The Square Mile
LONDON
THIS IS A COMPLETE TRAVEL GUIDE ON THE CITY
London gives you nothing on arrival and everything once you settle in. The city is best taken slowly, one neighbourhood at a time, from the galleries of Mayfair to the markets east of the river. Stay long enough and it starts to feel like yours.
STAY
Aethos Hotel
Set on Willow Street between Old Street and Great Eastern Street, in the part of Shoreditch where warehouses became galleries and never looked back, Aethos London Shoreditch took over the imposing concrete structure that previously housed Nobu Hotel and reopened it in late 2025 as something closer in spirit to the neighbourhood itself. The 164 rooms and suites carry a warm, pared back palette of clean lines and rich texture, some with balconies looking out across the East London rooftops, all of them quiet in a way this part of the city rarely is. Dining moves through the day at Aethos Café, where Mediterranean plates and easy cocktails run from morning into the evening, before Mitsu takes over, an izakaya inspired restaurant bringing flame grilled dishes and shareable plates to a room that fills quickly after dark. A boutique spa and a training studio built around longevity handle recovery, while the hotel's members' club operates as a deliberately open one, built on community rather than a velvet rope. For those who want East London's energy with none of its rough edges, this is the address.
10-50 Willow Street, London EC2A 4BH, United Kingdom
The Newman
Set on the street it takes its name from, in the quiet grid of Fitzrovia just north of Oxford Street, The Newman opened in early 2026 as a newly built boutique hotel from independent operator Kinsfolk and Co, and within months was named London Hotel of the Year by The Times. The 81 rooms and suites move between Victorian and Art Deco influence in a soft neutral palette, with details drawn from the neighbourhood's bohemian past, from bedheads inspired by the writer Nancy Cunard to marble sinks shaped after the windows of nearby Shropshire House. Brasserie Angelica handles the food, a contemporary European brasserie running from breakfast through to dinner, while Gambit Bar sits beneath the hotel with a long copper counter, live music and an atmosphere built for staying later than planned. An entire underground floor is given over to wellness, taking in a hydrotherapy pool, sauna, ice lounge, salt therapy room and a Technogym fitted fitness suite open around the clock. At the top, the Penthouse Suite comes with its own terrace, sauna and ice plunge, and the whole rooftop floor can be taken as a private four bedroom residence. For those who want central London without ever feeling it, this is the address.
50 Newman Street, Fitzrovia, London, England, W1T 3EB
The Londoner
Set on the south west corner of Leicester Square, in the middle of Theatreland with the National Gallery and Piccadilly Circus a few minutes' walk in either direction, The Londoner opened in 2021 as a sixteen storey building that extends as far below the ground as above it, with interiors by the design studio Yabu Pushelberg. The 350 rooms and suites are quiet in a way that seems impossible given the location, finished in wood panelling, velvet and soft ambient light, rising to the Tower Penthouse Suite and its panoramic views across the city. Dining runs through six restaurants and bars, from Whitcomb's, the signature French Mediterranean restaurant, to Joshua's Tavern for gin and 8 at The Londoner, the lantern lit rooftop izakaya serving sushi and sake above the square. A room key also opens The Residence, three guest only parlours taking in a cocktail bar, a library and a hidden whisky room. Four floors down, The Retreat holds a hydrotherapy pool with private cabanas, a sauna, a steam room and a full gym. For those who want the West End at the door and complete silence behind it, this is the address.
38 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7DX, United Kingdom
The Emory
The Emory opened in 2024 as London's first all suite hotel and the sixth property from Maybourne, the group behind Claridge's, The Connaught and The Berkeley. The building itself is a landmark, designed by the late Richard Rogers and Ivan Harbour of RSHP, its signature sail structures rising above the treeline of Hyde Park. Inside, the 61 suites and studios change character every two floors, with interiors by André Fu, Patricia Urquiola, Pierre Yves Rochon, Alexandra Champalimaud and Rigby and Rigby, who also designed the wraparound glass penthouse at the top. Dining sits with abc kitchens, where Jean Georges Vongerichten brings his three New York restaurants together under one roof for the first time, while Bar 33 and a cigar merchants hold the rooftop. Beneath it all runs Surrenne, a four floor private members' club for longevity and wellbeing with a 22 metre pool, available to every guest, alongside chauffeured transfers and a personal assistant included with each stay. For those who believe the truest luxury is time, this is the address.
