Someone should tell London’s luxury hoteliers that there’s a cost of living crisis. Flying in the face of economic forecasts, they are set to open a wave of high-profile hotels in the next few months where guests will pay more than £1,000 to spend the night.
The boom began this week when Peninsula Hotels, which owns some of the world’s most prestigious properties, unveiled its flagship in Grosvenor Place, Belgravia. The 190-room hotel, built from scratch over the past six years at a cost of about £1.1 billion, has spectacular views over Hyde Park Corner and Buckingham Palace gardens and sleek bedrooms that cost a king’s ransom. Rates start from £1,300 a night, which makes them the most expensive in London. From staff uniforms by the designer Jenny Packham – whose creations more usually adorn the Princess of Wales, Kate Winslet and the like – to Brooklands, a motor-racing-themed rooftop restaurant overseen by the chef-director Claude Bosi of Chelsea’s Michelin-starred Bibendum, no detail has been overlooked or expense spared.
But the Peninsula won’t get to hog the limelight for long. By September 29, it will be joined by an even more intriguing proposition, Raffles London at the OWO. It is the restoration of the Old War Office, the Edwardian building that sits between Downing Street and the Thames and is where Winston Churchill masterminded the fight against Adolf Hitler, shaping the future of Europe. After a six-year restoration involving hundreds of artisans and a final bill of about £1 billion, the landmark property has been transformed into a 120-room hotel by the billionaire family-run Hinduja Group.
The former offices of Churchill, David Lloyd George and John Profumo have been reimagined as the top heritage suites that will set guests back several thousand pounds a night – although OWO’s cheapest rooms are a relative “bargain”, starting at £1,100 a night. Hinduja Group hopes the OWO will put Whitehall on the map as a dining destination for tourists and Londoners alike, thanks to its nine restaurants which include three by Mauro Colagreco, whose three Michelin-starred Côte d’Azur restaurant Mirazur was voted the best in the world in 2019.
By the end of the year, high-end options extend even further. Mandarin Oriental will open a 50-room contemporary spa retreat in Mayfair’s Hanover Square while the Maybourne Group, which owns Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley, is due to unveil the Emory. It is a 60-room hideaway in Old Barrack Yard, Belgravia, designed by the late Richard Rogers and home to an outpost of the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s award-winning ethical restaurant in New York, abc kitchen.