London's grandest hotels: blue-ribbon rendezvous

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This was published 13 years ago

London's grandest hotels: blue-ribbon rendezvous

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They may lack New World swank but, for many, London's stately old hotels offer a once-in-a-lifetime peek into the lives of the privileged, writes Paul Edwards.

THIS is where the rich and famous sleep. Walk the corridors of London's grand hotels and you might see royalty, politicians, rock stars and celebrities shuffling off to their rooms just ahead of you. Prince Charles has danced on a piano played by Elton John, the Queen has done a conga, Mick Jagger has surveyed the talent and Bill Clinton has sampled the cellars.

Don't think you'll get a private beach, golf course or your own pool - these fine old establishments are pipped for glitz by the big properties in Dubai, Las Vegas and Shanghai. But in terms of hushed-voice reverence among savvy travellers, nothing compares with the grand stays of London Town.

It is simply not possible to enter a hotel such as London's Langham or the Ritz without a thrill of anticipation - their reception desks are, for many, the centre of the universe. Leisure travellers don't come to these places because they want a bed in London - they want a once-in-a-lifetime taste of extreme glamour.

The financial downturn has not been kind to these establishments; many were in the throes of hugely expensive refurbishments when the crisis struck. But all have refused to drop standards and are keeping a stiff upper lip, waiting for the good times to roll with the 2012 Olympics.

In the very best London hotels the efficiency is understated. Service is provided with style and good manners, complete with creaking floorboards. A chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce or Bentley is often part of the deal and if you simply can't manage without a butler, most hotels have their own version of Jeeves.

A bed doesn't come cheap - standard rooms start from £200 ($350) a night, average £700 for a suite and top out at the Langham's "biggest in London" suite at £7000 a night. Book a month ahead, however, and some will knock 20 per cent off the room rate. London's grand hotels are often eccentric and no two are alike. These 10 of the best are in no particular order.

Grosvenor House, Park Lane, Mayfair

A throwback to the 1930s. One of the central artworks here shows the Prince of Wales - later, briefly, King Edward VIII - looking like a lounge lizard as he watches the skaters on the hotel's ice rink, the talk of the town at the time. The Queen learnt to skate here, although it is now the Great Room, housing 2000 people for events such as the BAFTA and Olivier awards and said to be Europe's largest banqueting space.

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The sprawling Grosvenor claims to have 11.3 kilometres of corridors and has a wonderful position facing Hyde Park. Have a drink in the legendary Red Bar, where Jagger has been known to sink a few. Now a JW Marriott property, the 494-room hotel has rooms priced from £289.

www.marriott.co.uk.

St James's Hotel and Club, Park Place, St James's

In the swinging 1960s, this was an amazing place - a private club for film stars. Sir John Mills was the chairman and members included Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. Imagine the bread-roll fights that went on when that lot got on the grog. Today it is rather more sedate, as befits its German ownership and management, but celebs still check in, including Alice Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson and Elle Macpherson, while Charles and Camilla live nearby.

This hotel is a hidden treasure in the backstreets of clubland, just around the corner from Jermyn Street, where you'll find shops selling cufflinks and umbrellas. Seven Park Place is the fine-dining restaurant; William's bar and bistro has more affordable fare. Rooms are priced from £211.

www.stjameshotelandclub.com.

Brown's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Mayfair

Said to be the first purpose-built grand hotel in London, Brown's dates from 1837, is part of the Rocco Forte group and has had a £25 million refit. The location, just off Piccadilly in the heart of the jewellery and fashion precinct of lower Mayfair, is superb. Attentive staff usher you to Donovan Bar while room formalities are handled. Terence Donovan was a photographer who helped create swinging London; the eponymous bar is studded with his moody work. Nothing moody about the rest of this jolly, welcoming place, which has the finest beds and pillows you could wish for and serves a colossal English breakfast. Rooms are priced from £355.

www.brownshotel.com.

The Goring, Beeston Place, Belgravia

Owned and operated by the same family since 1910, this was the world's first hotel to have central heating and ensuite bathrooms. It's a gracious place befitting its location near Buckingham Palace.

Ask for a room overlooking the hotel's Mary Poppins-style garden and enjoy the huge shower, silk wall coverings and half-size sheep footrest. Exuberant, eccentric humour marks the hotel, with cartoons in every public room and a statue of the twinkle-eyed founder, thumbs tucked in waistcoat, watching the bustle in reception.

The dining-breakfast room is exquisite, the bar and lounge has fine wines and single malts and all in all this elegant middle-sized property is almost perfect. Someone should tell them that guests expect free in-room Wi-Fi connection. There, I did. Rooms are priced from £209.

www.thegoring.com.

The Milestone, Kensington Court, Kensington

This lesser-known gem is opposite Kensington Palace, the former home of Princess Diana. Agatha Christie springs to mind when you sashay into the exquisite, wood-panelled place with its polished brass and hunting pictures. The theme continues in suites, with their comfy armchairs, vast beds and antique furnishings.

Staff here are exceptional, giving the impression that they are paid enough to care about their hotel and its guests. At Cheneston's restaurant and the Stables bar, they love to trot out their offering of more than 400 vintage wines and they'll arrange a picnic in the gardens as quick as a flash. There's a chauffeur-driven limousine service, should you desire to leave the cosseted charms of this Grade 11-listed building. Rooms are priced from £225.

www.milestonehotel.com.