Old Barrack Yard, London SW1X 7NP, United Kingdom
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WHAT TO PACK
EAT
1 Mount Street, London W1K 3NA, United Kingdom
Set on the corner of Mount Street overlooking Berkeley Square, Bacchanalia is Richard Caring's tribute to the Roman festival of excess it takes its name from, opened in late 2022 and reported to have cost tens of millions to bring to life. The room, designed by Martin Brudnizki, is dressed with four monumental Damien Hirst sculptures suspended above the tables, hand painted ceiling murals in the manner of a Renaissance chapel and a collection of genuine Greek and Roman artworks some two thousand years old. The menu, curated by Greek chef Athinagoras Kostakos, moves between Greece and Italy with dishes built for the table, from seabream carpaccio and crab salad to risotto nero for three and whole turbot to share, much of it finished theatrically at the tableside. The wine list runs past six hundred and fifty references across Greece, Italy and France, and on Sundays the room gives itself over to a Roman feast with live classical performance. Booking well ahead is not a suggestion, it is the entry requirement. For those who believe dinner should occasionally be staged rather than served.
47b Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JP, United Kingdom
Set inside the former concert hall of the old London College of Music, a 310 year old building a minute from Carnaby Street, Sucre is the London home of Argentine chef Fernando Trocca, whose Buenos Aires original has been a fixture on Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants list since opening in 2001. The room keeps the scale of its past life, high ceilinged and grand, with an open kitchen at one end built around a dramatic fire pit and wood oven where almost everything is cooked over charcoal and embers in the Argentine way. The menu moves between South America and the Mediterranean in plates made for sharing, from scallop tiradito and ox cheek quesadilla to whole fish and cuts from the grill, all of it generous and led by whatever is in season. Downstairs sits Abajo, the low lit cocktail bar created with legendary Argentine bartender Tato Giovannoni, running a progressive drinks list to a soundtrack of disco, funk and jazz until late. For those who want fire, noise and a proper night out in the middle of Soho.
195-197 King's Road, London SW3 5EQ, United Kingdom
Set in a Grade II listed building on the King's Road that began life in 1722 as the Six Bells public house, The Ivy Chelsea Garden carries the familiar glamour of the original Ivy into an all day brasserie built around one of the best outdoor spaces in London. The interiors, by Martin Brudnizki, move through a bar, lounge, café and main restaurant in black and white marble, antique mirrors and bronzed lanterns, but the real draw sits at the back, where a plant filled orangery opens onto a terrace and garden wrapped in wisteria, roses and palms, partly covered and warmed by a fire pit so it runs all year. The menu is modern British with international detours, serving from breakfast through elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, with dishes like tuna carpaccio and the chopped lobster rigatoni bake alongside the classics the Ivy name is built on. Come Chelsea Flower Show season the whole facade disappears under floral installations that stop traffic on the King's Road. For long lunches that drift into evening without anyone checking the time.
The Beaumont, 8 Balderton Street, Brown Hart Gardens, London W1K 6TF, United Kingdom
Set inside The Beaumont, the Art Deco hotel tucked behind Selfridges on a quiet Mayfair square, Rosi opened in October 2025 as the successor to the much loved Colony Grill Room, led by Lisa Goodwin-Allen, the chef who held a Michelin star at Northcote in Lancashire for two decades before moving south. The room is finished in soft pastels beneath bold friezes by artist Luke Edward Hall, and the mood is closer to playful than formal. The menu reads as a love letter to British cooking with the seriousness taken out, an old fashioned pork pie, fish fingers made from John Dory, executive chef Jozef Rogulski's famous chicken Kiev flowing with truffle butter, and salt aged duck for two, opened with oysters and caviar if the occasion calls for it. Dessert is deliberately theatrical, from a flamed seasonal sponge to a build your own sundae and the Mayfair Millionaire Tart. This is comfort food with a Michelin trained hand behind it, and it fills the chef led gap in a London list better than almost anywhere at this price.
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