As a Philippe Starck devotee I’m amazed it has taken me this long to visit Jo’berg’s Melrose Arch Hotel. I remember how annoyed I was when I read a House & Leisure feature about the hotel shortly after it was built and there was no mention of it being carbon copy Starck. Even reading through the hotel’s particularly well written and designed in-room info, neither Stark nor Ian Schrager’s hotels from whom they have so liberally and literally lifted. That said, I feel an enormous excitement being here – what they’ve done is done well, and the humorous touches of which they seem so proud are evident and, well, humorous.

I like the Smarties with the embossed “M”. The first one I tried was lieing on its side and it read “E”. MMMM, I thought, I was going to enjoy my stay here. I love the safe behind the painting on the wall, the tall-boy draws next to the bed that hide delicious things in cleverly designed spaces and the bathroom complete with a pool bath and yellow rubber duckies. A design flaw, to my eye anyway, is the bathroom screen that leaves a gap which compromises privacy.

Free internet connectivity in the room and wireless in the public areas makes this a great business spot.

The public areas are the most interesting – the restaurant in the pool with the trees planted in giant metal buckets, the library bar which is stylish in the extreme and the various meeting rooms and conferencing facilities. The March restaurant is gorgeous.