Hotel Café Royal

It’s not every day a new grand hotel opens, especially in central London. But then again in some ways Hotel Café Royal is anything but new. For well over a century it was a bar and restaurant frequented by the likes of Oscar Wilde — if there’s such a thing as “the likes of” Wilde — as well as many of the theatre world’s other bright lights, a century’s worth of statesmen and royals, and several generations of fairly eminent journalists. Today, after years of planning and construction, it’s been reborn as one of the city’s most luxurious hotels, the crown jewel of an ambitious multi-use development which aims at nothing less than to turn the elegant John Nash–designed Georgian curve of lower Regent Street into a new hub for upscale West End living.

That’s a lot of architectural history to contend with, but Hotel Café Royal seamlessly spans the years, from the Regency to the mid-20th century — the interiors are timeless, though with a contemporary sheen (and some very contemporary comforts). And while it seeks to recapture some of the artistic and intellectual atmosphere of its heyday, a central London luxury hotel will necessarily be tailored towards the business traveler, if not the business mogul. There’s no shortage of dining and nightlife options, as well as a phenomenally well-equipped spa and wellness center, and that’s just in-house — the south end of Regent Street has become something of a self-contained city unto itself.