The Hospital Club: Central London's Art And Leisure Destination

Everyone always talks about "the creative hub."

But what exactly IS a creative hub when it's at home?

Usually, it's a phrase appropriated for an otherwise pretentious venue, full of people in skinny jeans and thick-framed specs standing around hoping to look like they're doing something more valuable than waiting for someone to notice them.

It would be easy to dub London's The Hospital Club a "creative hub" and be done with it, letting the epithet signify whatever the reader fancies, but that would be doing it a disservice.

This place actually has some pedigree.

Located on Endell Street in central London, the exterior is delightfully unassuming, appearing much like many of London's other redbrick townhouses.

But the interior is quite a different story.

Founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his musican pal David Stewart...member of a little band you might have heard of... The Eurythmics.

Their main aim was to support creativity and the arts by providing a space that is both inspiring and interesting, as much as it is likely to turn a profit.

As such, the club houses not only restaurants and bars, but also a television studio, screening room and live performance space.

We were lucky enough to be invited down to the Hospital Club to experience one of their new VIP hotel rooms, as well as some surise yoga in the forest room the next morning.

The Dinner

Turning up to an "invite only" party with three people instead of the agreed-upon two, isn't usually a great way to start an evening.

But that's what we did and, very luckily, the club was more than accommodating, plonking us at a lovely table towards the far end of the restaurant and bringing out a bottle of red almost before we even had to request it.

Dinner was a delicious affair, with hearty foods like scallops and black pudding, followed by sausage and mash and melt-in-your-mouth buttery white fish.

The highlight of the evening was, of course, the dessert.

We practically inhaled their duo of homemade bread and butter pudding as well as their delicious white-chocolate-wrapped cheesecake.

The Vibe

The Hospital Club's atmosphere is the type that conjures images of smoking jackets and whisky - a deep, velvety surrounding, peppered with couches that you can sink into and decorative curiosities you can marvel at for a while.

The restaurant was busy and the vibe was happily conspiratorial.

The Hotel Room

PLUSH...and fun.

And full of more little things that you can explore, like magazines and books and, of course, PLENTY of genuinely valuable art.

The Breakfast

Okay I take it back, the gastronomic highlight wasn't the previous night's dessert (although it was a close contender), it was actually the breakfast.

After one too many glasses of wine and a 90 minute yoga session in the forest room the next morning, we were in desperate need of sustenance and caffeine.

Happily the Hospital Club provided me with the best darn avocado and poached egg on toast that I think I've ever had.

My colleague's kedgeree wasn't half bad either. And the coffee was strong, which was also exactly what the doctor ordered.

So, all in all, a big thumbs up from the Yahoo Team.

For more information about The Hospital Club's creative spaces, hotel rooms and their in-room spa treatments, check out their website: www.thehospitalclub.com.