Reviews

By Hotel Guru Fiona Duncan Sunday Telegraph January 2009

You know the wave of new hotels that have changed the face of Britain’s cities?
Ones that provide individual, affordable luxurious places to stay wherebefore there
had only been a depressing choice of grubby carpeted chain hotels or elderly Victorian relics?
Well, it never got to Southampton. Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Nottingham, Cardiff, Reading
–you name the city and there’s at least one contemporary“boutique” address tucked into its centre.
But not Southampton, despite the many cruise ship passengers who would surely appreciate some
where atmospheric in which to stay before setting off across the Atlantic or around the world.

Until now, that is.  We needed a night in Southampton and as I scanned the unappetising
list of contenders on my computer, I could feel the vitriol beginning to flood my pen when
the White Star “Tavern and Dining Rooms” in the unlikely setting of Oxford Street, Southampton’s
attractive, upmarket “restaurant row” came into view and instantly grabbed my attention.
OK, it’s plainly more “restaurant with rooms” than hotel, but with a separate entrance for its
13 bedrooms, a pretty roof terrace and excellent business facilities, this new address would surely
be more than adequate for most people. The website was encouraging – and, as we discovered,
accurate – showing attractive, up-to-date contemporary bedrooms and bathrooms, with
tongue-and groove panelling and pretty details in the bedrooms, mosaic tiling and big showers
in the bathrooms, with deep baths in the two best rooms.

Drawbacks: none are large and the cheapest are very small indeed. Much more important, you
can now stay in a Southampton hotel that’s fun and young and isn’t anodyne and provides at
least a whiff of Southampton’s fine maritime history. Renamed after the famous White Star Line,
with rooms that recall their ships and America’s Cup J Class boats (ours was Velsheda, illustrated
by a Bekon of Cowes photograph on the wall), this handsome, little changed corner building
was a former seafarer’s hotel, The Alliance, whose name is still visible above the door.

In the “tavern” downstairs, the old hotel’s original panelling and brass chandeliers are still intact
among a carefully designed mix of banquettes, dining tables and the ubiquitous (yawn) black
leather Chesterfields. We couldn’t dine there, but my spies tell me that the food is some of the best in Southampton.

We have another night in Southampton coming up next week, so we’ve booked the city’s “premier”
hotel, the de Vere Grand Harbour, and will report back on which of the two we prefer. Don’t hold
your breath. I’ll eat my pirate hat if the White Star isn’t the place from which to set sail.