"It’s 25 years since Nick Jones opened his first members’ club in London’s Soho. In that time his creation has evolved from sceney drinking den to harbinger of the most humming international hubs: this year, new outposts are due to open in Rome, Tel Aviv, Paris, and Austin. And the juggernaut doesn’t stop there—there are now Beach Houses, Little Houses, Farmhouses (next: upstate New York) and Warehouses (just-opened DTLA), beach bars and nail bars, co-working spaces, and a homeware line. When the Istanbul hotel opened in 2015, it confirmed the city’s status as head-turning creative force—reopened cultural institution SALT Beyoğlu and the temporary home of the Istanbul Modern are both nearby. The building—an ornate 19th-century palazzo, all marble and frescoes—is pretty head-turning, too, and bedrooms occupy a glass annex, tricked out in the brand’s instantly identifiable style with a Turkish twist. As with all Soho Houses, the perk of staying over is access to the members’ clubhouse where the cool crowd gather poolside, the DJ laying tracks over the call to prayer from mosques that spike the skyline like candles on a birthday cake. Nowhere is the juxtaposition between old and new, East and West, more intoxicating, and staying here captures it at its most immediate." - Fiona Kerr
