The best boutique hotels in London
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London is no stranger to grand dames, with some of the most famous hotel names holding court as bucket list destinations in themselves. For every regal hotel in London though, there's an equally alluring boutique option to be found. These boltholes can be found within unassuming townhouses and down whispered mews addresses, offering up a more discreet stay and home-away-from home atmosphere that's increasingly appealing in the crowded capital. From jewel-box interiors to secret celeb hangouts, the following are just some of our favourite boutique hotels in London. If you're looking for a wider selection, then look no further than our definitive list of the best hotels in London.
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At Sloane, Chelsea, London
It’s only the doorman who signals that the lovely red-brick townhouse of 1 Sloane Gardens is actually a hotel. Originally built in 1888 by Liberty department store architect Edwin Thomas Hall, the building was turned from flats into a 30-room hotel on the instruction of the forward-thinking Earl Cadogan. He enlisted the French duo of iconic hotelier Jean-Louis Costes and interior designer Francois-Joseph Graf, best known for his private homes for the European elite, from Yves Saint Laurent to Valentino. Connoisseurs will get it, and the rest of us will simply sense a rarefied quality in spaces where hidden doorways add playfulness but also maintain precious symmetry. For all the refinement and implied opposition to cheap design and big-brand conformity, there’s also a carnal undercurrent that recalls the spirit of Paris’s game-changing Hotel Costes (don’t call it a sister hotel).
Price: Rooms from around £600 per night
Address: 1 Sloane Gardens, London SW1W 8EA
Closest tube station: Sloane Square - hotel
First in: Broadwick Soho, London
Two enormous elephants in top hats and bow ties peep over a red awning on a Soho corner. In a city where hotels tend to be either
palatial grandes dames or discreet unmarked townhouses, Martin Brudnizki’s latest 57-room project is an attention-seeker. His trademark opulent interiors – clashing leopard print and zebra stripe; DJ booths jutting up against silk walls; flamingo-pink parrots
floating on green panelling – draw comparisons to his other projects, especially Annabel’s, but Broadwick Soho is a one-off. That’s partly down to the vision of owner Noel Hayden, a tech entrepreneur inspired by the 1970s Bournemouth hotel he grew up in, playing Space Invaders on the arcade machine while his glam mother and magician father entertained guests. That vaudeville spirit survives here. A barman whips up cocktails in the gold-dipped café-bar that spills onto the street, and there’s art by Francis Bacon, Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol on the way to rooms that feel almost pared back compared to the textural riot elsewhere. Wallpaper embroidered with elephants and tigers shimmers in the chandelier light. The enormous brass minibar is shaped like an elephant, handmade by craftsmen in Jaipur. The rooftop bar, Flute, has cork panelling, sequins, geometric lines and stellar views. The vibe is sultrier at basement restaurant Dear Jackie, named after Hayden’s mother, with crimson walls, intimate blue booths and a menu that transcends the trad Italian vibes. Finally, a hotel worthy of the madcap fun of Soho. Sarah JamesPrice: Rooms from around £464 per night
Address: 20 Broadwick St, London W1F 8HT
Closest tube station: Piccadilly Circus - hotel
Chelsea Townhouse, London
