Exclusive review: The Ritz Piccadilly Suite

Selected by the editors as one of the best hotels in London

The Ritz, like most places that we refer to as 'an institution' and think of as timeless and unchanging, is in fact changing constantly. The point is that if the institution in question is doing its job properly, we only notice the changes when we're supposed to.

In recent years some of the changes at The Ritz have been dramatic and impossible to miss. Above all there was the annexing of the next-door William Kent House - César Ritz's dream ever since he built the hotel in 1906 but one that took almost a century to come true. But the main public spaces - aligned along the Long Gallery, that sumptuous strip that runs the length of the building, from Arlington Street at one end to Green Park at the other - remain outwardly little changed. Here you still have a sense, enhanced by the rich, warm, golden glow of this part of the hotel, of having found yourself preserved in amber. An especially pleasant and cosseting amber, what with all the teapots and ties of the Palm Court, and the scores of earnest waiters in the magnificent restaurant with its endless swooping, looping chandeliers.

The addition of a new 'signature' suite is the latest dramatic change at The Ritz - and we're definitely supposed to notice. Those who have had a spa treatment at the hotel will have passed what is now the Piccadilly Suite. Seventh floor, straight ahead out of the lifts; room 707 in the corner, with the adjoining and somewhat smaller room 708 to the left. The two rooms are known collectively as the Piccadilly Suite, though they are available together or separately.

Previously these rooms were used as offices by the Ritz Fine Jewellery brand. There are sloping mansard-roof intrusions, a slightly awkward L-shape in 707 and a great big column right where you really wouldn't expect one. And yet it all works brilliantly. The transformation is a triumph. There's a gorgeous sense of amplitude and lateral space. What is naturally lacking in ceiling height on the top floor is more than made up for in the marvellous views. From the bedroom of 707 you look roughly east, down Piccadilly, past The Wolseley and The Royal Academy of Arts; or roughly south, towards the Palace of Westminster. True, the views are partially obscured by ornamental masonry, fire escapes and the like. Possibly some may fail to see the charm; but others will find it charm itself, a rare glimpse of a generally invisible world.