nhow London Review: A Cool Hotel Near Shoreditch, Proper London, Mate!
Alright, guv’nor! 🇬🇧
By Mr Plane Guy | Travel Blogger, Hotel Inspector & Accepter of Free Upgrades
Disclosure: My stay at nhow London was gifted, but as always, there was no editorial control and I still went over everything with a fine-tooth comb, room, food, facilities and all! This review is Plane Honest and based entirely on my own experience. This post also contains affiliate links, which may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
If you’re coming to London and want beige carpets, sensible artwork and a hotel room that could literally be anywhere in the world, you might want to look away now.
Because nhow London has gone FULL London.
Quirky, arty, funny and fabulously over the top, this four-star hotel celebrates London with bold British design, flashes of punk, royal references and enough eccentricity to remind you exactly which city you’ve landed in.
And I absolutely loved it.
nhow London sits between Angel, Old Street and Shoreditch, making it a great base for a few days in the capital. It’s modern, vibrant and very different from your standard chain hotel.
This isn’t just somewhere to sleep in London. nhow London is part of the London experience. So grab your apples and pears, put the kettle on and let’s have a butcher’s.
Quick Answer Express: Is nhow London Worth It?
Yes, especially if you want a London hotel with some actual personality.
nhow London is a quirky four-star lifestyle hotel near Shoreditch, Angel and Old Street. The rooms are fun but extremely comfortable, there’s a restaurant and bar, social and co-working spaces and a gym, and the location works particularly well for a short London city break.
What surprised me most was that this wasn't style over substance.
My room was immaculate, the bed was superb, there were thoughtful little extras everywhere and the hotel had the sort of communal spaces that actually made me want to spend time there.
Breakfast was the weakest part of my stay, particularly for savoury meat-free choices. I also stayed in an upgraded corner suite, so the space and bathroom described below reflect that room rather than a standard booking.
Plane Honest verdict: Come for the bonkers British design. Stay because underneath it all, this is a really good hotel.
Where Is nhow London? Is It Actually in Shoreditch?
First things first.
Despite often being associated with Shoreditch, nhow London isn't actually slap-bang in the middle of Shoreditch.
You'll find it on Macclesfield Road in EC1, between Angel, Old Street and Shoreditch.
Angel and Old Street stations are both around a 10-minute walk away, while Shoreditch is roughly 15–20 minutes away on foot depending on where you're heading.
Personally, I rather liked the location.
I did a little shopping around Angel and Upper Street, which was about a 10-minute walk away, and you've got plenty of proper London neighbourhood life around you without actually sleeping in the middle of the Shoreditch chaos.
The entrance is fairly underwhelming, tucked down a rather ordinary side street complete with the glamorous sight of some Biffa bins opposite. Welcome to London, babes.
But don't judge this particular book by its cover. Because once you step through those doors...WOW.
First Impressions: Art Gallery Meets Four-Star Hotel
The contrast between outside and inside is brilliant.
It's as though an art gallery and a four-star hotel had a baby, dressed it in Vivienne Westwood and sent it off to Shoreditch.
There's colour everywhere.
Bold artwork. British references. Eccentric furniture. Royalty. Punk. London iconography.
Your eyes don't quite know where to look first.
And something you can't appreciate from photographs: It smells stunning.
You know that expensive-hotel smell? That. The lobby feels welcoming rather than formal, with a bar, restaurant, comfortable seating and social spaces that immediately make you want to have a nose around rather than head straight upstairs.
Checking In at nhow London
Check-in is from 3pm, and mine was friendly and straightforward.
And then came those magical words...
“We've upgraded your room.”
I'd been upgraded to a corner suite.
See?
It pays to make silly little TikToks on the internet.
Off I went upstairs.
Opened the door.
And...
Cor blimey.
My Room at nhow London
WOW.
That was pretty much my first reaction.
The room looked incredible, but what impressed me much more was discovering that this wasn't style over substance. It's very easy to make a hotel room Instagrammable.
Throw a Union Jack somewhere, hang some bonkers artwork, install an interesting chair and wait for influencers to arrive.
But someone at nhow has clearly thought about what it's actually like to stay in the room.
And that makes an enormous difference.
My corner suite was immaculately clean, spacious and incredibly well equipped.
There was a sofa, a proper desk for working and plenty of storage. More importantly, there were plug sockets and USB charging points everywhere.
Hotel designers of the world, please take note. I don't want to crawl underneath a bedside cabinet with my phone torch looking for a socket. The air conditioning was easy to control and worked properly, too.
Again: basic.
But you'd be amazed.
Alexa, Play Some Proper London Tunes 🎶
One of my favourite touches was the Marshall sound system.
