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15 Posh Boutique Hotels in London With Turndown Tea, Lush Gardens, and Rooftop Bars

There's more to London's hotel scene than the big players.
The Goring Hotel
Courtesy The Goring Hotel

I say London, you say grand. This regal, ritzy capital is known for its stately hotels for a reason—it has one of the finest collections of grand dames in the world. But look beyond the usual fancy suspects and there’s a city bursting with innovative boutique hotels. This is a place where English eccentricity comes to the fore—whether that’s bathrooms hidden behind bookcases, Union Jack flags strung above beds, rooms categorized by “Tiny” and “Bigger,” or keys squirreled away in what you thought was a book. (Yes, this is a literary city, and there’s a literary bend to many of these hotels.)

The boutique scene is where much of London’s innovation in hospitality is taking place. Among these hotels, you’ll find celeb-beloved restaurants, vegan tasting menus, and rooftop yoga. You’ll also find hoteliers from Japan, Hong Kong, Paris, and Berlin, bringing their style over and making it British (the latter two are currently squaring off against each other in Covent Garden’s Theatreland). Sometimes, room service is sent over by Gordon Ramsay. Other times, it’s a plate of mince and potatoes so English it feels ripped from the pages of a Dickens novel. From the plush Georgian townhouses to LA-style rooftops, it’s an ever-changing scene, and one that reflects London’s diversity.

The city's boutique hotels run the gamut of affordable to luxury, from tiny to sizeable-yet-homey. Here are our picks for the 15 best boutique hotels in London.

This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.

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  • John Athimaritis
    hotel

    Hotel Amano Covent Garden

    The vibe: Outré and exhibitionist 
    Location: Covent Garden
    Top amenities: The rooftop bar
    Best for: A fun weekend

    Where else should those with an exhibitionist streak go than Theatreland? In Covent Garden, with theaters on either side, this old office block—the former premises of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, no less—had a full West End makeover before its 2022 opening. The first hotel outside its native Germany for boutique brand Amano, this space feels truly cosmopolitan: the buzzing basement bar feels more NYC than London, restaurant Penelope’s fuses Israeli and Spanish cuisine to superb effect (don’t miss the pork belly), while the seventh-floor rooftop bar could be in LA, but for its sweeping views from the Shard to the Houses of Parliament. As for the rooms, they’re truly Berlin: simple, slick, but with a hint of exhibitionism—“Goldy” corner rooms sport a glittering golden bathtub looking directly onto the street. Don’t worry, there are curtains if you’re not keen to put on a show. But if you are? Welcome to the cabaret. 

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  • Marco Kesseler
    hotel

    Page 8

    The vibe: Calm in the storm
    Location: Trafalgar Square
    Top amenities: Rooftop terrace overlooking Trafalgar Square
    Best for: Central London sightseeing 

    In one of the most touristed parts of London is this taste of Hong Kong. Just past Trafalgar Square, overlooking the National Portrait Gallery and looking up St Martin’s Lane and Charing Cross Road, Page 8 is the second property for Page Hotels, a new boutique arm of Hong Kong’s Butterfly Hotel Group. “Urban explorers” is what they call guests, and here you’re right in the thrum of the city, ready to join it after a jolt of caffeine at the craft coffee bar, whose glass walls look right onto the mayhem. In the summer months, you can gaze down at it all from the rooftop terrace during a candle-making class or yoga session (a rooftop restaurant closed in 2022, but a new one should arrive before too long). The rooms are simple but stylish, with a neat palette of chrome and royal blue, leaving those views to do the talking. Minibar contents are free and replenished daily—they start at water, milk, and popcorn for the entry-level rooms, and work up to free wine and Champagne in the suites—and all rooms have a Marshall speaker (complete with playlist via QR code) and cult Australian brand Appelles for the bathroom amenities. Page 8 is also wheelchair-friendly, with a low-incline ramp to the door and 14 of 138 rooms wheelchair-accessible. Note that the accessible rooms are also the entry-level ones—so if you’re not happy with a wet-room or a wheelchair-level basin, you’ll need to book a standard category. Another note—the coffee shop is tiny, so it might be quicker to grab breakfast at the Pret A Manger next door.

