William Wolfe’s 100 best British hotels
The best hotels in London
The 25 hotels in London that made Mr Wolfe’s hundred: privately owned where possible, historic, beautifully placed and properly run.
C
MayfairClaridge’sClaridge’s is less a hotel than a state of mind, and a very agreeable one at that. The Art Deco foyer, the black and white marble, the…C
MayfairThe ConnaughtThe Connaught is the quiet aristocrat of Carlos Place: polished mahogany, a staircase you could propose on, and a bar that has, I am…B
KnightsbridgeThe BerkeleyThe younger, more fashionable sibling of Claridge’s and The Connaught, The Berkeley wears its glamour lightly and its rooftop pool rather…R
PiccadillyThe RitzA Belle Époque fantasy of marble, ormolu and pink velvet, The Ritz remains the definition of the grand hotel in the minds of the world.…G
BelgraviaThe GoringFamily-owned since 1910, which in London hotel terms makes it practically feudal. The Goring is the last great hotel run by the family…B
MayfairBrown’s HotelLondon’s oldest hotel, where Kipling wrote and Alexander Graham Bell made a telephone call that he presumably regretted for the rest of his…D
St James’sDukes LondonTucked into a gaslit courtyard off St James’s Place, Dukes is the hotel equivalent of a well-cut tweed jacket: understated, comfortable and…D
MaryleboneDurrants HotelOwned by the same family for nearly a century, Durrants is a Georgian townhouse hotel that appears not to have noticed the 21st century…L
Hyde Park CornerThe LanesboroughA Regency palace at Hyde Park Corner where every room comes with a butler. The first time this happened to me I was slightly alarmed. By…S
StrandThe SavoyThe Savoy is theatre with a river view: the only street in Britain where one drives on the right, the American Bar where the cocktail more…R
HolbornRosewood LondonAn Edwardian palace on High Holborn with a carriage courtyard that makes arriving by taxi feel like arriving by landau. Rosewood has given…D
Park LaneThe DorchesterThe Dorchester has been the backdrop to more Hollywood romances, royal engagements and ill-advised business decisions than any hotel I…S
St James’sThe StaffordHidden down a lane off St James’s Place, The Stafford is the definition of a gentleman’s hotel: quiet, assured and in possession of a…H
SohoHazlitt’sThree Georgian houses on Frith Street, all creaking floorboards, four-poster beds and Victorian bathtubs. The essayist William Hazlitt died…B
SpitalfieldsBatty Langley’sA Georgian fantasy in Spitalfields, hung with portraits, panelled in oak and furnished with a bathroom so theatrical it deserves its own…R
ClerkenwellThe RookeryA Clerkenwell row of 18th-century houses converted into a warren of panelled rooms and antique beds. The Rook’s Nest suite, perched under…H
SohoHam Yard HotelKit Kemp’s riotous interiors in a leafy courtyard just off Piccadilly Circus. Ham Yard has its own bowling alley, imported from Germany…N
South KensingtonNumber SixteenA row of white stucco townhouses in South Kensington with a garden so pretty one forgets the museums entirely. Number Sixteen is the hotel…M
KensingtonThe MilestoneA red-brick Victorian confection facing Kensington Palace, run by the Tollman family with the kind of personal attention that has all but…C
ChelseaThe CadoganLillie Langtry lived here and Oscar Wilde was arrested in Room 118, which gives The Cadogan rather more scandal per square foot than the…R
WhitehallRaffles London at The OWOThe Old War Office, where Churchill paced and Profumo misbehaved, is now a hotel of almost absurd grandeur. One sleeps where generals once…B
MayfairThe BeaumontAn Art Deco townhouse off Grosvenor Square with the louche glamour of a Twenties Manhattan hotel. The Colony Grill is a time machine with a…N
City of LondonThe NedLutyens’ magnificent Midland Bank, turned into a hotel and club of Gatsby-ish scale. The banking hall, now a hive of restaurants, still has…L
MaryleboneThe LanghamEurope’s first grand hotel, opened in 1865 by the Prince of Wales. Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde dined here on the same night and both left…C
