Back in September 1999, when Sleeper Magazine was first launched in its original format, so too was the Arthouse Hotel - one of the first hotels we reviewed in our inaugural issue.
Some five years down the line, the Arthouse has since been acquired and relaunched by ABode Hotels - a new company recently created by greetings card entrepreneur Andrew Brownsword and two-Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines.
Abode was formed when Brownsword (who has invested in hotels such as The Bath Priory and Sydney House since selling his card business to Hallmark), and Caines (who rose to celebrity chef status after overcoming a car accident in which he lost an arm) first met at Devon's Gidleigh Park.
This meeting resulted in the launch of the first ABode, at the Royal Clarence in Exeter last Summer. ABode Glasgow is the duo's second operation.
The ABode Arthouse is housed in a stunning Edwardian building, constructed in 1911 as the office for the Department of Education.
As with the Exeter property, ABode have enlisted the services of Mark Plumtree, Creative Director of designers Plumtree Mee to handle the interiors. Plumtree and Michael Caines have worked together on projects for over seven years since an early collaboration on the Royal Clarence Cafˇ Bar and the MC Restaurant and Champagne Bar.
For ABode at the Arthouse, the most impressive aspects of the original building - many of which were incorporated into the design of the original Arthouse hotel - have been sensibly retained, including an elegant staircase with copperleaf plaster lion's head motifs adorning the walls, the towering stained-glass windows and wood panelling, and most notably, the old-fashioned cage-lift.
The changes have been subtle in the bedrooms too. The existing square bedheads, casegoods and wooden flooring by the windows have been incorporated into the new design. But the gothic, somewhat oppressive feel of the original hotel, with its velvet wallpaper, brocade curtains and red / blue colour scheme has been exchanged for a much lighter, more contemporary feel.
The colour scheme has been toned down into a muted one of pale pastel colours. Hand-crafted Vi Spring beds dressed in top-quality linen - an ABode signature - now take pride of place as the centrepiece of each room. New furniture from Morgan, Ege carpets, Waterbury bathroom accessories and amenities by Arran Aromatics have also been introduced.
As Mark Plumtree explains: "For me good design is not about fickle, here-today, gone-tomorrow fashion statements. It is about simple understated interior solutions that work commercially and contain that timeless quality where people feel comfortable and relaxed. This approach is crucial when working with historic buildings that contain a wealth of architectural features that must be enhanced, not lost."
With Michael Caines at the helm, presumably in some kind of executive role, ABode now offers an MC fine-dining restaurant, an MC Cafe Bar and the first MC Vibe Bar, situated alongside the MC Cafe Bar.
Situated on street level, the fine-dining restaurant now occupies the space incongruously leased as a hairdressing salon by the previous owners.
The creation of a kitchen - the most significant structural alteration - has also created a lightwell which significantly enhances the atmosphere in the restaurant. A grey banquette seating stretches along one wall. The area which originally housed a fine dining restaurant has in turn been transformed into meeting rooms.
But the changes have been most drastic in the ground floor and basement areas. The semi-basement level, so typical of Glasgow, now houses the MC Cafe Bar, offering less formal food, and the 'MC Vibe Bar' - a new concept from Michael Caines, which is more suited to vibrant city centres such as Glasgow than the MC Tavern concept which features at Exeter and their next opening in Canterbury. A late-night lounge bar, it features contemporary design, moody lighting and comfy furniture.
According to operations director Nick Halliday, the ABode brand is a flexible one which can sit as happily in a vibrant city centre as it can a university town such as Exeter or Canterbury.
It is a little confusing that the Glasgow hotel still bears the Arthouse name alongside that of ABode prominently above its doors, whereas the website makes little mention of the hotel's original identity. Perhaps ABode can be a brand subtle enough to share its billing with the original hotels' names - as in ABode Exeter (The Royal Clarence) or Abode Glasgow (The Arthouse). Either way, for the sake of clarity and consistency this is something ABode will need to address before they embark much further down the expansion route with their Canterbury launch. Regardless of the name above the door, in Glasgow, Plumtree Mee have shown a lightness of touch in the design that allows the original building to shine through whilst introducing elements that belong unmistakeably to ABode Hotels.
