The Franklin London - Starhotels Collezione

You can’t talk about the Franklin without talking about Anouska Hempel, the hotelier and designer (and all-around character) who was responsible for some of London’s first wave of boutique hotels. Her latest design creation comes almost four decades after her first, with her role in the renovation and reopening of the Franklin, a row of Victorian townhouses on the ill-defined border between Knightsbridge and Chelsea — a properly posh address for an effortlessly luxe boutique hotel.

This time around the owners are Italian, and there’s a bit of Continental warmth involved in the equation, a welcome contrast with the irrepressible Englishness of these red brick houses. Once you’re in your room, of course, you’re in Hempel-land, where things are a bit moody, surprisingly monochrome, and appealingly sexy. You’ll lack for nothing when it comes to comforts, as Frette linens, Penhaligon bath products, and Jenson phones set the top-shelf tone. And the chef, happily, came along with the owners — everything’s Italian, from breakfast through dinner, with menus by the Michelin-starred chef Alfredo Russo.

In the end it’s not meant to lead another boutique revolution, but it excels at its intended purpose: a low-key but still luxurious hotel in a high-end residential district, convenient to the sights and the shops of Knightsbridge and its environs. And in a city that can fairly be accused, from time to time, of having more money than taste, we’re always happy to recommend a hotel with a surplus of the latter.