Virgin Hotels comes to London on 1st August as Mondrian Shoreditch rebrands

Well, here’s a surprise.

Virgin Hotels is coming to London with the opening of Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch on 1st August.

With the opening date so close, this can only mean one thing …..

This is not a new hotel. It will be a rebrand of the Mondrian Shoreditch London hotel, which is currently part of Accor Live Limitless.

Of course, the Mondrian Shoreditch London hotel is itself a rebrand.

The site opened as private members club The Curtain, which slipped into receivership in September 2020. It survived less than three years, proving that an expensive PR campaign counts for nothing if your underlying product is wrong.

Accor saw an opportunity to revive the Mondrian brand, which was originally used on what is now the Sea Containers London hotel (review here). It clearly didn’t work as planned, and this is now the second Mondrian-branded hotel to fail in London.

Whilst I think the location is poor (by East London standards) the key selling point of the property is the rooftop pool – see image above. It is relatively small when you see it in the flesh, however, and is not a patch on, say, the rooftop pool at New York’s original Soho House. The London weather probably didn’t help either …..

The hotel is still bookable on the Mondrian website until the end of July so it will literally be an overnight rebranding to Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch. It will clearly take some time for the signature elements of Virgin Hotels to be incorporated.

There is no formal points redemption scheme in place with Virgin Red and Virgin Hotels, but we have seen one-off points promotions for specific hotels. Hopefully we will see something appear for this new property, if only to bump up occupancy in the early months.

The hotel is showing on the Virgin Hotels website but is not yet bookable.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.