Wonderland sits down with Broadwick Soho’s Joshua Gardner and Andrea Gelardin to discuss how their journey—from a tight-knit group of friends to business partners, alongside owner Noel Hayden—laid the foundation for one of the creative crowd’s new favourite haunts in Soho.
Designers, painters, musicians, journalists. It doesn’t take long after stepping into Broadwick Soho’s maximalist, opulent, and vibrant lobby designed by Martin Brudnizki to realise you’ve entered a creative haven. Every detail feels meticulously orchestrated—the silky sheer of the drapery seamlessly blending into the wall-coverings, breathtaking chandeliers casting just the right glow over rooms where no surface is left unadorned, leopard print accents and gilded finishes pimping up everything from mirror frames to door handles. Nestled in the heart of Soho since November 2023, the hotel is a portal into a fantasy-filled world that feels plucked from a children’s book… or a particularly fantastic dream. And fittingly, that’s exactly where this story begins.
Inspired by his upbringing in his family’s hotel in the seaside town of Bournemouth, owner Noel Hayden enlisted his closest friends to bring to life what would soon become one of London’s most coveted addresses, perched on the corner of Broadwick Street and Berwick Street, in Soho. Fuelled by the neighbourhood’s electric energy, Broadwick Soho is more than a boujee overnight stay—it’s a destination in its own right. Michelin-starred meals, glitz-drenched encounters, and a creative hub that plays host to live music events, industry panels, and art exhibitions. Some might say business and friendship don’t mix, but this group of entrepreneurs is here to prove otherwise.
“[It’s] a deeply personal project for all of us,” says Managing Director Josh Gardner, sitting down with Wonderland. “I always say, the story of Broadway Soho is a story of friendship and family and love and desire to just do something incredible.” The idea was born in 2012, following Hayden’s decision to sell one of his tech businesses and found himself “in a position where he started dreaming about bringing back the family hotel, as a way to honour his parents and the family history,” Gardner tells. The location was a no-brainer, a neighbourhood he’s fallen in love with since moving to London at the age of 13, following the dissolution of the family business. “At the time, he sat down with Jo [Ringestad], one of his closest friends, shared the idea, and then more friends came into the mix, myself and Andrea [Gelardin] included, with Jamie [Poulton]. And it started from there, really.”
The new location was built from scratch — and from bulldozing an old building in the heart of the city to staffing, operating the business and picking the teaspoons that adorn the Hotel’s silverware, every decision is, to this day, made in-house, by the same group of friends. What’s the secret to such success? I can’t help but ask. “Honestly, this is the God-honest truth: we’ve never had massive disagreements on anything,” says Gardner. “We’re remarkably aligned on what we’re trying to do. We’re lucky to have Noel, he’s an incredible owner, and he is all about this being a true family business. He’s done this because he wanted to make his parents proud, and I think we all do it because we want to make Noel proud. We have an amazing team, an incredible culture, there’s no big corporate, no policy procedures, no mythical head officers or anything like that. And if we’ve not been aligned on things, Noel’s the kind of guy who’s like, ‘Right, well, let’s sit around a table and talk about it until we come to a consensus’. That’s kind of how we roll”.
And while some might think that their close bond could be a business’s kryptonite, it’s arguably the very thing that makes the hotel’s success feel so effortless. “Usually, [these conversations] also come with a lot of sense of humour, which I personally love,” adds Gelardin, Broadwick Soho’s Creative Director. “Noel has a wonderful sense of humour, and people who visit the hotel often comment on how much they like that we, as individual personalities, get expressed through the creative representation of the hotel. There’s a sense of not taking things too seriously and this fun that Soho is all about.”
Having recently celebrated the first year of operations, much has changed from the initial scrabbles that turned the hotel into one of the city’s most coveted spots. “We had a very clear vision of what we thought the project was going to be. We knew we were opening something that was at the luxury end of the business. But we soon realised that the market decided that we were going to be even cooler than we thought we were going to be,” says Gardner with a laugh. “We had a few little things in advance of opening, Andrea came up with this incredible wide postering campaign which went global, where we shared these amazing [imageries] based on old magic posters including a Houdini poster for his disappearing elephant act. And that had a huge impact on our opening.”
At Broadwick Soho, five-star quality, consistency, and service collide with the energy of a sticky, wine-drenched, lived-in dance floor—do you see the vision? Forget the sterile, unapproachable, showroom-perfect feel of a typical luxury stay. There are no membership fees or dress codes in these corridors. Instead, they pulse with art and life, a project that exists for something greater than just another addition to an already oversaturated hospitality scene. “I think the fact that the five of us are here and so involved, allows us to adapt to things very quickly,” Gardner shares. “We speak constantly. We’re incredibly open to change. We’ve had to make a lot of pivots as we’ve gone through the first six months. Now, I think we’re stabilising. We’ve found our feet. We know what we are. And we’re comfortable in what we are.”
Building a business in the heart of Soho means embracing the community and the rich history that comes with it. Broadwick Soho’s debut coincided with a sort of renaissance in the area—one that’s drawing the creative, fashion-forward crowd back to the city’s core. Nestled among skyscrapers, Tesco Expresses, and Pret À Mangers, the hotel carves out its own distinctive corner. From the British Fashion Council and the V&A to the British Museum and Frieze London, its collaborations and event partners are as meticulously chosen as its teaspoons—yet another detail that cements its founders, a group of friends turned visionaries, as industry trailblazers.
“We want to use our platform in Soho for good,” Gardner tells me. “We think very hard and carefully. We don’t do anything on the fly, we really consider things and if it’s going to be meaningful and impactful. We care deeply, and it extends to all aspects of our business, which is hugely personal to us,” he continues. “When things don’t go quite right, it’s a huge blow for us. We take it personally because we really want it to be amazing.” And let’s just say—they’ve more than delivered.
For more information about Broadwick Soho Hotel, visit this link.
Broadwick Soho
Words – Sofia Ferreira
