The Morrison, Dublin, Ireland
The Morrison 4 Stars
“Calm, contemporary rooms are combined with buzzing public spaces in this John Rocha creation – ideal for its central location.”
Hotel Overview
Review of The Morrison, by The TI Review Team
Since it opened back in 1999 with a dramatic "East Meets West" concept from designer, John Rocha, The Morrison has had a reputation to maintain as one of the coolest faces on the Dublin hotel scene. And uphold it very much manages to do...
The facilities
Location-wise, The Morrison is pretty hard to beat: bang on the Liffey, a two-minute stroll across Ha'penny Bridge from the Temple Bar. Having passed through its sleek, modern exterior, the first thing that greets you is a cavernous entrance hallway of sombre white and deep mahogany.
The Morrison has a couple of chic, beautifully appointed bars: the Café Bar, in particular, was ideal for grabbing a quick bite while sitting and watching Dublin's style set go about its business. Its restaurant, Halo, rustles up a winning combination of modern European fare and classic Irish ingredients; like everything else about The Morrison, its atmosphere manages to toe a nice line between relaxed and stylish.
The rooms
The Morrison's 141 rooms and suites are reached through dimmed mauve corridors, making the place seem in perpetually stylish twilight. Fresh fruit and a gratefully received cup of tea awaited us in ours - a spacious attic annex with views out over the river, and slanted ceilings decorated in a retro/pop-arty flourishes, with two large Warhol-style paintings of Hendrix and the eponymous James Morrison.
High-end gadgets and toys line every surface: alongside the usual safe, minibar, and tea/coffee making facilities, there are Apple Macs (with 30-inch LCD screen), complimentary broadband access and iPod docking stations to make the most of; there are even hair-straighteners for the ladies.
Bathrooms were on the large side (bigger, in fact, than some hotel rooms I've stayed in!) with a bath of which Cleopatra would have been proud, a host of Molton Brown goodies, soothing aromatherapy toiletries, comfy bathrobes and slippers.
The service - made up largely of Ireland's ever growing Eastern European service sector army - was, from a 'blink and you missed it' check-in, unceasingly professional. More importantly, though, it was also friendly: seduced by its impeccable location into a 3am Sunday morning return, we were greeted by a surprisingly cheerful doorman.
Facilities
Come for...
- Fun weekends in Dublin
- Stylish lobby which is always buzzing
- Good location on the north bank of the Liffey
Not Suitable for...
- Perfections, who won't like the rough edges and wear and tear
- Romantic weekends - it's more groups of friends than couples
Children
Children can stay at the luxury hotel, but there are no family-friendly services.
Eating in
Brasserie-style menus in served in Halo until 10 p.m.; a tapas menu available until later and bar stays open later still. There's a 24-hour room service menu.
The Press Say
"The fusion restaurant, Halo, lowered its prices and shed its former pretensions for a more rustic look and cuisine, and a spa is planned. But the cool décor, with accompanying attitude, remains." New York Times 06
"...the chicest, most luxurious and modern city centre hotel." The Times 06
Reviews
Review of The Morrison, by Angela Moore
The Morrison is a striking contemporary luxury hotel, perfectly positioned just over the Liffey from Temple Bar in Dublin- near enough to walk back from the clubs, far enough away to not hear the noise. Interiors are fantastically flamboyant, and so they should be: fashion guru John Rocha had the last word on every detail.
The lobby of the luxury hotel is a large, airy, open-plan space, extending up a short flight of stairs into a lounge bar and two restaurants. The Morrison is vaguely Indonesian in style, with lots of handsome dark wood and marble against the cream walls. Exotic mahogany sculptures are dotted here and there, as are other artifacts (a canoe, a wooden trunk); enormous gilt mirrors lean up against the walls. Upstairs in the luxury hotel, blue-lit corridors are built with strange perspectives to complete the illusion. The restaurant, Halo, has been reworked and the café/bar has been extended to create extremely trendy spaces for cool young Dubliners who don't mind the occasional crack in the veneer.
Boasting 121 rooms, the luxury hotel's spacious standard rooms have soothing palettes of grey and chocolate brown and there are luxurious touches in the Frette linens and velvet throws. The Georgian rooms overlooking the Liffey are rather more like mini-suites, with teak floors and hand-painted throws and cushions. Bathrooms, behind cool curved walls, are large, with big baths and separate showers, plenty of Molton Brown and hair-straighteners for party girls and la crème de la cool, Apple entertainment systems.