Spice Girls Suite: What it’s like to reenact the ‘Wannabe’ video at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London

As the Spice Girls’ tour kicks off, Clare Vooght checks into the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London – location of the ‘Wannabe’ video – for a themed stay

If someone invited you to re-enact one of the most famous moments in British pop history, would you tell them Goodbye or Say You’ll Be There?

Those in the latter camp can now relive Girl Power on the staircase where the Spice Girls filmed their “Wannabe” video – with a pro photographer shooting their every Posh pout, Sporty high-kick and Nineties peace sign – at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London.

In its interim life as the abandoned Midland Grand, the hotel served as a filming location for movies including Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Bridget Jones’s Diary, as well as the video for the world’s biggest-selling single by any girl group, ever: “Wannabe”.

And 23 years later, as the Spice Girls reunite for a UK stadium tour, the hotel has launched a Wannabe Suite Package featuring an overnight stay in a suite, a themed cocktail-making class and a private photo shoot on the iconic staircase.

So I got some friends together to try out the experience and relive those childhood Spicemania dreams. And while I wouldn’t say I’m a superfan, if you had told nine-year-old me she’d grow up to re-enact the “Wannabe” video with her mates in the hotel it was filmed in, she would have lost her mind.

Stop: First impressions

On arrival in the Chambers Grand Junior Suite there’s a plate of five pastries, decorated with caramel and various shades of pink icing, each one representing a different Spice character: pink sprinkles for Baby, leopard print decoration for Scary and so on.

Posing on the staircase... (Sam Lane Photography)

The suite itself is plush and roomy, with a Victorian-meets-modern design (fireplaces, coving, high ceilings, contemporary art prints and a jagged gold-framed mirror). The junior suite sleeps up to three, but if you (really really, really) want to take part as a gang of five, you can book another room.

The package also gives you access to the hotel’s Chambers club, serving complimentary food and drink all day, including afternoon tea and pre-dinner canapes. Wine and beer are free between 3pm and 10pm – which I’d have definitely indulged in, if there hadn’t been cocktails on the way.

2 Become 1: The mixology class

Bartender Joao, from the hotel’s Booking Office bar, is on hand to Spice Up Your Life with a half-hour cocktail-making session from a portable bar cabinet set up by the staircase, stocked with glassware, spirits and a signed picture and Spiceworld gold disc for decoration.

...and more posing (Sam Lane Photography)

We’re making the five cocktails from the Re-Spiced menu – all available in the hotel’s Booking Office bar and each created with a different member of the group in mind. Joao uses some unique ingredients and nifty equipment, so we even learn some new bar skills.

Ginger Kick is a summery mix of Aperol, Campari, citrus and ginger beer, while edible chocolate “grass” and a chewing gum football top the gin-based Good Sport. A super-sweet coconut Baby Colada non-alcoholic cocktail is garnished with mini-marshmallows and served in a blue sugar-coated glass, and the Bloody Scary is a deliciously smoky, chilli-infused mezcal with Bold London Spirit and strawberry puree.

The Ginger Kick – just what Geri would’ve wanted (Clare Vooght)

And since Victoria Beckham won’t be there for the tour, they nearly made hers just an empty glass, but in the end went for a fitting mix of citrus vodka, elderflower and gold leaf. The result, Posh on the Rocks, is served over ice that’s been shaped into a perfect sphere in a brass mould (the discovery of this contraption really spiced up my life).

Joao makes each cocktail for us to try, before teaching us to make another one each of our choice. For me, it’s the Mel B cocktail – the Bloody Scary. It’s smoky, sweet and moreish, and its chickpea-based aquafaba topping comes out a bit like canned cream. Aside from the Baby Colada, they’re all quite strong. And if you’re not used to being the subject of a photo shoot – which none of us are – I’d say drinking them is the best way to prepare.

Something Kinda Funny: The shoot

Getting ready to swing it, shake it, move it, make it on the stairs involves a rummage through a 1990s treasure box of Spice Girls props. This is definitely the best bit: there’s a leopard-print scarf, a fluffy pink Emma Bunton-style headband, some inflatable microphones, a Mel C baseball cap, a huge Union Jack flag, masks of all five members, a ginger wig and some sequined Geri-esque Union Jack heels, which my friend heroically totters up the steps in.

And said staircase area in the restored five-star hotel looks a lot like it did in the video – the same Minton tiles, stone columns, red-and-gold wallpaper and churchy, gothic windows. You can definitely picture yourself in the scene here.

The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, formerly the Midland Grand hotel (St Pancras Renaissance)

So the next half-hour is filled with good, clean 1990s fun, as we mess about striking poses in various combinations of attire from the props box, breaking out a few high-kicks and peace signs, safe in the knowledge that our memories will Viva Forever in photographic form.

Travel essentials

The Wannabe Suite Package is available during summer 2019 at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London, for £659. stpancraslondon.com