  • Courtesy The Prince Akatoki
    hotel

    The Prince Akatoki

    The vibe: Japanese calm
    Location: Marylebone
    Top amenities: Turndown tea
    Best for: A meditative take on London

    Akatoki is derived from the ancient Japanese word for “dawn” and this really was a new dawn for boutique hotels in London when it opened in 2020: an 82-room taste of Japanese hospitality and a bubble of tranquillity, just two blocks from heaving Oxford Street and Marble Arch. This is the first UK property for Japanese hospitality doyens Prince Hotels, and they’ve gone all out to showcase their decades of expertise. The calming rooms are dressed in lots of light wood and neutral tones, with barely-there images of tranquil landscapes split across panels behind the beds, and simple wooden furniture bringing the outside in. Downstairs, the whiskey-specialist Malt Bar & Lounge fuses Japanese ingredients with famous cocktails, while restaurant TOKii puts a Japanese spin on local ingredients, from lobster croquettes with mango and yuzu salsa to caramelized black cod with miso and sweet corn fried rice. Loose leaf tea by the bed at turndown is the final ingredient in this recipe for calm.

  • Courtesy The Adria
    hotel

    The Adria

    The vibe: Elite townhouse
    Location: South Kensington 
    Top amenties: TVs over the baths in the suite
    Best for: Pretending you're in The Crown

    If you want the full old English vibe, the Adria’s for you. Ring the bell and one of the self-styled butlers will come to open it; check-in is in an armchair by the fireplace in one of the four lounges; and your key is hidden in what looks like a book out of “Harry Potter,” but is actually a specially carved box, its ‘title’ the name of your room. In fact, the 24 rooms are named for quintessential English places or events (in the elevator, you’ll hit the first letter of your room’s name instead of a floor). They’re themed, too—in Queensgate, for example, a giant pop-art-style picture of Queen Elizabeth hangs by the fireplace. While the feel is textbook 19th-century London townhouse, the owners are Qatari—which means opulent amenities, thanks to a $1.2 million renovation completed in 2022. The bathrooms are clad in marble, the beds are modern four-posters, and suites have upper crust Bamford amenities, plus TVs over the baths (as well as top notch showers). There’s no restaurant, but the hotel partners with the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Nobu nearby to provide in-room meals.

  • Courtesy The Goring Hotel
    hotel

    The Goring

    $$ | Gold List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2022

    The vibe: Regal
    Location: Belgravia
    Top amenities: One of London's biggest private gardens
    Best for: Seeing the royal sites 

    Ready to be treated like royalty? Just around the corner from Buckingham Palace, the Goring has been beloved by generations of Windsors—if it looks familiar, that might well be because Kate Middleton stayed (and partied) here the night before her 2011 wedding. Where it differs from other luxury hotels is its size—just 69 rooms—and its ownership. Unique as far as London’s luxury hotels goes, it is still owned and operated by the family which opened it, and the Goring family’s four-generation imprint lies in the attention to detail in every room. So while the scarlet-clad doormen will sweep you up the entrance steps, many rooms are dressed in silk wall-coverings, and the marble-swathed bathrooms are stocked with posh Asprey amenities, this is still very much an intimate affair. Out the back is a sweeping garden—one of the largest in London, bigger even than Wimbledon’s Centre Court. A fleet of footmen cater to guests in the top two suite categories, while the gold-hued bar is hugely popular with well-heeled locals who come in for a snifter or cup of tea.

