The Lanesborough, London, United Kingdom

Guests revisit The Lanesborough again and again. This grand former hospital overlooking Hyde Park Corner has become a London luxury hotel that’s something of an institution, Even the heaving traffic that swarms about the Lanesborough doesn’t seem to fluster the grande dame in the slightest – she stands there immovable and unshakable, a haven from the efforts of shopping and sightseeing around the city.

The facilities

Top-hatted doormen stand smartly at the entrance, pulling back the heavy wooden doors to reveal a splendid marbled lobby, replete with sparkling chandeliers, Old-Master-style artworks on the walls and an Amazonian amount of mahogany furniture. The lobby sets a real tone for the entire hotel, one of wealth, genteel charms and the quiet buzz of conversation.

For seventeen years The Lanesborough has been honing its attentive, guest-driven staff members, and it certainly shows. Leading off from the library, the communal Withdrawing Room and Library Bar are discreetly well-serviced, stuffed full of comfortable sofas and coffee tables with polished brass ‘service bells’. The drive towards antiquated aristocracy is very much in evidence here, with glass cabinets of vintage cognac on proud display; one twisted old bottle dates back to 1786.

The rooms

The Regency-style bedrooms and suites have the same moneyed atmosphere as the lower floors. Dark wood panelling, heavy swathes of fabric, richly coloured carpets and period pieces all mark them out as more personal residence than Kensington luxury hotel. The rooms at the Lanesborough come with all mod cons, but you’d never think so when you initially enter. Everything, from the flat screen television, to the minibar, to the sound-system, is tucked away beneath a veneer of chocolate-coloured wood.

Thank goodness, then, for the small army of butlers that attend to each floor. A staff of more than twenty of them deliver a focused service that includes showing each guest at the Lanesborough around their accommodation, unpacking their suitcase (if needs be) and seeing to their every whim during their stay. The really exceptional part is that every guest receives this attention – whether they are booked into a Deluxe room or the palatial Buckingham Suite. There is no extra charge or expectation here.

The restaurant
The recently launched Apsley’s Restaurant has a markedly different feel to the rest of the hotel. It is contemporary, designed by New Yorker Adam Tihany, and serves up modern Italian cuisine in a surprisingly rustic and simple style. But when it comes to f and b, the real star of the show at The Lanesborough is the renowned afternoon tea. Come four o’clock, Apsley’s is full of some of the most powerful and influential people in London – all daintily sipping Darjeeling and nibbling at finger sandwiches. So good is the spread here that the UK Tea Council has twice (05 and 08) awarded the hotel ‘Best Afternoon Tea in London’.