Right: natural woods lend a calming atmosphere to 1 Hotel Mayfair’s lobby lounge: opposite: Raffles London at The OWO’s Haldane suite, which once served as Winston Churchill’s office room, a spa bath, dressing rooms as standard and silken Quagliotti sheets. At a staggering £5 million per room spend, no wonder this is set to be one of the most desirable places to stay in London. It is not the only one: with Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, Raffles London at The OWO, The Emory and 1 Hotel in Mayfair all welcoming guests between now and early January, London is leading the luxe-hotel boom this year. The Peninsula (peninsula.com) – complete with a fleet of vintage and Phantom Rolls-Royces, Peninsula Pages, staff dressed in bespoke Jenny Packham uniforms, 120-year-old imported Japanese maples in the courtyard, a custom de Gournay mural based on the neighbouring royal parks and a 1,300sq m spa with 25m pool – takes up a whole block and rooms start at a capacious 50 square metres. A walk around the terrace of Brooklands, the Claude Bosi restaurant that comes with a scale model of a Concorde suspended from the dining room, a humidor with 23 Cuban cigar brands and marquetry depicting classic Bugatti, Delage and Railton automobiles, reveals in the skyline the emerging Maybourne Hotel Group’s The Emory (theemory.co.uk). If The Peninsula is unapologetically peacocky, this is aiming to be the epitome of quiet luxury. The 61-all-suite hotel’s showpiece will be its four-storey subterranean spa as well as a guest-only rooftop bar with sweeping views across Richard Rogers’ cantilevered construction, set to become the most desirable “if your name’s not on the list” location for a negroni in town. Big-name designers are each designing two floors, from André Fu to Patricia Urquiola with Rigby & Rigby crafting the penthouse suite. Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen brand will be coming over from Manhattan for the first time. As for whom it will attract, “there are blurred lines now between business and leisure,” says GM Knut Wylde. “The guy in the jeans and trainers could well be on business. As ‘bleisure’ travel continues to grow, we are seeing people come for business with their family and staying on to explore.” He also sees a “huge desire for bigger rooms since the pandemic, and outdoor space”. Each of The Emory’s suites will have a Juliet balcony, and the penthouse four terraces. Whereas Maybourne’s other London hotels (Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley) have “hustle and bustle”, this is all about discreet indulgence. Like most of these new hotels, there is no checkin desk: guests are whisked straight from the hidden garden courtyard entrance on Old Barrack Yard to their rooms. In a similar vein, The Berkeley’s neighbour, Mandarin Oriental, is adding a bijou hotel to its stable. When it opens later this year in Hanover Square, Mandarin Oriental Mayfair (mandarinoriental.com) will offer 50 rooms, de Gournay chinoiserie wallpaper aligned by a feng shui expert, bespoke New & Lingwood gowns, spa with a 25m indoor pool, rooftop terrace with DJ and chef Akira Back’s signature ahi tuna pizza and, like The Peninsula, minibar included (a welcome new trend we are seeing among hotels at this level). One theme of many of these hotels is that they contain residences, often a way of making up for the huge costs involved. Like The Peninsula and Raffles London at The OWO, the residents have full access to the facilities. “We have recovered fast from the pandemic,” says GM PHOTO JON DAY 44 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
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