Mayfair’s Claridge’s

Included on our 2024 Gold List of the World’s Greatest Hotels

Claridge’s could easily rest on its legendary laurels after being founded in 1812, visited by Queen Victoria, and named “the first hotel in London” by the respected Baedeker’s guide in 1878. However, it has consistently stayed ahead of the competition, hiring celebrities like Guy Oliver and Diane von Furstenberg for makeovers throughout the years to make sure it surpasses both the traditional and the contemporary in a manner that few hotels are able to do. The lobby embodies the Jazz Age’s art deco glitz, when flappers interacted with aristocrats. An international motley crew of Hollywood celebs, brides, and business people are mingling over fiery Ginger John drinks at the Fumoir bar, which has a checkered floor. The Georgian suite, which perfectly combines delicate chinoiserie with English history, is the best of the new suites. The dining room has silk de Gournay panels, the kitchen has a butler on duty around-the-clock, and the Steinberg baby grand piano is there. Suites like the Mayfair, where designer Bryan O’Sullivan (The Berkeley Bar) has infused modernism with scalloped mohair furnishings in coral and pastel-green hues, were made possible by the hotel’s extension into the next building. Claridge’s has gone over and beyond to wow visitors with its underground spa. Bamboo-stick massages and Cryo Oxygen Shot facials are performed against the lovely peachy background of this space, which was designed by André Fu (the Maybourne Bar in Beverly Hills) and has textures of stone and limewood. Under a vaulted ceiling, encircled by cozy cabanas and stone columns, the pool swirls. Although it’s no longer the only show in town, Claridge’s is still the standard for all other London historic hotels, and with good reason. Saro-Wiwa Noo

Cost: Rooms start at around £842 per night.

Brook Street, London W1K 4HR is the address.

Bond Street is the closest tube stop.

Reserve now at Expedia.
The Mark Read hotel in Dorchester Hyde Park
Our 2024 Gold List of the World’s Greatest Hotels includes

The Dorchester, Hyde Park.

The Dorch has been shaking her tail feathers with the greatest renovation in thirty years, revealing two levels of additional rooms and suites and supercharging public areas. This is in response to the arrival of arrivistes on the upscale scene. Until later in 2024, penthouses and a rooftop are still secured. With a Pierre-Yves Rochon makeover, the hotel where Elizabeth Taylor signed her Cleopatra contract in the bathtub is still utterly stunning. With its mirrored ceiling, Lalique crystal pillars surrounding the bar, and Liberace’s baby grand encased in a mirror ball, the Artists’ Bar is a glittering place. Caviar, local oysters, and Petal Head cocktails—which are made with vodka, kumquat, aperol, and passion fruit—are served from a cart here. The walls are adorned with a plethora of artwork that is focused on London, such as Sue Arrowsmith’s delicate silver leaf with coral branches and Ann Carrington’s Elizabeth II figure in mother-of-pearl buttons. With its smoked glass and scalloped recliners, Martin Brudnizki’s Vesper Bar beckons intimacy, while the spa is a pink feminine retreat, especially for Dr. Uliana Gout’s new medical-grade facials. Tom Booton’s entertaining piece of British culinary theater, The Grill, has a new menu. Pierre Koffmann himself has approved the squid bolognese à la Koffmann, so don’t miss it. The new suites’ color schemes, which include heather, rose, and leaf green, are reminiscent of an English garden. We are pleased to buy into this Park Lane dame’s new chambers, which are the American ideal of Britishness if Hôtel Plaza Athénée is the American fantasy of Paris. Bell, Lydia

Cost: Rooms start at around £902 per night.

53 Park Lane, London, W1K 1QA is the address.

Marble Arch tube station is the closest.

Make a reservation at Expedia now.

The Michelin-starred Ramen Made in a Little Tokyo Noodle Factory

Raffles London Staircase at The OWO John Athimaritis Hotel

London Raffles at the OWO Hotel in Whitehall

Included on our Hot List of the world’s top new hotels for 2024

The King’s Life Guard’s mounted cavalry troops are met with renewed aplomb by the most talked-about hotel to open in London this century. This was the War Office from 1906 until 1964, when D-Day was organized, spies had their own entrance, and Winston Churchill, as secretary of state for war, boomed out briefings to personnel on the surrounding Grand Staircase. When the lease was acquired by the Hinduja Group, a Mumbai-based company who invested £1.5 billion on the building and hired Raffles, the Empire retaliated in 2016. The 120 rooms and suites, nine restaurants, three bars, 20-meter pool, and 27,000-square-foot Guerlain spa were designed by Goddard Littlefair (Gleneagles, Villa Copenhagen) over the course of seven years and an 80-foot excavation. Churchill’s office, The Haldane in sleek red damask, is one example of how grand state offices have been transformed into plum suites. Unfortunately, Thierry Despont, OWO’s interiors impresario, passed away last summer before the final showing, but he was the one who envisioned the Household Cavalry-inspired design of royal masculinity clothed in a fiery red palette. Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco has three restaurants: Saison, an all-day eatery, a private-table alternative, and a fine-dining establishment. With its red velvet banquettes and part of the automobile from No Time to Die on the wall, the little Spy Bar, which is housed in an old interrogation chamber in the basement, is an excellent evening bookender. The Guards Bar, which is packed with gossipy politicians and media types, is the best place to drink and mingle. Bell, Lydia

Cost: Accommodations start at around £1,100 per night.

57 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2BX is the address.

Charing Cross tube station is the closest.