San Domenico House is a London venture for the same Italian family who own the Sicilian hideaway, San Domenico Palace. This luxury townhouse hotel is in one of those beautiful red-brick buildings toward the Sloane Square end of the Kings Road.
The facilities
San Domenico House is in opulent, ornate Italian style. The lobby and drawing room are hung with huge oils and heavy drapes. There are standing lamps and gilded mirrors and sumptuous silk sofas ranged around fireplaces.
This boutique hotel is saved from showiness because every now and then there’s a quirky piece of furniture or a sense of humour in a choice of artwork. Though not a designer showpiece – San Domenico House has been furnished like a house, with new pieces added as they suit. There may be a lot of marble and gilt but there are also amusing little stone cherubs and painted candlesticks in the shape of elephants and Ghurkhas.
Staff are attentive and formal but not at all stiff at this boutique hotel. The front desk runs a full concierge service. Best of all for summer, there’s a roof terrace with a few pretty tables and happy views of Chelsea. It adds up to a seductive and intimate whole, somewhere special and different to spend a few days in London.
The rooms
Dramatic and voluptuous, and each unique. All the 15 rooms in San Domenico House are exceedingly spacious and those on the lower floors have soaring high ceilings. Superior doubles are higher in the house, with lower ceilings and junior suites are simply enormous, while gallery suites are split-level.
All the rooms at this boutique hotel show great attention to detail and all are furnished with wonderful, imaginative pieces. One room has exquisite matched inlaid rosewood bedside tables and a silk-striped sofa; another has an artless pile of vintage Louis Vuitton cases at the foot of the bed. There are fabric-covered walls and paintings of coquettish Edwardian ladies. Some rooms have four-poster beds.
Beds are absolutely loaded with cushions and have charmingly old-fashioned bedspreads at this boutique hotel. Bathrooms are marble and chrome and stuffed with Molton Brown toiletries. Entertainment facilities run to broadband, DVD players and cable.
Hotel hotlists
“Intimate and refined with eclectic touches, the beautiful townhouse conversion is tucked away on a quiet street in Chelsea.”
