Claridge’s

Some hotels serve a district; Claridge’s practically founded one. Standing on Brook Street since 1856, rebuilt in the 1890s and crowned with its art deco interiors in the 1920s, the hotel has hosted exiled royalty, film stars hiding in plain sight and half the significant diplomacy of the twentieth century. Winston Churchill lived here; visiting monarchs treated it as an annexe of their palaces; and Mayfair has arranged itself around that gravity ever since.

The Rooms and the Rituals

Behind the liveried doormen, the hotel runs to around two hundred rooms and suites in which art deco originals sit beside quiet modern luxury, many overlooking the district’s rooftops. The public rituals are open to non-residents and remain some of London’s great set pieces: afternoon tea in the Foyer, taken under the Dale Chihuly light sculpture to the sound of a resident pianist, the deco jewel box of the Fumoir for late drinks, and the Painter’s Room for cocktails with a Mediterranean accent. Restaurants have come and gone with the decades and the current kitchens hold their own against the district’s best.

Why It Still Matters

Plenty of hotels are more fashionable for a season; none carries Claridge’s particular authority. It is the default London address for old money, new money learning manners and anyone marking an occasion that deserves a doorman who remembers names. The Christmas tree commission, designed by a different fashion house or artist each year, has become a Mayfair season in itself.

Small Rituals Worth Knowing

Regulars accumulate the hotel’s minor secrets: the Fumoir takes no bookings and rewards the early evening; the Foyer’s second tea sitting is calmer than the first; and the hotel’s spa, sunk five storeys beneath the lobby in a feat of engineering that made construction news, welcomes day guests to one of the most serene pools in London. The Claridge’s shop on Davies Street sells the hotel’s own hampers, champagne and the famous striped biscuit tins, an accessible souvenir of an address most visitors only borrow for an afternoon.

Visiting

The hotel operates around the clock as hotels do; book tea and restaurants well ahead, with smart dress expected in the public rooms. It stands at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street, three minutes from Bond Street station, with the galleries and cashmere houses of the street outside the door and Grosvenor Square a short walk west. Telephone 020 7629 8860.