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  • Courtesy Firmdale Hotels/©Simon Brown
    hotel

    The Soho Hotel

    $$$

    The vibe: Creatives ahoy
    Location: Soho
    Top amenties: Basement screening room
    Best for: A taste of London's cultural scene

    Designer Kit Kemp has taken her Firmdale Hotels brand from one London property in 1985 to a boutique empire reaching as far as New York and Barbados. Of her eight London hotels, this is the classic: right in the middle of energetic Soho, but a quiet haven wedged down a peaceful alleyway (making it one of the most intriguing hotel entrances in London). Perhaps the most urban of Kemp’s London properties, all 96 rooms pair floor-to-ceiling, warehouse-style windows with her quirky, print-heavy designs (beds and linens are made bespoke for the property). As befits its location, this is London’s ultimate hotel for creatives, with the Refuel bar and restaurant—which specializes in modern British cooking—acting as a place for deals over lunch, afternoon tea before fashion events, and post-screening drinks. In fact, the hotel even has its own screening room, in the basement, and it isn’t just for private hire—weekend “Film Club” events pair lunch with a movie.

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  • Courtesy Batty Langley's
    hotel

    Batty Langley's Hotel

    $$

    The vibe: Vintage East End
    Location: East London
    Top amenities: The calm courtyard
    Best for: City of London meetings and East London's nightlife

    The area of East London around Spitalfields Market is one of the coolest parts of the capital—but Batty Langley’s eschews hipster chic to whisk you back across the cobbled street to the 18th century, when this whopping brick building (at first glance it looks like a cross between a townhouse, a warehouse, and a trendy office block) was constructed. The 18th century is also when the hotel’s namesake, Batty Langley, was working as an eccentric landscape gardener and architect. Perhaps to honor his legacy, all 29 rooms (named after different East End characters throughout the centuries) are individually designed and a little…different. While they’re technically period style—think four-poster beds, lavish dark palettes, and what appear to be traditional portraits on the walls—they’re done up in a knowing, modern way. Unexpected features include a toilet hidden behind a bookshelf and a jolly period-style portrait grinning at the building’s current occupants: you. The lounge with its honesty bar leads onto a little courtyard, while in-room TVs are hidden—instead, you’re encouraged to browse one of the thousands of books in the library.

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  • Simon Brown
    hotel

    Number Sixteen

    $$$

    The vibe: Genteel home away from home
    Location: South Kensington 
    Top amenities: The idyllic private garden
    Best for: A quiet retreat from the city

    Of Kit Kemp’s eight London hotels, three are classed as “townhouses,” but this is the coziest: four Victorian houses in a row of upscale residences two blocks from the South Kensington Tube station, knitted together into a real home away from home. Going strong since the 1980s, it’s still the townhouse hotel to beat. The 41 bedrooms are spread out along the rabbit warren of corridors (there are even rooms in the attic), and dressed in Kemp’s signature style: playful patterned headboards, brightly painted walls and loud curtains, all clamoring for your attention without ever being overpowering. Downstairs are two lounges, one with an honesty bar, plus the top draw: a conservatory (The Orangery) overlooking a peaceful, tree-filled garden between the blocks of houses, complete with fish pond and gazebo. Belonging to the hotel, it’s a spot of bucolic peace and quiet in the middle of the city–guests can even eat al fresco and “garden rooms” have direct access via their private courtyards. Breakfast, afternoon tea, lunch, and dinner are served in The Orangery. If only your real home was like this.

  • Photo by Karel Balas
    hotel

    Henrietta Hotel

    $$ | Hot List 2018 Readers' Choice Awards 2018

    The vibe: French chic
    Location: Covent Garden
    Top amenities: In-room cocktail recipes
    Best for: A girls' night out

    Looking for somewhere to carouse in style? This is the place for you. Henrietta is part of the Experimental Group, which started out with a craft cocktail bar in Paris, and then opened the speakeasy-style Experimental Cocktail Club in London’s Chinatown, a quick trot away from the hotel. Not that you need to make the journey if you’re staying with Henrietta—2021 saw the opening of restaurant Da Henrietta, run by the Italian Supper Club and featuring regional dishes and small-producer wines from Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast. As for the 40 spacious rooms, they’re light, whimsical, and irreverently French, continuing the spring shades and splashes of leopard print in the lobby. Unusual details include marble skirting boards, terrazzo print carpet, rose-pink velvet chairs, and statement headboards. There is, of course, a bulging mini bar, as well as a cocktail recipe book by the bed, should you feel inspired. 

