A day in the Londoner life

As Londoners, we are privileged with the option to experience more in one single day than most people can in a year.

Standing on the historic grounds of Leicester Square, there’s an exhilarating 360-degree scope of opportunity. Rooftop digs and underground gigs, great exhibitions and intimate galleries. Club nights, late nights, date nights. Fine grub and local pubs, tasting menus and jaw-dropping venues - all surrounded by a percolating blur of familiar and unknown phonetics zipping past at every step.

We go way back, this neighbourhood and I. Coming here as a kid, THIS to me was London. This was where it all happened, everything else simmered unimportantly in the background. As the years went by, other parts of the city became more congruent with “normal” life - but the areas around Leicester Square held a special place, a bubble that offered the opportunity to escape day-to-day mundaneness and experience the essence of London.

Leicester Square and beyond are characterised by both timelessness and innovation. Spending a day here is like walking down memory lane with the occasional stumble upon something new and exciting. It’s a cornucopia of London’s worst kept secrets and anything hot off the press. With all this choice, I only need to pick a direction to soon find myself in familiar places…

Just around the corner, The National Gallery brings back a flood of memories. Studying literature at nearby King’s College London, the weekly provisions included a pile of novels and a meagre 12 hours of lectures (at an eye-watering £9,000 per year), which meant many hours to kill and even more books to read. Needless to say, it was perfect. The National Gallery often filled those gaping hours, which were easily spent roaming the atmospheric halls or reading on a bench amongst this colourful pantheon of artists. For a place that’s so inextricably sown into the fabric of London, it’s mind-blowing that it’s free to walk around and see some of the greatest artworks ever produced.

Strutting out on a creative high, a different kind of intoxication beckons. Everyone has a favourite watering hole in London, and mine is without doubt Gordon’s Wine Bar. Believed to be one of London’s oldest wine bars, they make little effort to ‘get with the times’ - which is just how I like it. Glasses are unceremoniously filled to the brim, light sources are scarce, and the atmosphere is always at a jovial boiling point. Just as you thought this cave-like hideaway couldn’t get any better, there’s a beautifully pungent landscape of cheese laid out - demanding to be eaten.

A lot of what makes this part of London so special is its history and relationship to music. I remember my dad introducing me to Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, after which my listening history swerved from Eminem to Miles Davis in one toot of a trumpet. Its personality is characterised by intimacy and a soft red glow from the tacky-yet-timeless table lamps, as well as the photographed alumni of performers hanging on the wall - everyone who’s anyone has played here. A former Ronnie’s employee and friend of mine told tales of artists like Prince wandering in off the street to play a spontaneous gig - potentially embellished, but, as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Legends still play here though, and there’s a more affordable and boogie-friendly speakeasy upstairs.

Now, I’m lost. Google Maps have slightly ruined the art of ‘getting lost’ in a city, but the streets around Seven Dials maintain their integrity for befuddlement and head-scratching. I pass the twinkling fairy-tale roundabout by the Seven Dials obelisk, its sundial symbolism historically attracting astrologers and occultists. A left turn (or was it right?) brings me onto Neal’s Yard, a hidden courtyard painted in the rainbow’s colours. I cut through the former banana warehouse now turned Seven Dials Market, where Monty’s Deli serves the city’s finest Reuben, where you’ll find the world’s first cheese conveyor belt and a small bookshop taking bookings for private parties. I’m out on Long Acre and spy Leicester Square in the distance. Good, I’m back on track.

So, what has all this got to do with The Londoner Hotel?

Having Leicester Square as your base means access to everything that’s wonderful about London, with streets that hold countless memories collected over the centuries. But that’s not all. If you read the first paragraph of this piece again, the description of the neighbourhood might as well be an attempt to capture the essence of what The Londoner will be: an alchemy of entertainment and experiences; a beautiful collision of culture and energies - all under one roof, ready to be explored in as little as a day.