You have to hand it to Scottish hotelier and philanthropist Gordon Campbell Gray. The man has courage. Unruffled by the political unrest of the last years, he ventured across our Middle Eastern shores to track down local artists, laying the groundwork for an eclectic collection of around 400 artworks now on display in Le Gray, Beirut’s first design hotel.
“For me, being a hotelier has never been about setting up a big company that I can roll out across the world, then sell off and make a fortune. I get asked on a weekly basis to open hotels in cities such as Paris, Rome and New York. It's very flattering, but I'm not that ambitious or competitive. I like to create individual hotels in an authentic, original way; I like them to have a soul. I concentrate on the product rather than the profits. If you get the product right, the profits come along anyway,” explains Campbell Gray. “I was excited about Beirut: I'd visited before and thought it was a spectacular, fun, edgy and utterly sexy place with the added advantage of being both coastal and urban. I’m dazzled by the Lebanese: every man, woman and child is gorgeous - and they know it. I love their joie de vivre. The city oozes glitz and glamour.” High praise indeed for a man that has been everywhere, travelling extensively in his role as vice president of Save the Children.
Le Gray sits well in its surroundings. The classical, beige-stone building, designed by Australian architect Kevin Dash (also the designer of Banque Audi’s Bab Idriss Headquarters), is set discreetly in the heart of the Beirut Central District, known to the locals as Downtown. Externally it blends in with its neighbours, on the inside though, it’s a unique affair. Its art-inspired style strikes you the minute you enter the (somewhat small and very understated lobby) adorned as it is with a show-stopping wall of illuminated flowers and dragonflies by French artist Valerie Boy.
Campbell Gray, chairman of CampbellGray Hotels and the man behind two of London’s top hotels, One Aldwych and the Duke, was involved in every aspect of the creation, design and philosophy of this hotel. He collaborated with interior designer Mary Fox Linton to create a sleek and modern structure centred on a stunning circular floor-to-roof glass-domed atrium. Intent on giving Middle Eastern talent a boost, most works adorning the walls and corridors are by Levantine artists. A series of paintings by Safwan Dahoul, a lynchpin of the Syrian contemporary art scene, graces the lobby. One of Lebanese artist Nadim Karam’s baby elephants, this one covered in rainbow-coloured buttons, sits on the floor, a nod to Spencer, the papier-mâché dog in the lobby at One Aldwych. [At the time of going to press, the elephant hadn’t yet been named, but the running favourite was ‘Olly.’]
Restaurants, a bar and a cigar lounge rest on the sixth floor, with the bedrooms in between. The purple glass-lined rooftop infinity swimming pool may not be that big but it’s a designer tour-de-force and it’s also Beirut’s first chlorine-free pool. Overlooking the pressroom of the facing AnNahar newspaper, it may just tempt naughty antics from dippers. On the other side of the same floor was where I enjoyed my first dinner. The restaurant is called Indigo on the Roof and it serves a fusion of international and Mediterranean dishes. The venue offers stunning views over city rooftops with the Mount Lebanon range in the distance – enter and be prepared to be wowed.
The staff is local and remarkably willing to please. The barman at BarThreeSixty – the name a nod to the panoramic view - whips up a mean martini with a gratifying dollop of enthusiasm. Gordon's Café, at street level, is already attracting the ‘ladies that lunch crowd,’ flirtingly discussing the day’s specials with the waiter. The menu changes on a daily basis and features lingo hitherto unfamiliar to many Beiruti diners: grass-fed, free range, organic. The headwaiter insists that the cheesecake is “to die for” and will not let me leave without offering me a taste.
A glass-and-steel lift descends to lower ground level, which hosts a state-of-the-art gym as well as the PureGray spa, a small haven in which guests are promised to be soothed of all their stresses. On the menu are massages and facials. “This is the ‘whisper’ zone,” proclaims the nice girl at the spa while showing me the post treatment rooms. I attempt to tiptoe through, in spite of heels, to discover the Natura Bissé products, exclusive to Le Gray.
Ah, and then there are the calm and sophisticated rooms – all 87 of them. After all, this is the reason for a stay, despite the temptations of other facilities. The rates, which start at around 400 USD a night, afford you just about everything you could hope for - dreamily soft white duvets and fluffy pillows, original artwork, views of Downtown Beirut and space galore. The smallest rooms are 40m² and the standard executive suite is 60m². The decor is modern minimalist in pastel shades of grey, lilac and beige. All rooms have the latest hi-tech facilities, including state-of-the-art lighting, flat-screen TVs, iPod docks and even deluxe espresso machines. The roomy bathrooms boast in-wall television screens and are stocked with a selection of natural, paraben-free beauty products from luxury Swedish brand REN.
As if this wasn’t enough, each room boasts a selection of novels and lavishly illustrated coffee-table tomes, all with a focus on artists and writers of the Middle East. Enough to keep you in bed with the fluffy pillows for a lot longer than you intended.
The hotel just oozes care and attention to detail: the plate of perfectly arranged green apples displayed like a still life on a matching lime coloured plate, the posy of fresh orchids. And I was impressed by the ‘green’ initiatives: the hotel's no bleach policy, recycling programs, and special eco-water-systems. Campbell Gray is an avid environmentalist and this year was awarded the UK title of Hotelier of the Year. The best room in the house? Arguably the presidential suite on the fifth floor with an enormous terrace and 180 degree-views of the downtown roof tops.
Forget the label of party destination that Beirut has recently been landed with; this city is a hub of class and ancient history. Le Gray has understood that and as such it’s bound to become an attraction in itself, with its brilliant contemporary interiors, fabulous rooftop restaurant, friendly service, an incredible art collection and cutting-edge technology. Plans are already underfoot to expand the Middle Eastern CampbellGray portfolio to Oman, Morocco and Syria, so we’re set to become ever more familiar with this brand. Of course you’ll have to try one to understand, but as the owner succinctly concludes, “You can copy the chairs - and people have - you can copy the art collection, but you can't copy the soul because it is the sum of many things. One of the key elements of a CampbellGray hotel is that it is an inclusive snob-free zone where everyone is treated the same.”
CONTACT
Le Gray,
Martyrs Square
Beirut, Lebanon
Tel +961 1 972 000
