The Verner Panton Suite at Hotel Alexandra, Copenhagen
I first came across Hotel Alexandra maybe 3 years ago. I had always promised myself that if for any reason I made it to Copenhagen, I’d have to stay the night one day. So last month, when I accepted an invitation to a party in South Sweden, the perfect opportunity arrived to add a couple of days onto my weekend, and explore Copenhagen before flying back to London.
The hotel couldn’t be simpler to get to. A short train ride from the airport, the hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the central train station. No need for taxis, if you are travelling light you can just walk on over.
Hotel Alexandra is a small authentic boutique hotel filled with Danish mid-century furniture design. In early march 2014 the hotel ended the renovation of all their rooms and brought them back to the 50’s and 60’s. Decorating the rooms with the same furniture, wallpapers, lamps and textiles as the design loving Danes did at that time. It’s really an incredible space, and fully occupied most of the time I hear.
A beautiful hotel, full of tradition, situated right in the heart of Copenhagen by the Town Hall Square and the Tivoli Gardens. there are 61 rooms, all with modern facilities, despite the retro time warp! The Hotel Alexandra has also gained the Green Key, an environmental certificate awarded to hotels that pay special attention to the environment.
Choose from a Single Room (The Small Danish Retro), Single Room Superior, The Danish Retro Double Room, Danish Twin, Double Room Superior, Double Room Luxe, Finn Juhl Suite or the Verner Panton Suite where I stayed.
As you arrive into the lobby past the hotel bicycles stacked outside, the hotel reception doubles as the guest library and small shop where you can purchase mini design classics and hotel memorabilia. Here you will find all the masterpieces by the great Danish designers, Finn Juhl, Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen and Børge Mogensen. Building a collection over the years the hotel offers eight rooms and 2 suites dedicated to Danish designers, as well as all the other rooms being authentically retro in design. The rooms are a tribute to the masters and in each room you’ll find a description on his or her masterpieces.
I was swiftly shown to my room with a complimentary bottle of bubbles and some information on the suite I was to be staying in. Straight up in the lift to the left, or you can take the stairs. The luggage storage room is in the basement.
Verner Panton is perhaps every students first introduction into the world of furniture and lighting design aged 14 or 15. If like me you showed an interest in interior design at school, once you hear of him, you’re unlocking a whole world design history. Well, 15 years or so later since I discovered the man, I find myself spending the night in a room filled with his design pieces that began my road to what I do today.
Verner Panton, the most colourful and inventive designer of his time. He experimented with colour, materials, and production methods in innovative lighting and furniture designs. As I was warned, the Verner Panton Suite is so staggering and faultless, i’ll never forget my stay.
The living room features a pair of 1-2-3 lounge chairs from 1973 and his Studioline sitting arrangement from 1961. His wire shelf is used as a table and his potent Geometry carpet from the 60s unifies the centre of the room. His most classic design, the Panton Chair, is used as a desk chair. First produced in 1966, it was the world’s first floating chair moulded in polyurethane without any seams or joints.
Spot the aluminium Fun Lamp Pendants.
Through to the deep blue bedroom. Under his impressive Kugel Pendant Lamp is the bed made using his iconic geometric prints as a bedcover, and his wire shelves act as bedside tables. The Pantop Table Lamps are used as bedside lights.
Panton’s iconic rug designs
…and on the walls too.
Orla Kiely toiletries in the bathroom, all available to buy at reception.
After an afternoon in the hotel it was time to head into the city. Always favouring the stairs over the lift I was able to discover the beautiful stained glass windows in the stairwells. This nook of the hotel really reminded me of Ett Hem in Stockholm.
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The room really came into it’s own light in the evening. I wish I could have taken this Panton night light home!
Late to bed that night but early to rise in the morning. I had such a wonderful little window seat in my living room that I decided to make myself a coffee and watch the sun rise over the Copenhagen rooftops…
Once day time arrived, I didn’t make it to the hotel restaurant for breakfast as I had a meeting close by at Strangas Dessert Boutique. What a gorgeous little café (more on here coming soon!).
As I arrived back at the hotel I was able to have a quick look at some of the other hotel suites and rooms.
The Wegner Room
The Finn Juhl Room
The Nanna Ditzel Room
Retro Room
If you want to be centrally based in a beautifully designed and interesting hotel, Hotel Alexandra is your place. I’d recommend it to all types of travellers, young and old.
My stay was courtesy of Hotel Alexandra. Particular thanks to the hotel Director, Jeppe Mühlhausen.
Hotel Alexandra, H.C Andersens Boulevard 8, DK-1553 Copenhagen V