete and implemented with Krause Architects, following the 2017 redesign of The Perception and the 2018 refurbishment of AWAY Spa. The completed room program introduced new feature walls, atmospheric lighting, mirrored surfaces and disco-ball elements while making W London the first UK hotel to implement the full DigiValet tablet system for controlling room functions and accessing hotel services.
The Perception established its own creative chapter in 2017 when Concrete reorganized the first-floor social space into seven flexible environments combining amphitheater seating, daybeds, a golden curtain, theatrical lighting and a concealed bar modeled on a backstage dressing room. Soho studio Frith Street Tattoo contributed original artwork printed across a sofa, Marcel van der Vlugt supplied photographic work for an immense plate installation, and opening chef Magnus Reid developed the culinary program while Mixcloud collaborated with W London on music programming. The venue has since evolved into a drinks program centered on Soho's extensive agave collection, spanning tequila, mezcal, house infusions and tasting flights, while contemporary food service draws from Central and South American influences and the hotel's broader W Lounge incorporates Asian flavors. The progression from Concrete's seven-part 2017 interior through artist collaborations, music programming and the current agave-focused character keeps The Perception aligned with the shifting nightlife culture immediately beyond W London's illuminated façade.
How to fold W London into your trip.
W London works as the anchor for an afternoon tracing portraiture, theatrical history and contemporary art through the dense cultural geography connecting Leicester Square with Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly.
Begin at National Portrait Gallery, founded in 1856 after repeated parliamentary proposals championed by Philip Henry Stanhope and opened to the public in 1859 with a collection devoted to portraits of historically significant British figures, before moving into Ewan Christian's purpose-built St. Martin's Place building in 1896. Continue to Theatre Royal Haymarket, whose institutional history reaches John Potter's 1720 Little Theatre in the Haymarket before John Nash designed the present 1821 building as part of his grand reshaping of the West End, giving the theater a grand Corinthian portico within the ceremonial route toward Regent Street. Conclude at Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1768 under the patronage of George III with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president, before moving into Burlington House in 1868 and developing its annual Summer Exhibition into a tradition maintained since the institution's founding year. The progression moves from a national collection built around individual character through nearly three centuries of West End stagecraft into an artist-led institution shaped by Reynolds and generations of Royal Academicians, revealing the portraiture, performance and creative authorship that surround W London.
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