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Where Great Eastern Street meets Old Street, a circular glass building now stands where Red Gallery once did. I used to party there, back when this stretch of Shoreditch felt rougher round the edges and a lot less polished, dancing to legendary DJs like Andy Weatherall in the open air venue. When art’otel London Hoxton arrived, there were the usual grumbles about gentrification, as there always are round here. But the area needed a hotel, and to its credit, art’otel London Hoxton has built something genuinely artistic on the site of the gallery space, rather than simply deleting what came before it.

Original graffiti by Banksy and Eine has been preserved on site, a nod to what this corner of Shoreditch used to be. The hotel itself is stuffed with contemporary art and huge art installations, including a giant brush, by local street artist, D*Face outside The Brush restaurant, run by the Hoxton Hotel Group.

The restaurant is an easy, central spot with a split personality. Sit on the terrace and you get the buzz of Shoreditch on one side, screened off by greenery on the other, so it’s busy and secluded at once. Inside, the ceilings are high and the room has the loose, comfortable feel of a proper brasserie.

I went to try the new summer brunch on a Sunday. I’m a fan of unadulterated food. I always say, if the ingredients are good, there’s no need to dress them up. The Brush gets this right. We tailored the classics to suit and there was no objections from the kitchen. I had a cheese omelette with mushrooms on the side; my plus one went for smoked salmon on toast with avocado. Both simple, both nicely proportioned and presented.

The centrepiece of their menu is Cake in a Pan — fluffy savoury pancakes with toppings that read more restaurant mains than brunch fare: peri peri chicken on corn pancakes, oxtail on sweet potato pancakes with pickled red onion and a poached egg, maple pork belly with chilli and chorizo jam, bratwurst sausage with caramelised onion. There’s a sweet version too, red berries and mascarpone, for anyone not ready to commit to oxtail for brunch. Alongside that sits The French Call It Toast — brioche loaded with combinations like truffle honey, peach and vanilla ice cream, or gorgonzola with poached pear and hot honey granola.

We went the more traditional route on the day, tailoring the classics: my cheese (minus the ham) omelette and my plus one’s smoked salmon minus scrambled eggs. The staff were more than happy to accommodate our bespoke requests.

At £35 per person, the deal gets you one main and a bottomless pitcher for an hour — a genuinely good run considering the choice on offer: Pimms, Aperol, Strawberry Margarita, Elderflower Spritz, or Coalition Beer.

It’s good value for this part of London. We opted for a Pinot Noir alongside. I foolishly didn’t take the name, but it was the smoothest I’ve had in some time.

One tip if you’ve got a spare twenty minutes after eating: leave the restaurant by the far side of the building rather than back the way you came. Because it’s circular, the two sides connect, and the escalators up to reception are an art installation in themselves — genuinely striking visuals the whole way up. The hotel is worth wandering on its own terms; there’s enough art and design packed into the place that it earns a look even if you’re not staying the night.

The Brush — East London Grand Café & Cocktail Bar, art’otel London Hoxton, Shoreditch
Brunch — Saturday & Sunday, 12pm–4pm. £35pp for one main and a bottomless pitcher for one hour.