Best hotels in London

A Victorian mansion block just around the corner from Westminster, the St Ermin's is a Grade II-listed hotel that has been a great deal more than just a place to sleep in its lifetime... Notable moments include Winston Churchill convening a wartime meeting that gave birth to the Special Operations Executive and the Cambridge Five plotting over drinks in the Caxton Bar. And, rumour has it, a tunnel runs directly to the Houses of Parliament. Inside, intricate Rococo plasterwork and a theatrical double staircase set the scene from the moment you walk in, and whilst the rooms are a little more understated, they are incredibly comfortable and well-appointed. Oh, and the afternoon tea, served with honey produced by the resident bees on the third floor, is very, very good.

Few corners of London do genteel quite like South Kensington, and The Kensington Hotel is quite at home in a row of white-stucco townhouses on a peaceful residential road. Inside, you'll feel as if you've stepped into a well-loved private home: high ceilings, heritage touches and pretty, handpicked furniture atop gorgeous hardwood floors. The atmosphere is charming and friendly, never stuffy, and the team is one of loveliest in the city. It helps that the neighbourhood is one of the city's most desirable, too, all garden squares, red-brick mansions and pavement cafés - and you're mere metres from the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and the V&A.

A quintessentially English hotel since 1892, The Gore is as historic as it it is unique, combining the familiar intimacy of a London club with the impeccable service of a grand hotel. Located in the heart of Kensington, and just a stone’s throw away from The Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park, the hotel has been providing guests with understated elegance and charming service for over a century. Today, these qualities are charged with fresh energy with the new 190 Queen’s Gate restaurant and the legendary Bar 190 bringing both delights and memorable moments to your stay. All 50 of The Gore's lavishly appointed rooms and suites are individually furnished with beautiful antiques, period photos and ornately decorated beds, creating a distinctive atmosphere in each abode.

Brown's has been taking in guests on Albemarle Street since 1832, which makes it one of London's oldest hotels – and it wears its age well. Built from a row of Georgian townhouses in the heart of Mayfair, the hotel has hosted royalty, presidents and a long line of writers. Kipling worked on The Jungle Book here over decades of writing retreats, Agatha Christie borrowed it for At Bertram's Hotel, and Alexander Graham Bell made Britain's first telephone call from the building in 1876. Now, a stay at Brown's is all wood panelling and deep armchairs contrasted with modern art and bright upholstery - and a good dose of personality, too.

Set in an elegant Victorian building in the heart of London and surrounded by the beauty and tranquillity of Egerton Gardens, The Franklin hotel combines the warmth of a private home with the impeccable service of a luxury boutique hotel. A neighbour of Harrods and the Victoria & Albert Museum, such a unique hotel represents as well the prime example of Anouska Hempel’s timeless, Italian-influenced design.

Elegance and modern trends intertwine in one of London's most charismatic neighbourhoods: South Kensington. This boutique hotel, featuring sophisticated rooms and suites alongside avant-garde spaces like the Pulbrook & Gould Floral Showroom, offers a perfect balance between British refinement and Spanish vitality. Thanks to its location, close to iconic landmarks such as Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, and Harrods, it is a fantastic option for those seeking a home away from home. Relax in the comfort of our stylish rooms and discover the culinary delights of the Hispania Kensington restaurant, all while enjoying the elegance of the hotel's common spaces.

Set on a quiet and marvellously-regal Belgravia street, The Goring opened its doors in 1910 and is still the epitome of English charm today. The character is full-blown Edwardian with footmen in red livery at the entrance, a flock of life-size wooden sheep posted by the hearth, and a degree of fuss that feels gloriously out of step with modern-day London. The very hotel where Kate Middleton spent the night before her royal wedding, the Goring has generations of regulars return precisely because so little changes. This is a hotel where everything is the result of decades of reflection and study, from a pillow plumped just right to meals known across the city.

For decades this enormous, triangular Whitehall building toiled away as a government institution, until it reopened in 2011 as a hotel... and remembered how to enjoy itself! Today, The Corinthia is a glorious riot of luxury and opulence in the most sophisticated of ways: ceilings that go up and up, a slow sweep of staircase, light catching gilt and glass, and always, a vast bouquet of fresh blooms in the centre of the lobby. Location-wise, you're on the the corner where Whitehall runs down to the Thames, and Westminster, Trafalgar Square and the South Bank are all only a short walk away. It does drama and class brilliantly, yet somehow never takes itself too seriously – and the afternoon tea is definitely worth skipping lunch for.

Soho isn't where you'd expect to find a moment's peace, which is rather the point of Ham Yard. Step off the noisy streets and you land in a tree-filled pedestrian courtyard ringed with small independent boutiques, a Tony Cragg bronze at its heart - a pocket of calm most Londoners never know is there. Inside, Ham Yard is a riot of creativity: an art collection on every wall and interiors layered with the confident, eclectic eye of designer Kit Kemp, all wrapped in the sociable spirit of the West End it calls home. Playful, grown-up, and unmistakably itself.

As you arrive at the Rosewood London, the noise of London's bustling streets seems to simply fade the background... Cross the courtyard, then sweep up an original marble staircase barely changed since the building's Edwardian heyday and into one of the capital's most reliably luxurious (and calm) hotels. Inside, the mood softens into something warm and residential with polished wood, deep sofas and flourishing bouquets at every turn, yet it really is in the thick of midtown, equidistant from the theatres of the West End and Covent Garden, as well as the buzz of the city. It's lavish yet refined and the service is, quite simply, impeccable.

The Mandarin Oriental has a foot in two worlds of London, both as iconic as the next: fashionable Knightsbridge and the royal parkland of Hyde Park – and this split personality has served it well since 1902. The hotel is a grande dame in the fullest sense, reimagined for today after a careful restoration, in which the iconic Edwardian architecture was combined with a softer, more contemporary edge. But with its liveried doormen, hushed corridors, and the sense of a place that has seen everyone and forgotten nothing, it still does old-school London with total, effortless conviction.

As soon as you walk through the revolving doors, past the footmen in tails, and into the calm elegance of the (beautiful) lobby, the decade seems to slip back a hundred years. Claridge's has been a Mayfair institution since the 1820s, but truly itself since the Roaring 20s, when bright young things made it their playground. Today, royalty and film stars still check in, and a century on, it still throws the best party in town. Inside, the hotel is the epitome of timeless glamour with plenty of Art Deco influence in the black-and-white floors and mirrored walls. Spend a day here and you'll float between afternoon tea, cocktails and the shops on the doorstep, barely noticing the hours roll by.

This is London's most talked-about hotel opening in years, set in its most unexpected building: the former American Embassy on Grosvenor Square, a 1960s modernist landmark given a sweeping second life by the Rosewood. The Chancery's architecture is all bold geometry and tall windows but inside, the design is clean and warm, softened with plenty of curves, spectacular chandeliers and glimmering brass. It's an all-suite hotel, and there are no less than eight restaurants and bars (including the rooftop Eagle Bar with skyline views and a Japanese sushi spot by renowned Tobi Masa) and a highly sophisticated subterranean wellness space with a glitzy pool, dermatology clinic and an ice bath. Spectacular, in every way.