The Berkeley

The Berkeley does not boast the longest list of royal guests, the most storied history, or the richest collection of antiques and old master paintings. Nor does it have nightingales or a location in Berkeley Square. What it does have is extreme comfort. It is not considered, by any means, to be the grandest or the most stylish hotel, but for many people, it’s the best. Doormen and concierges call you by name and it’s on the doorstep of both Hyde Park and Harvey Nichols.

No wonder all sorts of people just opt to move in. Lawrence of Arabia director David Lean lived here, as did London it-girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. Rooms are old fashioned in the English country style — chaise longues, canopied beds and mahogany chests of drawers. They are spacious and enormously comfortable. Tea at the Berkeley is certainly not London’s most famous, but it is well loved by a small crowd in the know. It is intimate, and at times unusual, as when the chef, inspired by the Chelsea Flower Show, served lavender brulée alongside sloe gin scones.

Though the building that it currently occupies was only built in the 1970s, the Berkeley has existed in some form since the eighteenth century. And for a long time the Berkeley did not feel the urge to move with the times. Its clientele had never been an aesthetically demanding one.

This, however, has changed. Take the Art Deco-style Blue Bar (part of the old Berkeley hotel, and quite literally lifted and dropped bang in the middle of the present one), and the phenomenal rooftop pool, both of which Madonna, it has been said, adores. And then there’s the spa. It’s unusual for a hotel like the Berkeley to opt for cutting-edge treatments, but the Berkeley Health Club and Spa is state-of-the-art.