Oddly, the Grade II-listed façade is the least impressive part of this hotel. The first new Mayfair hotel for a decade is set in the vast 1926 garage where Selfridge’s shoppers used to get their jalopies tuned up, but it is in the painstakingly and totally rebuilt interiors – bland hire-car offices in 2011 – that this art deco fantasia sings.
The bar’s great and there’s smooth service and a lovely private bar/drawing room off the foyer. The staff gets the marriage of glamorous formality and approachability just right, and the owners’ personal travel bugbears have created some really thoughtful touches, from the sliding screens that isolate beds from bathrooms to the free soft drinks, movies and shoeshines.