And, hallelujah, there were actually instructions telling you how to use it. Within minutes I'd got some proper London tunes playing.
There was also a coffee machine, a proper teapot and even a cocktail shaker.
It's the little extras, though, that really impressed me.
Bath salts. Lip balm. A hairbrush.
None of those things is going to determine whether I book a hotel, but when you arrive and discover them? They make the room feel considerably more thoughtful.
That Bathroom Though...
This deserves its own section.
Because I had a freestanding bath AND a proper walk-in rain shower.
Now we're talking. Again, everything was immaculately clean. That's important because quirky design hotels occasionally spend so much effort being quirky that somebody appears to forget they're also supposed to be good hotels.
nhow hasn't.
Design: fabulous.
Cleanliness: immaculate.
Bath: fill it immediately.
A Bed Fit for a British Queen
The bed deserves a mention of its own: plenty of space, lovely cotton sheets and ridiculously comfortable.
Fit for a British Queen. Me, obviously.
After spending the day stomping around London, it was exactly what I wanted to come back to. For all the colour and eccentricity, my suite felt like a relaxing place to retreat.
A quick room reality check: this review covers my upgraded corner suite, which had a sofa, a proper desk, generous storage and a bathroom with both a freestanding bath and a separate walk-in rain shower. Don’t assume those features come with every room category, check the description of the room you’re booking, especially if the bath is part of the attraction.
Guilty London: Dinner at nhow
Dinner was included during my stay and was served at Guilty London, the hotel's restaurant.
And the menu rather matches the hotel. It doesn't take itself too seriously.
Fancy something a little indulgent? You can. Want something more informal? You can do that too. There's the sort of food you might choose for a proper dinner alongside crowd pleasers such as nachos, curry and good old fish and chips.
It's basically formal dining and relaxed dining having a little fling.
I started with the calamari fritters and thankfully, there wasn't a frozen rubber calamari ring in sight.
They tasted fresh, homemade and zesty, exactly how calamari should taste. My salmon was beautifully cooked and genuinely delicious. Then came tiramisu. Not terribly British, admittedly, but that's the great thing about British cuisine.
We find the best food from around the world and eventually start behaving as though it belongs to us.
Curry.
Tea.
The Crown Jewels. Moving swiftly on.
Breakfast at nhow London: Diabetes Anyone?
Breakfast is served from 7am until 11am.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate an 11am breakfast finish?
Unfortunately, the breakfast itself was probably the weakest part of my stay.
If you have an exceptionally sweet tooth, you've hit the jackpot. The buffet seemed to be about 99% sugar: donuts, cupcakes, brownies, Smarties and enough cake to cater for a children's birthday party.
Diabetes anyone?
I love a bit of cake, but even I was looking around wondering whether there was anything that hadn't been introduced to a bag of sugar.
It was good to see options for different dietary requirements, including vegan donuts and gluten-free carrot cake, cupcakes and brownies, but again, almost everything seemed to involve cake.
What About the Savoury Stuff?
There were all the standard Full English suspects including Cumberland sausages, eggs, beans and hash browns, alongside cold meats and a salad bar.
As a flexitarian, though, I found my options surprisingly limited. At 9:30 in the morning I didn't particularly fancy a plate of salad, so my realistic choices seemed to be a diabetic coma or boiled egg on toast. I chose the latter.
The Union Jack Dualit toaster made me smile immediately and couldn't have been much more British if it had started complaining about the weather. There was also a large London Eye display at the buffet which looked brilliant, although for some reason it was home to just one rather lonely muffin.
Breakfast wasn't terrible and there was certainly plenty of food, particularly if you like something sweet. But compared with the excellent room, thoughtful amenities, dinner at Guilty and the quality I'd experienced throughout the rest of the hotel, it simply didn't match the rest of my nhow London experience.
That's really my issue. Elsewhere, nhow combines eccentricity and playful British design with genuine substance. At breakfast, the balance tipped a little too far towards the gimmicks.
Fewer cupcakes, better vegetarian options, freshly baked pastries and some quality British produce would transform it.
The Gym
Yes, there's a gym.
So naturally, in the interests of serious travel journalism, I went to investigate.
Whether I actually exercised is none of your business.
The basement gym was a pleasant surprise, with modern equipment and a good selection of machines, much better than the token treadmill and three mismatched dumbbells you sometimes find in hotel gyms.
I managed some incline walking before breakfast, which turned out to be excellent forward planning considering the cake extravaganza waiting upstairs.
Gym downstairs, cake upstairs. That's balance, surely?