The Dorchester, Park Lane, Mayfair

The Grill Room at this fine hotel is like Braveheart's boudoir - all tartans, kilts and scarlet velvet, dreamt up to symbolise the Angus beef that is the masculine room's signature dish. Other than this possible taste transgression, this is a seriously swish hotel, centred on the long promenade that doubles as bar and restaurant.

A Stanhope suite has two bathrooms and a sitting room and you need a very pressing reason to go outside. Always recognised as grand, the Dorchester has a reputation for fine food, with three Michelin stars for its Alain Ducasse restaurant, where the tasting menu runs to about £115. A perfectly acceptable suite is priced from £760, while grander ones top the £5525 mark. For those on a budget, poor luvvies, standard rooms are priced from about £350.

www.thedorchester.com.

The Halkin, Halkin Street, Belgravia

Her Maj is just about your closest neighbour in this hi-tech getaway in a lovely little street behind Buckingham Palace. Behind its Georgian facade, this smallish establishment oozes style and elegance. Design is uber-chic, with curving corridor walls, furnishings that veer towards the minimalist, light and shower fittings and entertainment/communications systems that need a moment's study before you operate them. It's a quiet place and the staff are well trained and attentive, gliding around in their designer-label uniforms. Breakfast is served in the Nahm room, which later in the day turns into an upmarket restaurant, guided by Australian chef David Thompson to become Europe's first Michelin-starred Thai restaurant. The Tube is just two minutes away; handy since the Halkin has no car park. Rooms are from £450.

www.halkin.como.bz.

The Mandarin Oriental, Knightsbridge

Locations don't come any better, particularly if you want to explore the decadent delights of Harrods, Harvey Nichols and the dozens of designer boutiques lining Sloane Street and Knightsbridge. This is where you're likely to run into Posh Beckham or a few dozen close facsimiles.

The hotel has genuine, old-fashioned style and efficiency and there's no better place to have breakfast while watching the Household Cavalry exercising their horses in Hyde Park. High-level rooms overlooking Knightsbridge have views stretching from Wembley Stadium, the London Eye and Houses of Parliament to the towers of the City and Docklands.

Staff know their job inside-out and are rightly excited by the prospect of a new restaurant to be run by ace chef Heston Blumenthal, and Bar Baloud, sister to the famed New York restaurant controlled by French chef Daniel Baloud. Rooms, which have 300 TV channels, are from £325.

www.mandarinoriental.com.

The Ritz, Piccadilly

It's difficult to say things about this iconic site that haven't been said before. When they write songs and books about a place, you know it has arrived; the Ritz arrived in 1906 and has consistently been the haunt of royalty, politicians and common- or garden-variety VIPs. They like to watch and be watched in the ornate splendour of the Louis XVI-styled Palm Court or Rivoli Bar.

Afternoon tea is a stately feast here - no jeans, please, and gents must wear jacket and tie. Wherever you look, the gold leaf is dazzling, constantly refurbished by an on-staff gilder.

Rooms and suites are ornamented with gold and silks but despite all this luxury - even decadence - it functions as a modern, efficient, welcoming hotel. Britain's toffs assemble here for seasons such as Ascot, Henley and Wimbledon; fashionistas including Stella McCartney love the exotic tables; world travellers such as Bill Clinton love to doss down here. Rooms are from £450.

www.theritzlondon.com.

The Langham, Portland Place

This truly gorgeous hotel has had an £80 million facelift to reclaim its position as the flagship of the global Langham brand. Even the Ritz is a new chum compared with this 1865-built palace, which claims to have invented the social innovation of afternoon tea and has been awarded the 2010 gong for best tea in town. There are about 400 rooms and suites, among them the Infinity Suite, with two bedrooms and bathrooms; a steal at £7000 a night.

The Langham recently played host to Australian MasterChef contestants and its Landau restaurant is recognised as one of London's best. Rooms are large, each with the group's signature Blissful Bed, and the entire hotel has a subtle Langham fragrance, with hints of ginger flowers. Bathrooms are floor-to-ceiling marble and the showers at full blast would stop a riot. Rooms are from £200.

london.langhamhotels.co.uk.

The writer was a guest of the hotels.

Photos: Inside London's grandest hotels

And the award for . . .

SNOB APPEAL Only the Ritz insists on jacket and tie for gentlemen. Somehow, that even included this writer.

RETAIL THERAPY The Mandarin Oriental is directly opposite two shopping traps — Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

OLD-WORLD CHARM Brown's, in the heart of Mayfair, has the creakiest floorboards.

BEST VIEW Hard to go past the Milestone — your first sight in the morning is Kensington Palace.

BEST LOBBY You fight your way through the Bentleys and Rollers, then take in the Dorchester's classy reception and Grand Promenade. Life should always be like this.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE The Halkin hides its 21st-century charms in a quiet little street. Most space age of the grand hotels.

MOST FRAGRANT The Langham fragrance is in every hotel from Pasadena to Hong Kong — a lovely essence with hints of ginger.

SHEER SIZE You could stage a mini-marathon around the corridors of massive Grosvenor House.

BEST BAA-THROOM Nobody seems to know why but there's a sheep in every room of the Goring Hotel — well and truly stuffed.

CELEBRITY SPOTTING The St James's still pulls in the stars. Think I saw Bono there — but it could have been Madonna.

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