In Pictures: The Libertines’ Albion Rooms hotel to open this month

The Libertines’ Albion Rooms boutique hotel in Margate is officially opening 25 September, with a fine dining experience from an ex-Soho House chef.

Following a three-year transformation, the five-storey Victorian building will open as a seven-bedroom boutique hotel on the Kent coast.

The Albion Rooms also comprises a restaurant, coffee shop, two bars and a recording studio. The restaurant offers three menus including a fine dining experience overseen by chef Joe Hill, a former Soho House head chef.

Subtle references to the English rock band and their lyrics are featured throughout as well as works by local artists. Rooms have been designed by Rhiannon Sussex and the penthouse was co-ordinated by print design house Anna Hayman, while each room has an Apple Beats sound system.

The Arcady coffee house in the upstairs bar is open to both residents and non-residents, serving its own Libertines house blend, coffee and brunch, drinks, pastries and cakes to have in and take away.

The Waste Land downstairs bar, which opened at the end of last year, hosts poetry, life drawing, music, dancing and comedy events. The name is an homage to the TS Eliot poem, written two doors down from the hotel. It serves a bar menu including burgers and snacks.

Libertines frontman Peter Doherty described the Albion Rooms as “a fine Arcadian bolthole, a perfect place for prophets new inspired, to recline, write, record, with rejoicing and knees up a plenty”.

Co-frontman Carl Barât added: “It might be a while before we challenge the Savoy or the Grand Budapest in the hotel stakes, but we’ve put a lot of love into this. Meanwhile it’s a colourful and inspiring home for the Libertines and I look forward to the Albion Rooms being our very own Warholian Factory.”

The band acquired the five-storey, 10-bedroom property at 31 Eastern Esplanade in September 2017 for £450,000 and named it after the nickname the band gave their east London flat in their early days. The group has given the former Palm Court hotel a multimillion-pound refurbishment.

Rooms start at £114 a night including breakfast.

Photography: Jason Knott