Kismet

The great city houses

Where the address is the point

A city house has one job: to make the city feel like yours by the second morning.

Each one is at the address its city arranges itself around — the harbour, the Gateway, the Grand Canal, the old avenue, a bend in the river — and in every case the walk out of the front door is the reason to be there rather than a mile away.

What is actually outside the door decides a city house, and so does which side of the building you are on. That choice usually matters more than the room itself.

6 houses

Rosewood Hong Kong at night, its stepped gold and black tower lit above the Hong Kong Island skyline across the harbour.
A stepped gold and black tower lit at night, with the Hong Kong Island skyline across the harbour.Pictured · Rosewood Hong Kong
A corridor off the lobby holds a shelf of curios behind mirrored glass, vintage Hong Kong photographs, books and a lit red taxi sign.

Hong Kong

Rosewood Hong Kong

The harbour, seen from the Kowloon side, with the skyline across the water rather than behind you.

The building is a single glass tower over the water at Victoria Dockside, with K11 Musea two floors below the lobby. The lift doors open high in it and Victoria Harbour is already in the room, running the whole width of the glass. A Grand Harbour View Room is 53 square metres, on floors 25 to 36, looking south over the water to Wan Chai. There are 11 kitchens inside the one building, from Cantonese at The Legacy House to a Cha Chaan Teng diner that runs all day.

The address
Victoria Dockside, on a direct link to the MTR, with the airport about 35 minutes by car.
The house in full →
A low-lit lounge after dark: cream tub chairs with magenta cushions on a patterned rug, a gold relief curling across a claret wall, and tall lamps in woven shades throwing light up the panelling.

Mumbai

The Taj Mahal Palace

The Gateway of India on one side of the road, and the red Florentine dome on the other.

The whole of Colaba stays on the other side of the door. A harbour-facing bay opens off the bedroom through a plastered arch, with windows on 3 sides: the anchored freighters, and the launches going out to Elephanta. Shamiana never closes and carries a wall of photographs of everyone who has eaten there. The Tower rooms are plainer and higher, so the water goes further.

The address
Apollo Bunder, the southern tip of the city — 40 minutes from the airport at dawn, 90 in evening traffic.
The house in full →
The hotel's cream tower standing over its own pool, every floor arcaded, a line of parasols down the far edge and old trees closing in on both sides.

Delhi NCR

Taj Mahal, New Delhi

One Mansingh Road, in the part of Delhi that Lutyens drew.

The building keeps its distance from the street: a cream tower, arcaded on every floor, set well back behind old trees. Ask for a room on the India Gate side and be in it for the last hour of light, when the treeline runs unbroken green and the Secretariat domes go soft in the haze. Machan, the all-day room, is built around a tree standing in a double-height well, and Captain's Cellar is a barrel-vaulted brick cellar under the building with oak casks for tables. Swim at 7 in the morning and the loudest thing is the parakeets.

The address
India Gate is a 10-minute walk, Khan Market 5 minutes by car, and the Purana Qila and the National Museum are both within a mile.
The house in full →
Capella Bangkok's low-rise white tower on a bend of the Chao Phraya, a rooftop pool and terraced gardens stepping down toward the water, a river boat passing below.

Bangkok

Capella Bangkok

A bend of the Chao Phraya, and the river in almost every window.

Charoenkrung Road was Bangkok's first paved road, built by order of King Rama IV in 1861, and the creative quarter has grown up along it. The building never rises far: 101 rooms, suites and villas, most of them with a full view of the river. The Verandah's terrace has a sala at one end and the jacuzzi plunge pool at the other, with the whole width of the water turning gold in front of both. Phra Nakhon, the all-day room, is a conservatory in a garden by the river.

The address
Charoenkrung Road, Yannawa, with a shuttle boat to IconSiam and the Saphan Taksin pier for the Skytrain.
The house in full →
The rain tree lit from beneath at blue hour, black branches spread wide against a darkening sky and the guest balconies glowing gold to either side.

Bengaluru

The Oberoi

A rain tree older than the building, and a balcony on every room.

MG Road is loud right up to the gate, and then there are 3 horseshoe arches, a marble floor, a lit fountain pool, and a courtyard with the tree in it. The building is arranged in an L around it, and once the door closes you cannot hear the road. At dusk the tree is lit from below and goes black against a violet sky. Rim Naam is why people who live in this city book dinner here: a timber pavilion on stilts over a lily pond, lanterns doubled in the water.

The address
MG Road, so the old cantonment is all on foot.
The house in full →
A lounge with rust-orange velvet armchairs around a low table, a lit fireplace beneath a circular red-and-black artwork set into a dark wood-paneled wall.

Venice

The St. Regis Venice

The Grand Canal at San Marco, with the hotel's own pontoon at the door.

Columned stone balconies front the canal, and behind the hotel runs Calle XXII Marzo, with its boutiques, contemporary art galleries and the Gran Teatro La Fenice. Gio's sits on the canal, and the bar moves out onto Ginori Terrace when the weather allows, looking across to San Giorgio, Punta della Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute. Every day at 5 in the evening, a saber opens a bottle of champagne in the Gran Salone.

The address
San Marco 2159, a 4-minute walk from Piazza San Marco and about 17 kilometres from Marco Polo Airport.
The house in full →

The address is what you are buying here, and it is the one thing you cannot change after you arrive.

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