TIME SLIP IN GEORGIA

Once a central post office, now the hottest new stay in Tbilisi: EDIDA winner Neri&Hu restores The Telegraph hotel and ELLE DECOR India checks in

- PRATISHTHA RANA

Some could argue that time slip is a real phenomenon in Georgia, the transcontinental country that oddly shares not one but two continents, East Europe and West Asia.

I'd say it is true, but as an abstract idea of course. Arriving at The Telegraph Hotel in the capital city Tbilisi feels like a time slip, too. In its past life in the 1960s' when Georgia was a member of the Soviet Union, the hotel used to be a central Post & Telegraph office where letters, telegrams and official decrees would flow in and out.

Today, the hotel still holds on to its gritty, monolithic rawness from inside, albeit stylish – concrete pillars, layered bricks, barely ornamented walls and an industrial charisma. Restored by EDIDA winners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu alongside the founder of Silk Hospitality, George Ramishvili, The Telegraph stands at the historic, political centre of Rustaveli Avenue (named after Georgia's national poet Shota Rustaveli), at a walkable distance from landmarks like the Parliament, Supreme Court, national theatre, opera house and Freedom Square.