Wallpaper 7

ILLUSTRATOR: EOIN RYAN

1,560: Signature

circular mirrors

throughout the

guest rooms

30,000: Timber

reeds installed in the

lobby and lining the

stairs, nodding to

the Brisbane River

2.5: Years it took

to rebuild the

façade of the

building, which

dates from 1888

4 : Loveseats at

Jin Gui, the hotel’s

Asian restaurant,

designed by Joyce

Wang Studio

126 : Areti pendant

lamps, one in each

guest room

10 : The length in

metres of the

Long Bar, with

tiled mural

backdrop by artist

Jarosław Fliciński

2 : Neon trees that flank

the entrance to the

hotel. Hand-bent by the

late artist Włodzimierz

Zakrzewski, the trees

represent Poland’s

changing borders

over the centuries

54 : Majolica plates –

reproduced in

Nieborów – hanging

in the Europejski

Grill. Originals that

featured in the hotel

in 1884 helped spark

the commercial

success of Majolica

products in Poland

650,000: Tiles lining

the heated outdoor

swimming pool

ARTFUL LODGE R

Make a bold spash in Brisbane, hole up

in a historic pile in Hamburg or plump for

an art-illed palace in Warsaw

098 ∑

Travel

When it irst opened in 1857, Warsaw’s

Hotel Europejski, a Neo-Renaissance palace

designed by Enrico Marconi, was the grandest

of its time. Enduring – for better or mainly

worse – the many political upheavals that

followed, the property, now part of the Rales

collection, has recently emerged from a

painstaking renovation led by Boris Kudlička

of local architecture practice WWAA.

Original details, from cornicing to ceiling

roses, have been restored and complemented

with contemporary furnishings. Local

craftsmen have etched the city’s skyline into

the grey marble bathroom walls; bed heads

have been carved from richly grained burl

wood; and an exclusive humidor lounge has

opened its doors. Modern and contemporary

artwork by leading Polish artists, such as

Tadeusz Kantor and Jarosław Fliciński,

features in the 106 rooms, the spa, the lobby

and the sleek Lázaro Rosa-Violán-designed

Long Bar, which serves up Rales’ signature

cocktail, the Singapore Sling. Mary Lussiana

Krakowskie Przedmieście 13, tel: 48.22 255 95 90,

rales.com. Rates: from $290

Napoleon’s occupation of Germany in the

early 19th century may have been a short

one, but the Gallic inluence lingered long

after his departure. Hamburg’s civil service

and state ministry building was constructed

in 1888 with a dose of French-style grandeur.

Now, the handsome six-storey pile has been

transformed into a soigné boutique hotel,

the Tortue, with French-inlected interiors.

Renovated by David Chipperield and

Stephen Williams, the hotel ofers up three

bars and two restaurants, while the 126

bedrooms by interior designer Kate Hume

are warm cocoons of plush fabrics and brass

details. The sixth-loor rooftop looks over

St Michael’s Church and the harbour, while

for an actual, as opposed to a visual, feast,

it’s a toss-up between the beef tartare spiced

with chilli and candied lime zest at the

Joyce Wang-designed Jin Gui, or the fork-

tender boeuf bourguignon at the Franco-

German Brasserie, a space Hume has dressed

with black metro tiles and marble. DW

Stadthausbrücke 4, tel: 49.40 33 44 14 00,

tortue.de. Rates: from €200

Brisbane has always been somewhat

overshadowed by its lashier southern

siblings Sydney and Melbourne, but the

arrival of the W brand on the city’s river

foreshore may be a sign of a rebalancing.

Taking up an entire city block in Brisbane

Quarter – a new mixed-use development

in the CBD – the 312-room tower was

designed by Australian architects DBI, with

interiors by Nic Graham, Fabio Ongarato

and Amanda Love. Without straying from

the W’s outré vibe of bold patterns and

colours, the designers have incorporated

quiet riparian themes that range from

stylised reeds lining the reception staircase

to tidal markings based on river lood lines

weaving through the corridors. Local

restaurant Three Blue Ducks has opened

an outpost featuring Down Under fare

such as spanner crab scramble with green

mango and house-made sriracha, and corn

fritters paired with guacamole, fermented

cabbage and labneh. Daven Wu

81 North Quay, tel: 61.7 3556 8888,

wbrisbane.com. Rates: from A$350 (£193)

Gallic lavour

TORTUE, HAMBURG

Palace coup

RAFFLES EUROPEJSKI, WARSAW

River beds

W, BRISBANE