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  • Courtesy Darren Chun
    hotel

    The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell

    $$ | Gold List 2020

    The vibe: English eccentricity
    Location: Clerkenwell
    Top amenities: The award-winning cocktail bar
    Best for: Those in the know

    In Clerkenwell, the maximalist Zetter Townhouse taps a rich vein of Victorian eccentricity to create an urban den with genuine warmth—a theme hotel without the cheese, and a lovely, under-the-radar hotel that’s for seasoned London lovers. With only 13 rooms and no check-in desk, there’s an intimate feel—and you couldn’t be anywhere but the U.K. with this decor. Expect Union Jack flags flying from the beds, over the headboards, and (somewhat more discreetly) in the colors chosen for the throws. Bottles from the East London Liquor Company fill the mini bars, while Wilhelmina’s Lounge, the award-winning bar downstairs, does a fine line in cocktails—its apothecary-like bar is a nod to the area’s historic distilleries. If you don’t know Clerkenwell as an area, that’ll be because it’s not at all touristy. Rather, it’s an interesting corner of the city between the famous West End and trendy Shoreditch that’s home to great pubs, literary agencies, and independent boutiques. Nearby Farringdon station is one of the hubs for the Elizabeth Line, the high-speed, cross-capital Underground line which opened in 2022.

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  • Courtesy Flemings Mayfair Hotel/Photo by Niall Clutton
    hotel

    Flemings Mayfair

    $$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2017

    The vibe: Boutique chic
    Location: Mayfair
    Top amenities: Vegan tasting menu at Ormer resturant
    Best for: Busy travelers

    Posh-meets-quirky in a stellar location between Bond Street and Green Park—it’s an easy trot of a few minutes across the grass to Buckingham Palace from here. Open since 1850, this is a grande dame of the boutique scene. Though surprisingly big at 129 rooms, and with a slightly more business-like decor than other London boutique hotels—think lots of neutrals with the odd pop of color—there’s a lovely, cozy feel, and a lot of privacy—some apartments even have their own entrances. Bathrooms have heated floors, with products by aspirational British brand The White Company. Downstairs is a blinder of a restaurant: Ormer Mayfair, by hot young chef Sofian Msetfi, who offers tasting menus, including a vegan one (rare for London). If you’re not vegan, you’ll want to try the signature warm Ibérico ham jelly. Manetta’s Bar, meanwhile, is a taste of the sultry 1930s, with its black velvet seating, rose gold accents, and Art Deco styling. Choose your cocktail by the ingredients or, intriguingly, by a signature quote from the likes of Gertrude Stein and Agatha Christie.  

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  • Courtesy Small Luxury Hotels of the World
    hotel

    11 Cadogan Gardens

    $$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018

    The vibe: Raffish yet mysterious 
    Location: Chelsea 
    Top amenities: Hans' Bar & Grill, with streetside dining
    Best for: Shopping in nearby Knightsbridge

    There are 56 rooms at 11 Cadogan Gardens—not that you’d know. An amalgamation of four Victorian townhouses, connected by wiggling corridors and staircases that seem to go nowhere, its meandering premises gives it a homely feel—you’ll likely only become aware of the other guests at breakfast. Hidden off a residential square in Chelsea, just edging north of Sloane Square and near the shops of Knightsbridge, this isn’t a hotel zone, and 11 Cadogan Gardens masquerades perfectly as just another house. Once home to a private members’ club—it still has that slightly mysterious, raffish air—it’s now the only Relais & Chateaux property in the capital, with all-day restaurant Hans’ Bar & Grill backing onto Pavilion Road, the pretty pedestrianized street at the back of the hotel. In the past, rooms looked a little zany, and there’s still a bit of that left—like the odd dramatic black-and-gold four-poster bed, and the sexy dark-walled, dark-carpeted staircase—but today’s decor is largely boutique-chic with a hint of English countryside: think neutrals with bright pops of color found on bed cushions, armchairs, and headboards. In 2021, it opened The Apartments by 11 Cadogan Gardens—six apartments, each spread across an entire floor of a Victorian townhouse across the square from the hotel. Even the one-bed apartments have full kitchens. Back in the main building, there’s the moody Chelsea Bar, the plush library, and the Mirror Room—which, as the name suggests, is wall-to-wall mirrors.

