Still rocking at 35

WE could always use Baby-cham," I said to my wife as we stood over the bath in our room at The Portobello Hotel this week. She looked unimpressed. I told her I'd be pushed to squeeze it through on expenses if we filled the bath with Krug.

We decided against it. She is six months pregnant, and this was a rare night without our 15-monthold daughter, so we ordered tea and watched EastEnders before dinner.

There was no such restraint in 1998 when actor Johnny Depp and his then girlfriend, model Kate Moss, reportedly filled their bath with champagne.

They allegedly returned to find the bath empty.

The maid thought it was wee. For the record, the story is poppycock, but the tale did wonders for the hotel's reputation.

Next week is the 35th anniversary of The Portobello. As befits a hotel that prides itself on discretion, the occasion will not be marked with pomp. But it should be noted. The champagne story bought the hotel to the attention of a new generation, but there is more substance to The Portobello than a marketing stunt. Aside from being the capital's most popular hotel for rock and film stars, the stucco- fronted property at 22 Stanley Gardens, a quiet street in Notting Hill, kickstarted the trend for "boutique" hotels.

You can't move for such establishments now but when The Portobello was founded in 1969, London hotels were split into two categories. One could stay at, say, The Savoy or The Dorchester or at tawdrier properties in Bayswater and Victoria.

The Portobello offered an alternative. Tim and Cathy Herring opened it and remain the owners.

They prefer to be out of the spotlight - the hotel's prominence is largely due to effervescent managing-partner, Johnny Ekperigin, who joined in 1988.

"When we opened we wanted to offer reasonably priced rooms that were homely," say the Herrings. The room rate in 1969 was Pounds 3. The hotel's designer was Julie Hodges, who gave her name to the legendary restaurant Julie's, in Portland Road, also owned by the same team.

So what's the secret of The Portobello's enduring charm? "People- don't see it as a hotel," says Ekperigin. "It's more like walking into a friend's house. We were the first to do that."

There has always been innovation. As far as I am aware, it was the first hotel to put goldfish in the rooms to help soothe guests.

The practice was fazed out when eight went missing. Some thought a rock star ate them.

"The aim of The Portobello was to fill the gap between big hotels and grotty ones, but not make it too fashionable so that it didn't have a shelf life," he adds.

Hotel rooms should, at least, be able to accommodate all private pleasures.

This might be having a long bath and watching TV in bed or having trysts with attractive strangers. But the best hotels encourage private pleasure, even acting as a catalyst for it. The Portobello was the first hotel in London to recognise this and couch it in seductive surroundings.

Its 24 rooms are all individual.

They are full of antiques, sumptuous furnishings and with a nod towards the oriental. Thankfully, the vogue for minimalism in hotels holds no truck with the Herrings or their guests.

Despite what many hoteliers believe, people would prefer not to stay in a room that resembles a dentist's surgery.

Our room, Number One, has a majestic red lacquer bed overlooking a small terrace with thousands of shells embedded into the wall. Several have freestanding Victorian baths with tangled copper tubing of a type Willy Wonka might invent.

Some can fit four people in. Alice Cooper kept a python in his and asked room service to provide mice for its lunch.

The most coveted room, and London's sexiest in a hotel, is Number Sixteen, with its round bed built for Cooper 30 years ago for Pounds 210. A replacement just cost Pounds 2,500. It has the finest From Page 67 damask linen and wallows in the smudged red opiumden like glow of lanterns.

"People want to be able to touch things in hotels. Not to be told what to do or have to whisper," says Ekperigin. They certainly take the latter on board.

We were woken at 3am by some happy sounding people. Frankly, I would have felt let down if I hadn't have been.

Incidentally, I say no harm was done after the champagne bath but that's not strictly true. Julia Carling, former wife of Will, was sent to repeat the episode for a newspaper.

The results, I am told, were extremely uncomfortable for her. Champagne has high acidity. Cleopatra's choice of asses' milk is more sensible.

. The Portobello Hotel. 22 Stanley Gardens, W11 2NG.

(020 7727 2777).

BOOK OF FAME

SO who's been staying at the Portobello Hotel?

Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Val Kilmer, Helena Bonham- Carter, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Joseph Fiennes, Minnie Driver, Brian Helgeland, Bono, Lisa Stansfield, Sheryl Crow, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Juliette Binoche, Kate Moss, Van Morrison, Keith Richards, Robert Palmer, Jon Bon Jovi, Neneh Cherry, Robert Carlyle, Tim Burton, Earl Spencer.

Just to name a few.

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