Claridge's★★★★★
Claridge's holds the top spot because nothing else on this list balances Art Deco discipline with genuine warmth quite so well. The building itself, with its black-and-white chequered lobby floor and the famous foyer staircase, has barely wavered from its 1930s character even as the rooms behind it have been quietly modernised, some by Thierry Despont, others more recently. Rooms are large by London standards, marble bathrooms are properly grand rather than merely tasteful, and the courtyard-facing suites offer a quiet that is rare this close to Grosvenor Square. The Reading Room does a contemporary menu under original Deco cornicing, and the Fumoir bar still pours cocktails as if the intervening decades were an inconvenience. This suits guests who want the full theatre of an old London grand hotel without any sense that the theatre has gone stale.
