Bentley Kempinksi by Angela Moore

The Bentley Kaminski is discreetly located on a quiet residential street in South Kensington. Its interiors are a tribute to courtly France, flush with deep-pile carpets and silk upholstery and crystal chandeliers and marble (600 tons of it, imported from Italy, Turkey and Africa). Specialist teams were brought in to laboriously lay down the mosaics and find lovely, intricate pieces of Louis XV furniture.

The facilities
The breakfast room, where guests can also take afternoon tea, is among the prettiest in London, all coquettish white and gold spindle-chairs and damask and silk hangings. The Malachite bar is a more masculine, cognac-and-cigars version, with wood panelling and rococo ceilings. There is a spa with a proper Turkish hammam and an excellent dining room, 1880, courtesy of two-Michelin-starred chef Andrew Turner.

The rooms
There are 64 rooms and they’re all remarkably spacious. They get increasingly opulent as you go up the scale from a deluxe double to an Imperial, Royal or Presidential Suite. You start off with painted panelled walls, a chandelier and a rather unstable looking desk and work up to gold-plated bathroom taps, silk-covered walls, enormous period paintings and private dining rooms. One suite even has a grand piano.

Throughout, there are standard amenities such as high-speed internet connection, which are all charged for. Bathrooms – marble of course - are simply enormous by London standards and everyone has a Jacuzzi bath and a separate walk-in shower.