From a bargain shop to a luxury hotel with one of the best rooftop terraces in Madrid

• Trends The Madrid hotel with a bowling alley and 30,000-euro mattresses that has been chosen as one of the ten best in the world

• History This is the oldest hotel in Madrid: from 10 pesetas a night to an urban oasis of glamor

People from all walks of life have walked and still walk down Calle Montera.

The corner with San Alberto that leads us to

is a particularly busy block.

Lovers of the seventh art made a pilgrimage to it, filling the halls of the Acteón, the multiplex cinema born in the 1990s. But before, and for four decades, it was the housewives who came to this corner of the bohemian street and sometimes loss of Madrid

They were the clients of the famous

, enthralled with their genre for "all pockets", according to the advertisements of the time.

The turns that the town gives.

For a few days, Madrid has a new luxury hotel at this address.

The Thompson Madrid has opened, the last five-star to settle just a few steps from kilometer zero.

Suddenly, Montera tastes of New York, although with many traditional touches.

To begin with, because the

group , an institution in the capital, deals with gastronomy.

The third hotel of the Hyatt brand also seduces with a sensational roof terrace, perhaps one of the best in the capital, with

over the

of the entire heart of Madrid, including Puerta del Sol and its emblematic clock, which gives us the chimes on New Year's Eve.

Madrid from the roof of the new hotel.

It has taken five years to transform this building, which has been completely redone.

"We have been fortunate to have very unique architecture and design teams, which have made the Thompson a destination

," explains Carlos Erburu, the hotel's general manager.

"We want the people of Madrid to be the main customer of this rooftop, of our restaurant spaces and of all the events we hold".

The role model is the original Thompson who rocked New York's SoHo back in the day.

His offspring from Madrid has begun to move to the cry of

to seduce fans of design, fashion, music and gastronomy.

All this merges without difficulty, in a natural way.

Being luxury, this is a hotel that

and that emphasizes that the visitor feels comfortable in its spaces.

A bakery inside the hotel

An example is The Omar, the

that fills the hotel with the smell of freshly baked dough and where every day, and at any time, you can go in to eat or take a baguette.

Another is found in the same

, where some retro travel trunks serve as reception.

"Have you ever arrived at a place that is so beautiful that you drop your bags and start looking directly? It is what we want to achieve here," explains Daniela Zocchi, the director of marketing.

The bistro-bakery.

The interior design of the lobby and the rooms is signed by the

.

The winks to the city are perceived in many details, for example in the corridors, which imitate the cobblestones of old Madrid.

There are many native materials, from leather to wood and marble are Spanish.

Also the staff uniforms, designed by

.

The hotel has 175 rooms (22 of them

) and a little gem: the imposing

that occupies

.

Carried out by Luisa Olazábal's architecture team, we are talking about 220 square meters spread over two floors and, once again, great views over Madrid.

For those of us who are not staying, and waiting for the rooftop restaurant to open next spring, the best way to taste the Thompson spirit is at

the

located on the ground floor of the building and with direct access from the street.

"A Toni2 (the mythical piano bar in Madrid) brought to the

style to show our most rogue and thug side," they say at the hotel.

It will be open until six in the morning.

One of the design 'suites'.

By the way, the hotel participates in the Open House Madrid architecture festival.

The curious who want to get to know him can do so tomorrow, Sunday 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

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