Sea Containers London: The 1980s called and it wants its bedroom back

I grew up a mile from the banks of the River Thames, then moved to a flat where I could see it from the window if I craned my neck just right. It must’ve imprinted something on me because for the several years I’ve now lived beyond rational walking distance from it, I get regular yearnings to be back beside its waters. So as far as a staycation destination goes, the South Bank is rather a good one.

Everyone knows Sea Containers House by sight: the prime Thameside building between the Oxo Tower and the Tate Modern that used to have an unsightly ship’s prow jutting out until a slick makeover a decade or so ago modernised the facade — now lit neon blue after dark. My destination was the namesake hotel in its south wing, Sea Containers London, which made waves last year when its envelope-pushing Lyaness bar was rated as the world’s best by the Pinnacle guide, the cocktail world’s Michelin equivalent.

But it was something several floors up that had lured me one whole borough from home. Last month, it cut the ribbon on four bespoke ‘cabin suites’, a unique collaboration between beloved vintage furniture marketplace, Vinterior, and Jacu Strauss, creative director and designer at Lore Group (the stable which birthed Sea Containers, Amsterdam’s Pulitzer, Washington DC’s Lyle and others).

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The neighbouring suites, on a red-carpeted corridor on the panoramic 15th floor, are a nod to 150 years of cruises with each ‘cabin’ designed to transport you to a different era: an elegant wood-panelled Edwardian suite, a handsome Art Deco suite, a modish mid-century suite, and the decadent 1980s Dynasty suite.

I am a firm believer in the fact that a good hotel room, with a confident design narrative, lets you inhabit a different character — maximalists can go minimalist for the night, city modernists can enjoy old country charm for a weekend, and so forth. Which is all to say I checked into the powder pink 80's suite — and, reader, I loved it.

My immediate priority was to stare out over the Thames, of course, but once I had got that out my system I could appreciate the Maralunga Sofa by Vico Magistretti that Strauss and his team had reupholstered in cream leather, or the Cursava Muebles lucite and glass coffee table and its decorative claw-like Murano bowl, or the various Grecian style plinths, one topped with a smoked glass ashtray that glinted in the sun. Sure the river views are great, but this — playful design done with conviction (the 80s really are back, baby) — was what really put a smile on my face. And even better, you can shop it all on Vinterior. I’m off to search for some plinths…