Mr & Mrs Smith

No sooner than they’d conquered Manchester with their cluster of luxurious serviced apartments, the team at Staying Cool turned their attention to the UK’s second city, the newly resurgent Birmingham. The Rotunda – the landmark cylindrical tower that looms over the city’s equally iconic Bullring Bullring – is lucky to be here. One of those rare pieces of sixties architecture that wasn’t apparently designed to frighten children, the landmark edifice was nonetheless threatened with demolition in the 90s and left empty until 2004. Back then, it must have been hard to imagine that within four years the Rotunda would become the most enviable address in town.

Now, thanks to the efforts of architectural wizards Urban Splash and design doyens Staying Cool, the Rotunda’s apartments offers some of the most stylish self-catering stays going. Stayingcool have taken over the top two floors with 14 apartments and a rock-star luxurious penthouse – named Minis, Maxis, Clubmans and the Roadster in honour of the cars assembled down the road at Longbridge in the automotive heyday of the Sixties. Since that heady decade also brought the Rotunda itself into being, the Staying Cool team have skimmed the cream of sixties’ design and poured it into their interiors. You’ll find the bright, bold colours of the cushions and chairs accentuated by a silvery-slate base palette, and the elfin, Audrey Hepburn-esque faces of Nick Smith’s enormous photo-canvases gazing down on every room. Each apartment is packed with artful, eye-grabbing pieces – look out for Lou Rota’s fabulous polymorph chairs and Naughtone’s bespoke button sofas.

Tom Dixon’s remarkable felt-shaded lamps cast atmospheric patches of illumination on the toe-pleasing taupe carpets, but most of the apartments’ light, airy vibe is created by the vast floor-to-ceiling windows. These, dizzyingly, can be fully opened – a staggering 275 feet above the ground – with a glass rail in the room to prevent any terminal tumbles. If you’re lucky enough to be staying in the two-bedroom Roadster penthouse on the tower-topping 20th floor, you can fling open the windows onto a huge wrap-around balcony, where you can breakfast in the clouds or kick back on the rocking red loungers with a glass of chilled something, peering down at the antlike shoppers scurrying on the streets below. The view really comes into its own after the sun sets, when the cityscape sparkles with light – this is certainly not the Birmingham you might have been expecting.

The Bullring-side location couldn’t be better for those undergoing self-prescribed retail therapy, and if the ménage a trois of luxe shopping venues (the Bullring, the Mailbox, and pretty, canalside Brindley Place) proves too much of a challenge, Staying Cool can arrange a personal shopper to laser-guide you from Harvey Nicks to Hotel Chocolat and back again. One of Birmingham’s other architectural flagships, the shimmering, curvaceous Selfridges building, is just outside the Rotunda – handy when you want to nip to the food court to pick up supplies for a hedonistic breakfast of champagne and oysters.  

The city has also seen an explosion in fine dining in recent years. The Rotunda’s a few moments’ walk away from most of Birmingham’s most epicurean eateries (on our visit, we popped in to the dramatic-sounding Opus, and wobbled out delighted). Should Smiths’ own restaurant recommendations not fit the bill, you’ll find a list of cherry-picked eating establishments in the Staying Cool handbook in your apartment, which is stuffed with useful tips on everything from how to wring the perfect cappuccino out of the Baby Gaggia to how to elicit the perfect iTunes playlist from the preloaded Mac Mini. And, should you prefer to dine in à deux rather than brave the brasseries of Birmingham, you’ll find a spotless fully fitted Poggenpohl kitchen (complete with juicer and oranges), and a full compliment of condiments to help you concoct the ideal meal. In fact, given the apartments’ oh-so-slick ambience, head-swimming, city-sweeping vistas, cache of tech wizardry and everything-thought-of amenities, Staying Cool offers every excuse for staying in.

Reviewed by Anthony Leyton