WhitehallCorinthia LondonA Victorian palace between Trafalgar Square and the river, with a lobby chandelier the size of a small Baccarat factory. Corinthia is grand…
MayfairClaridge’sClaridge’s is less a hotel than a state of mind, and a very agreeable one at that. The Art Deco foyer, the black and white marble, the…C
MayfairThe ConnaughtThe Connaught is the quiet aristocrat of Carlos Place: polished mahogany, a staircase you could propose on, and a bar that has, I am…B
KnightsbridgeThe BerkeleyThe younger, more fashionable sibling of Claridge’s and The Connaught, The Berkeley wears its glamour lightly and its rooftop pool rather…R
PiccadillyThe RitzA Belle Époque fantasy of marble, ormolu and pink velvet, The Ritz remains the definition of the grand hotel in the minds of the world.…G
BelgraviaThe GoringFamily-owned since 1910, which in London hotel terms makes it practically feudal. The Goring is the last great hotel run by the family…B
MayfairBrown’s HotelLondon’s oldest hotel, where Kipling wrote and Alexander Graham Bell made a telephone call that he presumably regretted for the rest of his…D
St James’sDukes LondonTucked into a gaslit courtyard off St James’s Place, Dukes is the hotel equivalent of a well-cut tweed jacket: understated, comfortable and…D
MaryleboneDurrants HotelOwned by the same family for nearly a century, Durrants is a Georgian townhouse hotel that appears not to have noticed the 21st century…L
Hyde Park CornerThe LanesboroughA Regency palace at Hyde Park Corner where every room comes with a butler. The first time this happened to me I was slightly alarmed. By…S
StrandThe SavoyThe Savoy is theatre with a river view: the only street in Britain where one drives on the right, the American Bar where the cocktail more…R
HolbornRosewood LondonAn Edwardian palace on High Holborn with a carriage courtyard that makes arriving by taxi feel like arriving by landau. Rosewood has given…D
Park LaneThe DorchesterThe Dorchester has been the backdrop to more Hollywood romances, royal engagements and ill-advised business decisions than any hotel I…S
St James’sThe StaffordHidden down a lane off St James’s Place, The Stafford is the definition of a gentleman’s hotel: quiet, assured and in possession of a…H
SohoHazlitt’sThree Georgian houses on Frith Street, all creaking floorboards, four-poster beds and Victorian bathtubs. The essayist William Hazlitt died…B
SpitalfieldsBatty Langley’sA Georgian fantasy in Spitalfields, hung with portraits, panelled in oak and furnished with a bathroom so theatrical it deserves its own…R
ClerkenwellThe RookeryA Clerkenwell row of 18th-century houses converted into a warren of panelled rooms and antique beds. The Rook’s Nest suite, perched under…H
SohoHam Yard HotelKit Kemp’s riotous interiors in a leafy courtyard just off Piccadilly Circus. Ham Yard has its own bowling alley, imported from Germany…N
South KensingtonNumber SixteenA row of white stucco townhouses in South Kensington with a garden so pretty one forgets the museums entirely. Number Sixteen is the hotel…M
KensingtonThe MilestoneA red-brick Victorian confection facing Kensington Palace, run by the Tollman family with the kind of personal attention that has all but…C
ChelseaThe CadoganLillie Langtry lived here and Oscar Wilde was arrested in Room 118, which gives The Cadogan rather more scandal per square foot than the…R
WhitehallRaffles London at The OWOThe Old War Office, where Churchill paced and Profumo misbehaved, is now a hotel of almost absurd grandeur. One sleeps where generals once…B
MayfairThe BeaumontAn Art Deco townhouse off Grosvenor Square with the louche glamour of a Twenties Manhattan hotel. The Colony Grill is a time machine with a…N
City of LondonThe NedLutyens’ magnificent Midland Bank, turned into a hotel and club of Gatsby-ish scale. The banking hall, now a hive of restaurants, still has…L
MaryleboneThe LanghamEurope’s first grand hotel, opened in 1865 by the Prince of Wales. Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde dined here on the same night and both left…C
WhitehallCorinthia LondonA Victorian palace between Trafalgar Square and the river, with a lobby chandelier the size of a small Baccarat factory. Corinthia is grand…