Karma Sanctum Soho

Karma Sanctum Soho was designed by music industry insiders as a hotel for their own kind, and the brief has never changed. Thirty rooms in two Georgian townhouses on Warwick Street, a Jimi Hendrix photograph behind reception and a rooftop terrace with a 24-hour bar, hot tub and retractable roof that is reserved for guests and members only. The hotel is part of the Karma Group’s wider network and has picked up the brand name in recent years without losing the original Sanctum personality — deliberately small, genuinely characterful and not for everyone.

The experience

The rooftop is where Karma Sanctum earns its reputation. Reserved for residents and members, it combines a retractable roof, an outdoor hot tub that runs all night, a fireplace for colder evenings, a 24-hour bar and a cabinet of Davidoff cigars into a space that feels genuinely exclusive without being pretentious about it. Below, Wild Heart Bar and Shokudo — a Japanese-inspired restaurant that describes itself as a collaboration between founder Mark Fuller and chef Gary Hollihead — serves casual small plates in a room with velvet sofas and blossom trees under a chandelier. A private cinema room holds up to 30 guests and can be booked for screenings or events.

The rooms

The 30 rooms are individually designed across five categories from compact doubles to the Junior Deluxe Loft Suite, which occupies the fifth floor and has its own private entrance directly onto the rooftop terrace. All rooms have Art Deco bathrooms, Egyptian cotton sheets, minibars, flat-screen TVs, air conditioning and soundproofed walls and doors. The black Art Deco bathrooms in the more distinctive room categories are a specific design choice that guests either love immediately or find takes adjustment. Entry-level rooms are genuinely small. The Loft Suite is the standout for any occasion that merits the step up.

Food and drink

Wild Heart Bar and Shokudo serves Japanese-influenced small plates for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a ground-floor room of velvet sofas, blossom trees and intimate booths. The menu runs from steamed dumplings and katsu curry to miso-glazed aubergine and seared sirloin. A Japanese-inspired afternoon tea is served on Saturdays and, for larger groups, on weekdays by arrangement. The rooftop bar operates 24 hours and serves cocktails alongside the views. Room service is available throughout the night.

The neighbourhood

Warwick Street sits between Regent Street and the heart of Soho, with Carnaby Street two minutes east and the full range of the neighbourhood’s bars, restaurants and theatres within easy walking distance. Piccadilly Circus Underground is a five-minute walk on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines. Oxford Circus is ten minutes north. Leicester Square is ten minutes east. The hotel’s position is calmer than the surrounding streets suggest, and the residents-only rooftop further reinforces that sense of hidden refuge.