Opposite London’s British Museum on a cool Thursday evening, six townhouses pulse with piano music and excitable chatter. Resort collections might be on show in Los Angeles and New York this week, but the British capital’s fashion crowd set up in The Zetter Bloomsbury, a brand new hotel in the heart of London’s creative quarter.
The evening, co-hosted by Vogue’s own Hamish Bowles, fêted The Zetter Hotels’ third new opening and first in a decade, with 68 boutique bedrooms within interconnecting Georgian townhouses. Its setting, overlooking Russell Square, holds an esteemed artistic and literary lineage thanks to the likes of Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster. On this night in Zetter’s buzzy courtyard, Kim Cattrall, Charles Jeffrey (the designer Bowles wore to the 2026 Met Gala), Conner Ives (and his dog, Rex!), Juergen Teller, and Raven Smith, among others, toasted a new spot for the city’s creative scene.
There was some exploring to do by candlelight: through the lush garden, the botanical Orangery, yoga deck, and terrace suite to watch the party crack on below. As NTS Radio’s DJ Martelo glided through a whorling set and pianist Friqtao hopped genres, executive head chef Debjit Dass kept guests delighted and well-fed. After some canapes that included chunky rarebit croquettes and beef tartare-topped potato terrine, one could get to the yoga terrace—not to savasana, but to shuck some oysters. Then, a suite of Marie Antoinette-style sweet treats that got cameras flashing and forks flying: a berry-studded tartlet, a hulking cream cheese-swirled carrot and walnut cake, and a plush Victoria sponge cake that was felled with a swift swoop of a cake knife. A deliciously Dionysian cheese table, replete with blues, hards, and softs, was swiftly mauled, too. Cocktails, Champagne, and fruit punch flowed.
Award-winning interior designer James Thurstan Waterworth recognized the need for The Zetter Bloomsbury to maintain the brand’s own style of British eccentricity, but let the work luxuriate in the existing Georgian details.
“The interiors combine Georgian architectural sensibility with a richly layered collection of global antiques and 20th-century British art, influenced by the hotel’s position next to the British Museum and Bloomsbury’s rich intellectual creative history,” he tells Vogue. “At its core, Zetter Bloomsbury is designed for guests who value discretion over visibility, a place where people come not to be seen, but to feel. The emphasis is on design, craft, and storytelling, with a quiet sense of luxury and a strong commitment to British makers and artisans wherever possible.”
Throughout the hotel, Thurstan Waterworth layered antiques, objects, and artwork sourced globally through auctions, dealers, and extensive travel over a four-year period. “It’s built a collection that feels deeply personal and richly storied,” he says. There are 300 bespoke cushions crafted from antique textiles, including French linens, Turkish weaves, and South American fabrics, alongside collections of rare artefacts and curiosities, from 2,000-year-old Egyptian pieces to an extensive library of more than 600 vintage art and auction catalogues from houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s. There’s pieces from Robert Kimes personal collection auction which were particularly meaningful to the designer. Original works by leading 20th-century British artists, including Sandra Blow and Rodger Hilton, sit alongside these pieces “to create an atmosphere that feels both collected and lived in.”
Below, see how The Zetter Bloomsbury got the party started.
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