Work, Rest... and Quite a Lot of Play
This is something I think nhow London does particularly well. The communal spaces aren't there simply to look pretty in photographs.
There are places to work, have a coffee, meet friends, sit with your laptop, have dinner or grab a drink.
There's even a surprisingly impressive social space around the restaurant that has almost a mini nightclub/event-space feel to it and that got me thinking.
This would be a brilliant hotel for a birthday weekend or celebration in London.
Come with friends, have dinner, have drinks and make the hotel part of the occasion rather than somewhere everyone disappears back to afterwards.
Equally, if you're here for work, there are plenty of places to get the laptop out.
Or perhaps you're simply a hot creative like me. In which case you'll fit right in.
What's Near nhow London?
I wandered over to Angel and Upper Street, around a 10-minute walk away, did a little shopping and got those proper London neighbourhood scenes I love.
You've also got Old Street and Shoreditch in the opposite direction.
So although nhow isn't actually sitting in the middle of Brick Lane, you're close enough to explore East London without necessarily having all the noise immediately outside your bedroom.
For a short London city break, I actually think that's a pretty good compromise.
Angel & Upper Street
Around a 10-minute walk away with loads of shops, restaurants, pubs and cafés.
Old Street
Another useful nearby transport hub and your gateway towards Shoreditch and East London.
Shoreditch
Head towards Shoreditch for the street art, bars, restaurants, independent shops and general East London coolness.
Brick Lane & Spitalfields
If vintage shopping, street food, curry, beigels and people far cooler than you are your thing, keep walking towards Brick Lane and Spitalfields.
Flying Into London? Getting to nhow London
This is where I'd particularly consider nhow if you're flying into London for a short trip or London city break.
You're not stuck out at an airport hotel, but you're also well connected once you reach central London.
From Gatwick Airport: Thameslink to Farringdon, then Tube via Moorgate to Old Street. How to Get From Gatwick Airport to Central London (Train, Bus & Taxi)
From Heathrow Airport: Elizabeth line to Farringdon, then Tube via Moorgate to Old Street. Heathrow to London: Cheapest, Fastest & Best Ways (2026 Guide)
From Stansted Airport: Stansted Express to Liverpool Street, then Tube to Old Street.
From Luton Airport: Luton DART to Luton Airport Parkway, Thameslink to Farringdon, then Tube via Moorgate to Old Street. How to get from London Luton Airport to London
From London City Airport: DLR to Bank, then Northern line to Old Street.
From Old Street, nhow London is around a 10-minute walk.
Plane Honest Verdict: Would I Stay at nhow London Again?
Absolutely.
If all you want is a quiet beige box to return to after walking 20,000 steps around London, there are hundreds of hotels that'll do the job. nhow London is something different.
It's vibrant, eccentric, modern, social and unapologetically London.
It's somewhere I'd consider for a few days with friends, a big birthday, a celebration, a work trip or simply a short London city break where I wanted the hotel to be part of the experience.
Most importantly, underneath all the bonkers artwork and British eccentricity is a really good four-star hotel.
My suite was immaculate.
The bed was superb.
The little details had been properly thought through.
Dinner was delicious.
The staff were genuinely lovely.
And for a hotel with this much personality, it was surprisingly comfortable and functional.
nhow London manages to put the play into work, rest and play.
I should have booked longer, but this is one of those hotels where staying for one night almost feels like a waste.
There's Guilty London.
There's the bar.
There's a gym.
There are co-working and social spaces.
I wanted time to actually enjoy the hotel and that probably tells you more about my stay than anything else.
So if you fancy somewhere a little different for your next London trip, give nhow a butcher's.
Proper London, mate. 🇬🇧
nhow London FAQs
Is nhow London actually in Shoreditch?
nhow London is on Macclesfield Road in EC1, between Angel, Old Street and Shoreditch. Shoreditch is reachable on foot, although the hotel isn't directly in the centre of the neighbourhood.
What are the nearest stations to nhow London?
Angel and Old Street.
What time is check-in at nhow London?
Check-in is from 3pm.
Does nhow London have a restaurant?
Yes. Guilty London is the hotel's restaurant and bar, where I had dinner during my stay.
Does nhow London serve breakfast?
Yes. Breakfast is served 7am–11am.
Does nhow London have a gym?
Yes, there’s a basement gym with modern equipment, which I used during my stay.
Is nhow London good for a London city break?
I think so. Its location gives you easy access to Angel, Islington, Old Street and Shoreditch, while the hotel's restaurant, bar and social spaces mean there's plenty to enjoy without immediately heading back out into London.
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nhow London Review: A Cool Hotel Near Shoreditch, Proper London, Mate!
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