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  • Courtesy Hazlitt's
    hotel

    Hazlitt's

    $$$

    The vibe: Step back in time
    Location: Soho
    Top amenities: Sir Godfrey, the house cat
    Best for: Living London's history

    Sprawling across four 18th-century townhouses just off leafy Soho Square, Hazlitt’s whisks you immediately back to its Georgian heyday. 19th-century essayist William Hazlitt lived (and died) here, and today the property’s literary heritage is continued by guests including Bill Bryson, who’ve left signed books alongside the likes of Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes in the wood-panelled library. The 30 rooms, accessed via a rabbit warren of corridors and creaky, sagging steps, are all different, but traditional in style—a four-poster bed here, an elaborately carved dark-wood headboard there, a window nook for reading or a bulging bookshelf to get you inspired. Antique furniture, thick curtains, rolltop baths, and even sloping walls whirl you back into the past (there are TVs, but they’re hidden). Downstairs is the library and the lounge, with its honesty bar. The top draw is aging house cat Sir Godfrey, whose constant presence makes you feel like you’re in a Dickens novel (and in fact, you’ll find first editions of Dickens in the library, too).

  • Courtesy Chiltern Firehouse
    hotel

    Chiltern Firehouse

    $$$ | Hot List 2015 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022

    The vibe: See and be seen
    Location: Marylebone
    Top amenities: Priority access to the gold-dust restaurant 
    Best for: Celeb spotting

    Ever since André Balazs opened this in 2014—his first hotel outside the US—celebrities have flocked to Chiltern Firehouse. Unlike other restaurants, which stay hot for a few months until the next one comes along, this, helmed by Richard Foster (who has taken over from Nuno Mendes) is still one of the top addresses in London—and the hotel rooms are no different. Even the building's exterior lives up to the hype: It’s a flouncy, fiery red-brick former fire station between chic Marylebone High Street and Baker Street. The 26 rooms go all-out with retro British glamour: Find super-luxe beds with custom-made 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, heated bathroom floors, and working fireplaces in all but three of the rooms. The restaurant—usually booked up months in advance—holds back gold-dust tables for hotel guests; don't skip the vodka tomato rigatoni.

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  • hotel

    Dean Street Townhouse

    $$$

    The vibe: Members only
    Location: Soho
    Top amenities: The generously stocked bathroom goodies
    Best for: Emulating the elite

    This is famously where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first date, and while we can’t guarantee sparks will fly, it’s a given that you’ll fall in love with London here. In the heart of Soho, this is, after all, where the Soho House empire began—the original private members’ club is just around the corner on Greek Street. The good news is that you don’t have to be a member to stay here—and while non-members must buy an annual “Friends” pass to stay at other Soho House properties, you don’t have to do that for Dean Street Townhouse, which is fully open to the public. Not that it’s less fancy than its sister properties: Soho House is renowned for its ultra-comfortable digs, and this is no exception, with custom Hypnos beds and Soho Home linens (the furnishings were so popular, the group started selling them). Another Soho House signature move? Its generous extras. Expect full-sized Cowshed amenities in the bathroom (including a choice of scented shower gel), and homemade cookies in the ‘treat tin.’ The all-day restaurant downstairs is Soho House at its best—simple but exceptional British food, from mince and potatoes to roast chicken with stuffing. It also does afternoon tea, and a great Saturday brunch.

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Julia is a freelance journalist who lives in Cornwall. Previously based in Italy, Oxford, London, and Las Vegas, she writes about travel for most UK publications, and was also the Assistant Editor at HotelChatter.com. Europe, hotels, and disabled travel are her specialities.
Contributing Writer
TopicsUrban HotelsBoutique Hotels

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