24 hour room service: Salthouse Harbour

When Suffolk hotelier Robert Gough bought a shipping warehouse on the dilapidated Ipswich waterfront and announced that he was planning to convert it into a luxury hotel, eyebrows were raised at the risk he was taking. The area was an eyesore: who would ever want to stay there? Seven years on, with the riverfront development in its final stages, yachts bobbing about the marina, and new bars and restaurants doing brisk business, his friends are telling him how lucky he is.

The Salthouse Harbour Hotel is the jewel of Ipswich’s new social hub, with an excellent brasserie benefiting from the ready availability of fresh fish and seafood in and around the Orwell estuary. Where possible, the imaginatively presented meat and vegetarian dishes are also locally sourced. In summer, the brasserie introduces an al fresco option, opening its doors to colonise a section of the cobbled waterfront.

While the hotel is themed as unashamedly modern and minimalist, many industrial elements of the original building have been preserved, with cast-iron beams and exposed bricks recalling its days as a storage depot for grain and salt. Into this Victorian mix, the owner has introduced Indian and Oriental furnishings and a striking collection of modern paintings and sculptures from around the world. The centrepiece is a Russian study of a woman in a red velvet dress, which made such an impression on the owner that he incorporated the design into the T-shirts worn by the brasserie’s well drilled waitresses.

LOCATION

Salthouse Harbour Hotel, 1 Neptune Quay, Ipswich IP4 1AX (01473 226789; www.salthouseharbour.co.uk). In common with Portsmouth, Bristol and several other historic ports, Ipswich is staking its future on the long neglected waterfront that moulded its past. In place of dark, satanic, Victorian eyesores is a complex of attractive frontages – some restored, others brand new – that include hotels, restaurants, apartments, offices and part of a university campus, all within a few minutes’ walk of the centre of the old town. The redevelopment should be completed by 2010.

Time to international aiport: By road or rail, Stansted is about an hour away.

COMFORTABLE?

The 41 bedrooms and two glass-fronted penthouse suites on the sixth floor (equipped with telescopes to enhance the waterfront view) are full of surprises and bold statements, such as the modern artwork on the walls, but not at the expense of the essential comforts to be expected from a four-star hotel. Every room is subtly different, but some features are common to all, such as the queen-size double beds with richly carved dark wood Indonesian headboards, Egyptian cotton sheets, and a wealth of pillows. White-towelled bathrobes are standard, and some of the rooms have balconies overlooking the marina, where some of the finest craft on view are still built or designed in Ipswich.

Freebies? Nina Campbell toiletries; tea, coffee and biscuits; mineral water; newspaper of your choice.

Keeping in touch: every room has a direct dial phone, a large plasma TV/DVD (with a free selection of films at reception) and a remotecontrol Bose radio. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Double rooms start at £130, including breakfast, with a £30 supplement to guarantee a room overlooking the riverfront. In quiet periods, these rooms are available on request for no extra charge. I’m not paying that: on the outskirts of town, The Gatehouse Hotel (799 Old Norwich Road; 01473 741897; www.gatehouse hotel.co.uk) has charm, seclusion and 13 recently refurbished en-suite bedrooms. Doubles from £89, including breakfast.

This article was written by Frank Partridge and originally appeared in the Independent on 5 April 2008. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the publisher

The original article can be viewed on the Independent website here