If you know London, you also know how prized its private communal gardens are to the residents lucky enough to live by them. The Cadogan Place Gardens in Sloane Square, with their mature trees and gated railings, are among the most prestigious – and the newly opened Chelsea Townhouse gives its guests access to that rarified local perk. The 36-room hotel – the third London property and the sixth hotel in the Iconic Luxury Hotels collection—sits across from three redbrick Victorian townhouses and includes roomy, ground-level suites with French doors that open directly into the garden. The decor here leans antique but is light-touch and chic – think botanical prints, pleated lampshades, velvet headboards, and the odd porcelain figurine. Much of the period furniture has been repurposed from its predecessor, the Draycott Hotel, but the redesign has breathed new life into its spaces, which are bathed in restful shades of grey and cream. Its communal areas include a fire-warmed dining room and bay-windowed library, made cosier with staff who anticipate your needs. Once nestled in this cocoon, it’s easy to forget the abundance at your doorstep: Stylish sister property 11 Cadogan Gardens – with a clever little gym that’s available for Townhouse guests – is around the corner, as is Pavilion Road, a pedestrian mews street with indie restaurants, bars, and design shops. Further out in Chelsea and Kensington, opportunities abound for a great night out; but as you wind your way back to this comfy, tucked-away sanctuary, you’ll be ever glad to be home. Arati Menon
Price: Rooms from around £455 per night
Address: 26 Cadogan Gardens, London SW3 2RP
Closest tube station: Sloane Square - The Twenty Twohotel
The Twenty Two, London
This previously residential Edwardian manor house has been turned into a 31-room hotel and member’s club by former Blakes owner Navid Mirtorabi, with the help of business partner Jamie Reuben, a scion of a family that owns swathes of Mayfair. In a marble-floored lobby that smells of churchy frankincense, guests are greeted by a cape-wearing doorman and a row of staff in Charlie Casely-Hayford suits. A pervasive friendliness cuts through the velveteen quality of a place that feels more like a louche Parisian hideaway than most smart new London hotels, which tend to fit into Hoxton or Heritage pigeonholes. Most rooms are understatedly plush, painted an elegant blue that’s on the sensual side of Edwardian; former Arbutus chef Alan Christie hits the key modern British notes in the dining room. Some of the prices are shiver-inducing, but then this is Mayfair, and The Twenty Two is offering something different – something sexier and more fun, which might just be a marker point for the area’s future.
Price: Rooms from around £540 per night
Address: 22 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 6LF
Closest tube station: Bond Street
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Beaverbrook Townhouse, London hotel review
A smart offshoot of the Surrey Hills original, this property has taken over a pair of restored Georgian townhouses in a prime position near Sloane Square. It feels like a joyous and timely celebration of the capital – especially on the stairs where an extraordinary collection of artwork has been cherry-picked by creative director and advertising legend Frank Lowe: old posters for the Boat Race, Brooks’ Peckham Brewery and Kew Gardens. Just as bedrooms in the country mansion pay homage to former owner Lord Beaverbrook’s friends and guests, here each one is named after a London theatre, with framed programmes of past productions and books on opera and Laurence Olivier. Interior designer Nicola Harding, who previously worked on the estate’s Garden House, has used a bolder, more playful palette for this spin-off, lending it a grown-up urban edge. Four-posters and fringed velvet sofas sit alongside antique desks, patterned lampshades and cushions made from vintage fabrics by Penny Worrall; bathrooms are equally colourful, with glassy tiles in rich apple green and bottle blue. On the ground floor, a Japanese apothecary cabinet at the entrance of the arsenic-hued, Art Deco-detailed bar marks a shift to the East. The best spot in the Fuji Grill restaurant, helmed by ex-Dinings SW3 chef Alex Del, is at the counter, where a sensational 20-course omakase supper is prepared, combining traditional techniques with modern European elements for dishes that might include tuna dry aged in house and hamachi sashimi with smoked aubergine. This standout addition to the area – where the Cadogan reopened under Belmond in 2019 and At Sloane opened in 2023 – is part of a new chapter for Chelsea.
