Hazlitt's

About Hazlitt's

Hazlitt's occupies a row of Georgian houses on Frith Street in the middle of Soho, one of which was the last home of the essayist William Hazlitt, who died there in 1830. There is nothing outside to indicate that it is a hotel - no sign, no canopy, just a door and a bell - and being buzzed in is part of the appeal. Inside, the floors slope, the staircases creak and the rooms are furnished with antiques, four-posters and free-standing Victorian baths.

Bedrooms are named after people connected to Hazlitt and to the house, and they are individual to the point of being unrecognisable from one another. Some are small; the suites at the top are considerably more generous and have the best of the panelling and the carved beds. Modern comforts have been fitted quietly - air conditioning, good bathrooms, Wi-Fi - without stripping out the period character, which is a harder balance to strike than it sounds.

There is no restaurant and no lobby to speak of. Breakfast is brought to the room or served in the small ground-floor sitting room, and there is a library and an honesty bar. This is deliberate: the hotel expects you to eat in Soho, and Soho obliges. Hazlitt's is run by the same people as The Rookery in Clerkenwell and Batty Langley's in Spitalfields.

The location is central to the point of being unavoidable - Soho Square at one end of the street, Ronnie Scott's a few doors down, Chinatown and the theatres a short walk. It is a quiet building on a loud street, and it suits people who would rather stay somewhere with a history than somewhere with a gym.