Here’s What You Get for £1,000 a Night at The Peninsula London

WHEN SIR MICHAEL KADOORIE, the chairman of The Peninsula Hotels’ parent company, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, spoke at The Peninsula London’s opening party in June, he mentioned that it was the most challenging project he had ever overseen. Perhaps because it took decades to find an appropriate location, or maybe it’s due to notoriously restrictive local planning regulations in London that mean new-build hotels of this magnitude very rarely make it from the drawing board to reality. The development is said to have cost some £1.1 billion.

Peninsula purists who’ve already stayed in the Hong Kong flagship will immediately spot similarities. Upgraded London taxis (luxury, customized EV versions) and Bentleys join the customary Rolls-Royces in Peninsula’s signature green to deposit guests in a courtyard that’s shaded by a 120-year-old Japanese maple tree. Inside, musicians perform from a mezzanine that overlooks the lobby, where guests sip afternoon tea, surrounded by pastoral scenes in murals depicting Hyde Park, a minute’s walk from the Knightsbridge property. Elsewhere, the hotel’s helpful pages are unmissable in pristine whites; Peninsula’s indomitable stone lions stand guard outside the property; and the colorful Canton Blue gives Londoners one of surprisingly few venues to serve high-end Cantonese cuisine in this food-obsessed city.

While Londoners were agog when the hotel’s opening publicity confirmed starting room rates would exceed £1,000 a night, many established properties in The Peninsula’s comp-set had quietly moved into or around this four-digit price point after the pandemic. A key distinguishing factor at The Peninsula is that its entry-level rooms, at 52 sqare metres, are some of the largest in the city—and as that billion-pound figure attests, Peninsula didn’t scrimp on quality.

Designed by Peter Marino (best known for fashioning a panoply of Chanel and Louis Vuitton boutiques), vast bathrooms are clad in buttery onyx, bathrooms lined in mahogany. Though Peninsula staples like its signature valet boxes remain, there are also subtle adaptations that recognise how travelers actually use their accommodations nowadays. Dining tables, for example, feature discreet integrated power points so they can multitask as substantial desks.

But from a design perspective, I found the most striking settings were positioned at the top and bottom of the building. Underground, a multilevel wellness facility includes an elegant 25-meter pool, gym and minimalist treatment rooms, again lined in mahogany. During my Margy’s collagen-firming facial I was won over by my Japanese therapist’s genuine expertise—her level of knowledge was so extensive that my consultation even covered the different ways I should care for my skin when traveling to destinations that use either hard or soft water. (That said, sometimes ignorance is bliss—I’ve got enough to worry about.)

Accessed via a wicker-lined elevator designed to resemble a hot-air balloon—a lovely touch of whimsy—the eighth-floor rooftop Brooklands bar and restaurant pay tribute to classic automobiles and aviation and take their name from the world’s first purpose-built motor-racing circuit in nearby Surrey.

In the restaurant, Brooklands by Claude Bosi, the most immediately striking feature is a model Concorde, 13.6 meters long, that’s suspended from the ceiling, but I was most charmed by the diner’s cylindrical reception room with its impeccably finished wooden marquetry showing old-school racing scenes. Sound ricochets here in such an enjoyably diverting way that I had to ask the hostess to excuse me as I parroted banal phrases to repeat the effect after discovering it accidentally.

At Brooklands Bar, a shimmering silver ceiling’s showstopper look was inspired by the design of a twin-engine bomber from the 1930s. And while the Peninsula London only reaches a relatively modest height, the views from the bar’s terrace are some of the best in the city. With Buckingham Palace’s private gardens and the leafy Green Park directly out front, the likelihood of some other audacious new building one day blocking those sweeping views of St Paul’s Cathedral, the London Eye and Houses of Parliament is non-existent. 

Rooms from £1,300; peninsula.com

BOOK YOUR STAY AT THE PENINSULA LONDON VIA BOOKING.COM

BOOK YOUR STAY AT THE PENINSULA LONDON VIA AGODA.COM

Images courtesy of The Peninsula London.

Written By