Photography and film for The Hoxton Lloyd, Amsterdam — part of the brand's global Taste the City campaign. Produced in collaboration with Compendia.

I was commissioned by The Hoxton Hotel to produce photography and film for their global Taste the City campaign, with the Lloyd property in Amsterdam as the base. The Hoxton has been one of my favourite hospitality brands for years — being invited onto the campaign was something of an honour. The work ran across four days in February 2026, capturing the hotel as both a place to stay and a culinary destination, and the surrounding eastern docklands as the neighbourhood it sits inside.

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The Hoxton / Ennismore
The Hoxton Lloyd, Amsterdam
February 2026
Photography, film, co-direction

The brief

Taste the City is The Hoxton's global campaign positioning each property as both a stay and a culinary destination, rolling out across Amsterdam, London, Rome, Florence, Berlin, and Paris.

The brief from the Lloyd team was specific. Show the hotel as warm, bright, and social. Lean on natural light. Prioritise movement and lived-in moments over staged ones. Centre Breman — the hotel's rooftop restaurant — with their new menu launching in March: the breakfast buffet, brunch, lunch, dinner, coffee and drinks, a seasonal cocktail, and the hero dish. Two films and a stills package, delivered for The Hoxton's paid social rollout across multiple platforms.

One part of the brief I particularly enjoyed: an emphasis on sound design. Ambient ASMR layered through the films, no voiceover, sound effects woven through to elevate the viewing experience. New territory for me, and one of the more interesting craft challenges of the shoot.

Compendia came in as the production partner. Decca Faire was on-camera talent and co-directed with me — a properly collaborative shape rather than the usual single-lead model.

The work

Four days on the ground in Amsterdam. Two cameras for the video work, plus a 35mm point-and-shoot running in parallel — film stills that we wove back into the films as overlays, giving the edits an authentic travel-photography feel rather than the polished hotel-campaign look.

Day one was the hotel itself — the Lloyd lobby and exterior, the rooms, the corridors at the quiet end of the morning, check-in moments and Breman. Day two was the food story — breakfast buffet, brunch sequences, the hero dish from Breman's new menu, the seasonal cocktail, plates moving through the pass. Day three moved into the neighbourhood.

The work needed to read as lived-in. Guests do this hotel; they don't pose in it. So the approach was reportage with a stylist's eye — Decca moving through the spaces at the natural pace of someone staying there, the camera following rather than directing. Available light throughout. The 35mm film stills carried the warmth and the texture; the digital video carried the pace.

Credits & collaborators Production · Compendia · Co-direction and on-camera talent · Decca Faire · Client team · The Hoxton Lloyd, Amsterdam

The result

The campaign was published as part of The Hoxton's paid social rollout, running as ads across multiple platforms. The client team were happy with the work, and following the commission, conversations have opened around other properties for future projects.

The Hoxton Lloyd is a hotel in Amsterdam's eastern docklands, housed in the former Lloyd Hotel building on Oostelijke Handelskade. It is part of The Hoxton, the open-house hotel brand under the Ennismore group.
The eastern docklands at Oostelijke Handelskade 34, around ten minutes from Amsterdam Centraal by tram or bike.
Breman is The Hoxton Lloyd's restaurant, serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks. The new menu launched in March 2026, with seasonal cocktails and a rotating hero dish.
The Hoxton's global campaign positioning each property in the group as both a stay and a culinary destination, rolling out across Amsterdam, London, Rome, Florence, Berlin, and Paris.
Sam Harrons, on commission from The Hoxton Lloyd, with Compendia as production partner and Decca Faire co-directing.
Sam Harrons is an editorial and event photographer based between Norwich and London, working internationally for hotel groups and hospitality brands including The Hoxton, Inhabit, Locke, 25hours, and 1 Hotel. Commissions cover stills, short-form film, food and drink photography, neighbourhood guides, and social content for hospitality.

About the photographer

Sam Harrons is a Norwich-based interdisciplinary creative working internationally across photography, filmmaking, art direction, and brand-building since 2012. Selected clients include The Hoxton, Inhabit, 25hours, 1 Hotel, Naturalmat, Aesop, Lavenham, Bellroy, Plumo, and 3daysofdesign. He founded Compendia, a design-led editorial platform and content studio.