When we think of Manhattan’s infamous Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street most people immediately think of its glamorous old days when it was home to the bohemian and notorious, to some of our greatest great poets, painters and punks. It was of course home to William S. Burroughs, Janis Joplin and Sid Vicious.
But would it surprise you to know that nowadays it is a haven of family life, and the family home of increasingly popular and extremely talented Irish novelist and lawyer Joseph O’Neill and his equally talented wife Sally Singer, the fashion news editor at Vogue magazine, and their three charming sons. Living on the eighth-floor their family suite is a lovely skillful and tasteful mix of glamour and domesticity.
What a seriously cool place to live and raise a family. For the three boys who are aged from 2 to 5, photos show them racing their little bikes down the hallway of not forgotten elegance.
"The whole place is magical," O'Neill says of it now. "It's a whole kind of story unto itself. You're in this village; you have a village life in the middle of the city, and the villagers are friendly and fascinating."
And often, of course, famous; while the O'Neills have lived there, Didi Ramone, Debbie Harry and Ethan Hawke have been among their co-residents. Not that O'Neill was on morning coffee terms with any of them; his favourite Chelsea story centres around the time he and baby Malachy were invited over for a cuppa by the late playwright Arnold Weinstein, who lived across the hall, and ended up spending the evening with Arthur Miller and friends.
But the Chelsea is "just a really basic, authentic place" for O'Neill and his family, he says; it's just home.
Read more in the NYT.....
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