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Anfield's terraces may own the legend, but it's the period Georgian ones around Hope Street that are enjoying the rewards of Liverpool's ongoing regeneration. The Hope Street Hotel, its first boutique-style property, is on the cultural ley line between the two cathedrals, with theatres, the Philharmonic Hall and new culinary hotspots nearby. The London Carriage Works restaurant (named after the building's first incarnation) opened several months before the rooms and, along with a basement bar where you might spot the cast of Hollyoaks, established the site on the city's social radar. Indeed, with the hotel entrance tucked away around the corner, it's this street-level dining room that hogs the limelight. Headed by co-owner David Askew, from the Philharmonic's excellent Lower Place restaurant, the open-plan space is divided between a bar-brasserie (with comfortable leather sofas) and 'fine dining' (with a less comfortable, giant 'glass-shard' feature).
The food is fancifully presented in both, be it halibut with caviar on noodles or a cheese-and-chutney platter, and a 230-bottle wine list offers plenty in the £25 category. Upstairs the design is more durable, with original iron columns lining the corridors, and heavy beams and exposed brickwork in the snug, woody bedrooms. Big beds and big showerheads provide all-important comfort; REN bath products and flatscreen TVs with DVD/CD are satisfying extras along with quirks such as rubber ducks and daily weather cards inscribed with Roger McGough poems. The hotel prides itself on being child-friendly, but it is also very grown-up and will allow dogs, too.
WHEN TO GO
April for the National, September for the Liverpool Biennale.
ROOM TO BOOK
One of the five top-floor duplex suites with views across the city to the Liver Building.
CONTACT
Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool (0151 709 3000; fax: 709 2454; www.hopestreethotel.co.uk; Design Hotels: 0800 169 8817). Doubles from £115; duplex suites from £195
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