It’s alway gin o’clock at the London Gin Hotel

 The Hotel

The Distillery, on Portobello Road, started life as the Ginstitute. Once upon a time it was nothing more than a tiny room above a diminutive Notting Hill drinking den, The Portobello Star. And was run by four impassioned ex-bartenders who pedalled their love of gin and flogged their new London Dry – Portobello Road – named after the road on which it was distilled.

Little did they know that gin would explode from Vodka’s shadow and take on behemoth-like proportions. But explode it has and gin’s resurgence has carried the once tiny Ginstitute to its grand new home: a four-storey gin palace on the site of an old London pub, just a few doors up from the Ginstitute’s original location on Portobello Road.

The Distillery houses two main bars: the Resting Room on the ground floor and GinTonica on the first floor (which is also a bright and light Spanish restaurant); 3 boutique bedrooms at the top of the building; and a gin distillery in the basement. It’s in the basement that you’ll find The Ginstitute – aka: a veritable University of Gin, with its History Room and Blending Room.

Getting there was a breeze: from Paddington station I took a tube to Ladbroke Grove, then walked the 10 mins to 186 Portobello Road.

The Ginstitute Experience

For £110 per person you can enjoy the ‘Ginstitute Experience’ in the underbelly of the Distillery. Pricey, maybe – but worth every penny. We checked into our room just after lunch with plenty of time to try the in-room complimentary G&T and negroni cocktail, before making our way downstairs for our gin experience at 7pm.

What followed was 3 – or was it 4 (I’m a little hazy) – hours of complete gin immersion.

First, we were whizzed through the history of gin in the cosy, wood-panelled History Room by our laid-back ‘ginstructor’ who really knew his gin timeline; our schooling lubricated with gin cocktails during ‘class’.

Next, came the alchemy lesson: a chance to blend our own gin with a base gin and a suite of botanicals on offer. Yes, we tasted nearly every one of the single-flavour distillates – from pink peppercorn to Yorkshire tea – to find the perfect 6-strong mix we wanted for our bespoke gin.

I plumbed for Lapsang Souchong, white pepper, cassia, and orris root, leaving me with a smoky-spiced gin that hit my sweet spot.

Once mixed, our individual gins were named – ‘Gincident’ seemed an appropriate title for mine – tried by the rest of the group to giggles of approval, then smartly labelled and bag up with another bottle of Portobello Gin and East Imperial Tonic Water (hello £50’s worth of free booze). This took my gin tally that evening to – well, let’s just say – impressive new heights.

Once gin school kicked out we staggered back upstairs with our DIY gins. But before heading to our gin-splashed room we made one more stop: the Resting Room, which was in full gin-swing, for a cheeky nightcap.

Red Snapper, anyone? And the main ingredient? You guessed it.

The cost: £150 for a double room overlooking Portobello Road. The Ginstitute Experience was £110 per person.

To book: Contact The Distillery to check availability.