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Sanctum Soho
20 Warwick St., London; 44 (20) 7292-6100; www.sanctumsoho.com.
Rooms and rates
30 rooms and suites from $333.

The chatty, twinkle-eyed doorman at the Sanctum Soho tells you all you need to know about London's best-located new hotel. Dressed in a slim-fitting waistcoat and jaunty bowler hat, he recalls the menacing anti-hero from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange . Only this version has grown up, mellowed out and taken a job as the perfect hotel greeter.

Part-owned by managers of Iron Maiden, the boutique Sanctum is the kind of place where guests who used to be rebellious rockers can now enjoy the comforts of their platinum-card status. Studded with swanky flourishes and underpinned by a warm service approach, the hotel is the equivalent of the latter-day Rolling Stones: slick, well-produced and likely to provide a good night.

Location Nestled on a surprisingly quiet side street behind Piccadilly Circus in the heart of the West End.

Ambience Bohemian boutique. Despite some designer flourishes, there is a friendly, relaxed feel that is often lacking in overwrought high-end hotels. It's cool without being cold.

Clientele Fashionable, designer-labelled couples and moneyed partiers in town for a weekend of shopping, clubbing and canoodling – plus the kind of rock and rollers who used to throw TVs around and now prefer sipping cocktails.

Design The seven-storey property's two Edwardian townhouses have been fused into an intimate, mood-lit hotel combining deluxe bling and avant-garde trimmings – think glass-beaded wallpaper and a liberal use of mosaic mirrors. The wall-mounted artworks by Xavier Pick suggest that London is populated only by waif-thin supermodels. You're also never far from a knowing, tongue-in-cheek detail or two: from the chirpy, bowler-hatted doorman to the resto-bar's glossy pink columns.

Rooms The Sanctum's surprisingly diverse room types range from small but perfectly formed Crash Pads – with just enough space to walk around, they're aimed at partiers needing little more than a bed – to the spacious $6,600 two-bedroom garden penthouse where you can pretend you're a visiting celeb. In between, you will find relatively compact but stylish accommodations, including sleekly modern deluxe doubles and all-white rococo deluxe suites, complete with circular beds and leather sofas.

The room designs range from wood-panelled contemporary gentleman's club to ice-cool all-white suites. There are hardwood floors and raindrop showers throughout (the Crash Pads lack full bathtubs), while some rooms include private bars and four-poster beds. Flat-screen TVs stud the walls – about half the units also have TVs in the bathroom – while iPod docks and Wii consoles are standard. Few rooms have views worth pulling up the blinds for, so you may hit the Wii more than you expect.

Amenities You can rent an electric guitar and Marshall stack from the front desk to rock out in your room – the soundproofing works, apparently. There's also a rooftop outdoor hot tub where you can relax with your groupies. Alternatively, Harley Davidson bike rentals (starting at $133 per day) are available from the front desk.

The Sanctum has no on-site gym, but along with the Wii Fits, private massages can be arranged. Because of the property's small size, there is no in-house spa, but guests can use facilities at the nearby Le Méridien Hotel. On my visit, the hotel was planning to start using a subterranean screening room for themed movie nights.

Service There is an encouraging lack of snootiness here. You can expect the friendly and attentive staff to engage you in conversation and offer plenty of good suggestions for what to do in the area. The doorman will even tell you where to buy your own bowler hat.

Food and Drink While the foliage-fringed rooftop patio is an ideal late-night haunt for a few glasses of Cristal with your entourage – call down to the front desk and they will send up a bartender – Sanctum's main drinking and dining action takes place at the ground level No. 20 resto-bar. With leather banquettes, dark wood floors and a sultry colour scheme, it specializes in flirty cocktails.

Competing with dozens of established Soho restaurants, No. 20's dining menu delivers modern British comfort food, with top-notch reinventions of dishes such as lamb cutlets and fish pie. Dinner can be pricey (mains average $38), but the $27 two-course lunch is a steal – try the steak and field mushrooms plus honey cheesecake.

Things to Do Regent Street's designer clothing stores are a block away, while Shaftesbury Avenue's West End theatres are just around the corner. Soho itself is a food and drink hot spot, with a cornucopia of welcoming backstreet bars and restaurants; strolling here on a balmy summer evening is like joining a chatty street party.

Special to The Globe and Mail

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Hotel vitals

TOP DRAW
Warm and friendly staff.

NEEDS WORK
When you're paying this much, morning newspapers shouldn't be twice the cover price. And those giant room keys may look cool, but they're a pain to carry around.

BOTTOM LINE
Decadent digs in the heart of London's party district.