Stratford is having a moment that feels less temporary and more like a permanent shift. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the new V&A East Museum, Westfield, the London Stadium, and directly outside The Gantry’s front door, Stratford International station, ready to deliver you to St Pancras in six minutes by high-speed train. The DLR, the Elizabeth line, the Overground and the Jubilee are all within a ten-minute walk. London City Airport is twenty minutes in a taxi. In terms of connectivity, few hotels in the city can match it.
The building itself commands attention. Its narrow triangular footprint, a conscious nod to New York’s Flatiron, rises eighteen storeys, clad in slim vertical brass-hued fins that reference the railway lines of the Stratford Railway Works that occupied this site from 1840 until 1991. That industrial heritage runs deliberately through the DNA of the entire hotel. Designed by ICA Studio and constructed by Ardmore, the firm behind both The Ned and Corinthia London, it was built with serious intent.
The public spaces, by The One Off, deliver an urban-luxe aesthetic that feels genuinely East London rather than a facsimile of it. Raw concrete and aged copper sit alongside jewel-toned armchairs, mid-century sideboards, exposed bulbs and warm wooden parquet. Artwork curated by Jealous Gallery in Shoreditch threads graffiti, sculpture, neon and poster art through the spaces with an irreverence that works beautifully. This is not a hotel that takes itself too seriously, and it is all the better for it.
The 291 guest rooms carry the railway story upstairs with equal confidence, dark wood floors, brass lamps, firm velvet chaise longues, copper nightstands and antique tan leather trunks repurposed as drawer units. Old-fashioned light switches rather than a key card electricity system lend the rooms a domestic, unhurried quality. Request an upper floor when booking, the difference is significant. Floors sixteen and seventeen deliver views of the London Eye, St Paul’s and The Shard alongside the Olympic Park, the kind of skyline that reminds you exactly where you are and why it matters. Bathrooms are well-appointed throughout, Grown Alchemist toiletries, rainfall showers and handsome circular mirrors above slate sinks.
The concierge team are warm and genuinely knowledgeable, and it is the human element that gives The Gantry much of its character. On the food and drink front, the hotel delivers more than most. Union Social, the all-day dining space on the first floor, floods with natural light through floor-to-ceiling windows framing Stratford International, an unexpectedly atmospheric backdrop. The shell-off garlic king prawns are plump and full of flavour and the steak and chips generous. The Japanese Garden cocktail and a glass of Louis Jadot Chablis are both excellent companions to the menu.
Soul Mama, the live music venue on the ground floor, jazz, soul, gospel, reggae, comedy, feels like a proper East London night out rather than a hotel add-on. Hermanos, the Colombian coffee pop-up in the lobby, draws in the local creative crowd and gives the whole ground floor a neighbourhood energy that most hotels spend years trying to manufacture. STK, the American steakhouse on the eighteenth floor, offers panoramic views across East London that alone justify the trip.
The Gantry is not a conventional luxury hotel, and it doesn’t attempt to be. What it is, is a genuinely interesting place to stay in a part of London that is finding its footing as a destination in its own right. East London’s chapter is being written, and The Gantry is one of its more compelling stories.
The Gantry London, Curio Collection by Hilton, 5 International Way, Stratford, London E20 1FD.
The Luxe Resident 