Price: Rooms from around £399 per night
Address: 22 Portman Square, London W1H 7BG
Closest tube station: Bond Street - Jake Easthamhotel
Lime Tree Hotel London hotel review
This Ebury Street townhouse conversion is a masterclass in how to maximise eclectic style in a small space. It also delivers on a hard-to-keep promise: an elegant hangout that feels like home, in a great location, at an affordable price. Owners Matt and Charlotte Goodsall opened the property in 2008, quickly turning it into the area’s loveliest little boutique hotel and the best affordable hotel in London. They reframed challenge as opportunity during the 2020 lockdown, overhauling the interiors and adding a new café. The couple enlisted Fraher & Findlay architects, whose previous projects include Wolf & Badger in Coal Drops Yard, but relied on their own taste for the decorative details, sprucing up corners with Sanderson wallpaper and Pooky lampshades. The 28 bedrooms range from minuscule to moderately sized, but this only contributes to the country-cottage cosiness. Clever design ensures that even the tiniest space is optimised, with teal velvet headboards, mountains of ikat pillows and marmalade-coloured armchairs (thoughtful reading material is provided – ours was Aesop’s Fables). Single rooms come at a keener price, so solo travellers are well looked after. The Buttery kitchen is helmed by Stefano Cirillo, previously at Notting Hill spot Beach Blanket Babylon. Breakfast is made up of perfectly executed classics – avocado on sourdough with runny eggs, chocolate-spread-layered French toast topped with berries, a full English with halloumi – accompanied by the smell of freshly ground Gentlemen Baristas beans and crunchy pastries from the bakery down the road. The back garden is a tiny pocket of quiet for chatting late on summer evenings. Just like the rest of the house, it’s a sweet miniature that has all the elements needed and charm in spades.
Price: Rooms from around £192 per night
Address: 135 - 137 Ebury St, London SW1W 9QU
Closest tube station: Victoria - Soho Househotel
Dean Street Townhouse hotel review
Never has a traffic jam on the Old Kent Road looked so enchanting – everything seen from The Shangri-La looks enchanting. The hotel occupies floors 34 to the 52 of Renzo Piano's 87-storey London landmark. The rooms (contemporary, creamy, Asian-influenced), restaurants (especially the romantic Ting) and bar (gin and rosemary – divine) are all fantastic, though nothing can compete with the extraordinary views over London, which turn every guest into a slack-jawed infant, lost in wonder, gazing out, palms to the window, all day long. At night, sitting cross-legged on the bed with the blackout blinds open is like being on a magic carpet, floating high above the ceaseless glow of the great city.
Price: Rooms from around £638 per night
Address: 31 St Thomas St, London SE1 9QU
Closest tube station: London Bridge - hotel
The Soho Hotel, London hotel review
Cleverly converted from a multi-storey car park, the Firmdale Group's Soho property remains one of London's most fashionable hotels. There's a great big fat Fernando Botero bronze sculpture of a cat in the lobby, probably contemplating his next saucer of milk in the adjacent Refuel bar, even though he could clearly do without it. The rooms are a celebration of colour and pattern, richly varied, in designer and co-owner Kit Kemp's characteristic eclectic-English style. Six apartments have private entrances, kitchens and sitting rooms. You know you're in Soho when there's not one but two screening rooms in the basement.
Price: Rooms from around £564 per night
Address: Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, London W1D 3DH
Closest tube station: Tottenham Court Road
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Chateau Denmark hotel review, London
Hidden in the heart of Soho, somewhere between Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road is Chateau Denmark. Set across 16 buildings, and for the most part, blending seamlessly with the famous street; rooms are housed in Grade II listed buildings, hidden behind inconspicuous doors. It’s hard not to notice the tunnel entrance to the reception, though, which projects 360-degree immersive flowers onto the walls. After this bold entrance, you’ll be shown to your room which promises to be equally as showstopping. The decor, designed by Taylor Howes, is best described as goth grandeur – with black leather floors, oversized roll-top bathtubs (ideal for filling with ice and champagne, apparently), sculpted fireplaces and vintage furniture. Session rooms are designed in an equally eccentric fashion and sit in the new Now Building. With such a heavy rock’n’roll influence, it’s unsurprising that each room has a heavily stocked bar. There’s also an impressive Void speaker system in apartments, and guests are invited to bring along their guitars to make the most of it. The whole experience is a shock to the senses, but one that’s easy to grow to love – particularly with the help of your on-hand butler (or BTLR, as the brand calls them).
Price: Rooms from around £400 per night
Address: Denmark St, London WC2H 0LA
Closest tube station: Tottenham Court Road