How California’s city within a city transformed global culture

A vintage swimming pool framed by dainty pink and cream umbrellas glows under the California sunlight, on the edge of a cliff that overlooks the gleaming sprawl of Los Angeles. Behind, rows of tables on a terrace play host to fashion editors and TV agents, a smattering of locals, and yes, even a celebrity or two, eager to drink, dine, and see-or-be-seen at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood.

It’s hard to imagine a place that better encapsulates the past, present and future of a city that has almost accidentally eclipsed the larger one that surrounds it on all sides. The Tower has become an unmissable destination for anyone visiting West Hollywood, and more specifically, the Sunset Strip, a central throughline and erstwhile anchor for the city’s chequered history.

“The fantasy of ‘old Hollywood’ is very powerful and there’s nowhere better to experience this than West Hollywood,” says Jeff Klein, Sunset Tower’s current owner. “In my opinion, West Hollywood, unlike everywhere else, only gets better and better.”

Klein, the canny hotelier who rescued a then-dilapidated hotel in 2004 and recast it as a beacon of timeless cool, thinks the many different eras of West Hollywood all hold a certain charm. “I’ve always been obsessed with the city between 1929 and the 1960s,” he says. “The nightclubs such as Ciro’s and restaurants such as Chasen’s – even the 1977 Sunset Strip era intrigues me.”

From its lowly beginnings as Sherman, an unincorporated strip of land next to a railyard, to a lawless stretch between pockets of civilisation in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, West Hollywood has become a real hub of nightlife, hotels and restaurants in Los Angeles. Except for the fact that it isn’t technically in Los Angeles – it’s a separate entity entirely, and even resisted multiple early attempts to be folded into the city proper.

Indeed the two-mile tract along what became Sunset Boulevard wasn’t under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department, which led to a contingent of legal loopholes for speakeasies, brothels and casinos to set up shop. Bars and clubs were safe havens for gay and lesbian couples.

A century later, this early reputation as a haven for the queer community has remained a defining feature of the small but mighty city. Other neighbourhoods have come and upped, but WeHo, as it’s known, retains a certain appeal.

“West Hollywood is so small, but it’s so big,” said Genevieve Morrill, who has served as the president of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for 14 years. “It covers 1.9 square miles and there are 20 hotels within that, and more in the works. West Hollywood’s number one economic feeder has always been tourism.”

This city has always existed on a boom and bust cycle. Favoured by an old Hollywood crowd in the 1920s and 1930s, West Hollywood went through a downturn after the Great Depression, before it was boosted back up again by rock stars in the Sixties and Seventies, who turned the Sunset Strip into an electric current running through the city. Before the rockstar era, there was an additional downturn, in the 1950s, when bloody feuds between rival gangs flooded the area with violence, and the popularity of Las Vegas as a new hub for gambling drew crowds away.

Another resurgence, after the recession in the Nineties, indicates that the city’s popularity is here to stay. West Hollywood established its own chamber of commerce as far back as 1921, but never formally coalesced as a city until much later, in 1984. That means it’s only now celebrating its 40th anniversary, even if the history of the place runs much deeper. Even proximity to West Hollywood is enough to tap into some of its caché.

The storied Chateau Marmont, a hotel that’s perhaps most closely associated with the allure of West Hollywood, is technically a block or two outside the city limits. Of course, back when Chateau Marmont opened in 1929, West Hollywood didn’t exist – the hotel predates it. Yet, the Chateau was built exactly where it was precisely because of a proximity to Hollywood, but also because it was slightly removed.

“Other Hollywood hotels have great claims to history, but among them all, Chateau Marmont has most perfectly mirrored its setting, and its setting has long been one of the shining mirrors of the culture of the entire world,” writes Shawn Levy in his exhaustive history of the hotel, The Castle On Sunset.

Additionally, the Chateau’s reputation for discretion has persisted through the tabloid, paparazzi and Instagram eras, defining this sanctuary as a rare keeper of secrets. To this day, it remains an exclusive haven for celebrities, dignitaries and other cultural figures.

At the other end of the spectrum, new hotels continue to open, ready to forge a mythology of their own. Short Stories Hotel opened in 2022, a few blocks shy of West Hollywood’s official border. This beautifully restored boutique property is near the Original Farmer’s Market and The Grove shopping centre.

Owner Leo Grifka says he’s drawn to historic, beautiful buildings that haven’t received the attention they deserve. As a native Angeleno, Grifka has witnessed the ups and downs of West Hollywood and Hollywood firsthand, and notes that development in the area over the last decade has changed a lot.

“The city is almost unrecognisable from 10 years ago,” he says. “The bar has been raised. Hoteliers and large investment companies are coming in and creating these big beautiful properties. Many of these include rooftops with views of the entire city. From a hotel perspective, rates have also steadily increased over that time. Globally, it feels like tourists have recognised what West Hollywood and Hollywood have to offer.”

One of those newer rooftops can be found at the West Hollywood Edition, a magnificent floor-to-ceiling new-build on the Sunset Strip that debuted in late 2019.

The towering property also features a plant-forward restaurant on the ground floor, Ardor, as well as a basement club, Sunset, curated by Gregory Alexander, founder of the legendary A Club Called Rhonda party. Sunset is known for booking DJs and artists who create an environment that effortlessly blends the queer history of the area with traditional nightlife.

It’s almost impossible to understate the influence of West Hollywood’s nightlife culture on the global scene. The recent influx of luxury hotels in the city is precisely because visitors want to be close to those all-night parties, rock and roll clubs that still embody a hint of rebellion, and restaurants where a concealed door just might give way to a hidden speakeasy.

West Hollywood is, as Levy declared, a shining mirror of culture, and everyone wants to get a glimpse of themselves in the reflection – preferably living out an extraordinary fantasy. “We like to say ‘what happens in West Hollywood doesn’t stay in West Hollywood’”, says Morrill.

Essentials

Sunset Tower Hotel offers doubles from £369, Short Stories Hotel offers doubles from £342. For more information see visitwesthollywood.com and discoverlosangeles.com.