The Hotel Chelsea

Some of the rent at the Hotel Chelsea used to be paid in paintings. Stanley Bard, who ran it, would sometimes take a canvas from a resident who could not find the money, and art given that way still hangs on the walls. Philip Hubert built it on West 23rd Street in 1884, twelve storeys of red brick with iron balconies worked in flowers across the front, and it has since had Mark Twain and Janis Joplin under its roof. Patti Smith, another resident, loved "its shabby elegance". The renovation finished in 2022 kept the elegance and let the shabby go. One suite has stained glass over tall doors to its balcony and a purple velvet sofa with a fringe. In a dining room, painted cherubs carry garlands round the ceiling, above walls crowded with pictures.

Recommended for anyone who wants New York with its past still on the walls, and for families happy to trade a pool for the city: there are adjoining rooms and a Two Bedroom Suite, and the dog can come too. Guests who have stayed since the reopening find the art and the oddness intact. Chelsea's galleries and the High Line are a walk away. There is no need to go out for dinner: El Quijote, the Spanish restaurant, has been in the lobby since 1930 and saw out the renovation, and Teruko keeps a sushi bar downstairs. On the roof, a brick terrace edged with lavender sits under a slate gable, and the gym is in the Steeple, once a residence and an artist's loft, where nobody has yet offered to pay for a session in paintings.