THE JOURNAL
AN EVER-EVOLVING STORY
Kit Kemp’s hotels, showhouses and private homes on both sides of the Atlantic have empowered a new generation to follow its own aesthetic instincts. Yet one is never the same as the next, says Giles Kime
W
hen Kit Kemp and her husband, Tim, opened their first hotel in Manhattan in 2009, the traffic on Crosby Street ground to
a halt when a crane lowered a vast petrified tree trunk on to its terrace. Almost two decades later, a short stroll away, Warren Street Hotel, which opened in 2024, features a facade the colour of the Aegean on a blistering August day in gloriously dramatic contrast to its urban surroundings. In her words, “it makes even the greyest day seem like summer.” Inside, guests are under no illusion that they have stepped into a parallel universe; high-voltage blue shifts to a yellow with the intensity of Van Gogh’s sunflowers, creating a vibrant backdrop to suspended woven pieces by Cristián Mohaded, a table by Christopher Kurtz
“YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING;
EACH CHALLENGE EQUIPS YOU WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE NEXT”
and a marble sculpture by Tony Cragg. Venture further on this kaleidoscopic path, and there are Kemp’s own visually stimulating designs, including colourful textiles and wallpapers created with GP & J Baker and Andrew Martin. The wherewithal required to build hotels on this
scale (69 rooms and suites, and 12 residential units) tends to encourage their owners to err on the side of caution with a sotto voce style. It’s not a route that the Kemps have followed since they opened their first London venue, the Dorset Square Hotel, in 1985. In between, there have been a host of others, including Charlotte Street, Soho, Ham Yard and Haymarket in London, and a growing portfolio in New York with the Whitby, Crosby Street and Warren Street. New projects are in the pipeline for 2026, including the conversion of three adjacent properties in Bloomsbury, an area with an artistic heritage that has offered a rich seam of inspiration
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© Simon Brown
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