Claridge's

Claridge's occupies the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, close to Hyde Park and the West End's main shopping streets. Its story begins in 1812, when James Mivart opened a hotel on Brook Street; William and Marianne Claridge expanded it and gave it their name in 1856. Richard D'Oyly Carte rebuilt it in the 1890s, and in 1929 Oswald Milne gave the lobby its Art Deco look.

The suites and rooms range from Victorian to Art Deco to contemporary in style. Several suites have private terraces over Mayfair's rooftops, and the Royal Suite is decorated to reflect the hotel's royal connections.

Afternoon tea is served in the Art Deco Foyer & Reading Room. Dante Mayfair is the London home of the Greenwich Village bar founded in 1915, and L'Epicerie is a chef's table inside the hotel kitchens. For drinks there is the small Fumoir, open since 1929, Claridge's Bar with its rare champagnes, and the Art Deco Painter's Room. You can also try Claridge's Bakery and the Art Café by Thibault Hauchard, above the Perrotin gallery.

Claridge's Spa has seven treatment rooms, steam rooms and saunas, a fitness studio and a relaxation pool designed by André Fu. Bond Street Underground station (Central and Jubilee lines) is about five minutes away on foot. London Heathrow (LHR) is about 50 minutes by car.