Haymarket Hotel, Firmdale Hotels

Haymarket Hotel is among the younger hotels in the Firmdale group — or shall we call it a family? We’re disposed to think of Number Sixteen, the Knightsbridge, Soho Hotel and all the rest of the group's other London hotels as instant classics: luxury-hotel values on a boutique-hotel scale, with a unique design personality courtesy of Kit Kemp. What’s not to love?

What’s special about Haymarket Hotel comes down largely to its location. Not far south of the Soho Hotel, and just off Piccadilly Circus, the Haymarket finds itself even more in the thick of Theatreland, surrounded by about as much culture as one could reasonably be expected to take. The National Gallery awaits, as do the low-culture pleasures of Mayfair’s famous shopping districts.

As expected, the Haymarket Hotel comes with its share of public and semi-private places — a conservatory, a drawing room, a private dining room — as well as a fine restaurant serving brasserie-style modern English cuisine, and a full-service spa. Where it steps out ahead of its sisters, however, is downstairs, where you’ll find an 18-meter swimming pool, complete with a poolside bar and a booming sound system. Takes the formula one better — which, given the already high quality of the formula, is just about all you could want.