younger and quirky Singapore boutique hotels pick with a clear luxury vibe and punching well above its class is the small but spacious and rustic chic The Warehouse Hotel with 37 keys in, what else, but a warehouse, dating back to 1895 on the Singapore River at Robertson Quay.

The building, now carefully restored, will have witnessed scenes of merry debauchery - illicit distilleries and opium trade - once rife in the area along with its merchants, secret societies and prostitutes cashing in on the 'international' action. The spacious timber-floor rooms are woody, minimalist and stark but not spartan, neat, and kitted out with see-through bathrooms, flat-screen televisions, free WiFi, Ashley & Co bath amenities and Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth speakers.

The lobby is a cavernous shed with deep leather sofas and a unique boutique-meets-business appeal. And for apres-work, there's a Singaporean speciality restaurant and a rooftop fishtank glass-side pool to see and be seen.

Robertson Quay, as the hotel rightly describes it, "is one of the only neighbourhoods in Singapore with a vibrant blend of residential and commercial offerings. It is walking distance to Clarke Quay and Boat Quay; and equidistant from the Central Business District and the Orchard Road shopping district. Its bustling riverside location makes it a natural food and beverage hub." This is not oversell at all.

The hotel's signature restaurant Po is inspired by Chef Willin Low and fuses a sense of modern Singapore with home-cooked aromas and settings. Sample the fresh popiah rolls, noodle soup, roast chicken, spicy rendang, barramundi salad, cold crab, or wonderfully prepared and plated king prawns and, later, savour bespoke cocktails at the Lobby Bar.

End your day with a 'Kopi Cat' salted caramel vodka, a 'BB King' banana whiskey, or a top-drawer Champagne. The Warehouse (which employs the definite article 'The' with pride) is a sensory old world experience redolent of history and sultry scenes of a bygone era. For modernists there's always WiFi.