24-Hour Room Service: Hope Street Hotel, Liverpool

It is little wonder that the stylish Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso chose to move into the Hope Street Hotel after his transfer to Liverpool FC last year.

It is little wonder that the stylish Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso chose to move into the Hope Street Hotel after his transfer to Liverpool FC last year. The city's first boutique hotel is all stripped wooden floors, leather furniture and exposed brickwork, located in an imposing Victorian house built in 1860 in the style of a Venetian palazzo (albeit one located in the north-west of England).

Privately owned, it is the most interesting of the half-dozen hotels that have opened in Liverpool since the turn of the 21st century, a sign of the little-heralded renaissance in a city that has struggled in recent decades. Several more are planned, including a Malmaison and, rather less enticingly, a Beatles-themed hotel. Hope Street is already winning plaudits, and it can be difficult to book in on Saturday nights when either Everton or Liverpool are playing a match at home.

Like the best of the new designer hotels, there is a relaxed ambience, helped by the efficient service and unobtrusive, friendly staff. The bar - slate-grey floor, clusters of high stools and leather armchairs, Steinway grand piano - is in the basement, and clearly popular with expensively dressed locals. The restaurant - the London Carriage Works, named after the original building - attracted a slightly older crowd the night we were there. But unlike several boutique hotels I have visited, the food lives up to the ambitions of the chefs (and the prices). It has a deserving claim to be the city's best restaurant under the inspired hand of chef Paul Askew. Our only complaint was the noisy exuberance of some clubbers returning home at 3am.

LOCATION

Hope Street Hotel (0151-709 3000; www.hopestreethotel.co.uk) sits in a quiet road surrounded by fine late Georgian and Regency houses. This is the midst of the cultural quarter, close to theatres and concert halls - an ideal location, given that this is, as banners on every street like to remind you, Europe's Capital of Culture in 2008. And if you seek spiritual rather than artistic enlightenment, there is a cathedral at either end of the street - which makes it very easy to find if you get lost. It is a short walk to the main shopping streets and Lime Street station, and about a 10-minute stroll to the terrific Tate museum at the Albert Docks.

Time from international airport: a taxi from Liverpool John Lennon airport takes around 20 minutes, for a fare of around £12.

COMFORTABLE?

There are 48 rooms in five sizes, all with underfloor heating. Our bed was huge, with Egyptian cotton sheets, goose-down pillows and a flat-screen Sharp TV on the wall. All rooms have DVD and CD players (with an adequate library at the reception) and unmetred broadband access. Ours also had an original iron column propping up the ceiling. The bathroom was excellent: a large, strong showerhead, mist-free mirrors and a big slate bath, with REN toiletries such as seaweed and sage body wash. My gadget-crazy son particularly admired the sleek Jacob Jensen telephones.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Rooms range from £115 for a standard to suites costing from £195 to £285. The top-priced suites offer fine views of the Mersey. Three-course dinner at London Carriage Works costs £27.95 (although with a few drinks our bill soared substantially higher than this).

I'm not paying that: try the Venezuelan Consulate, part of a Georgian terrace and now the Embassie Hostel, at 1 Falkner Square, Liverpool (0151-707 1089; www.embassie.com). It is lively, friendly and cheap, with a dorm bed at £13.50 including free tea, coffee, toast, jam and marmalade. IAN BIRRELL