St James’s Hotel & Club Mayfair

If you’re looking for a window into an earlier era of British hospitality you could do a lot worse than the St. James’s Hotel and Club. This gorgeous bright red Victorian house stands at the end of a cul-de-sac off St. James’s Street, and it aims to recreate some of the atmosphere of the gentlemen’s clubs of the last century.

It’s part of a German luxury chain, and essentially a re-creation rather than strictly a renovation of the original St. James’s Club, yet it’s remarkably successful all the same. Purists and historians will recognize the contemporary Continental touch, but what matters most is the air of luxury and exclusivity about the place. The sixty rooms are not massive, but they are exceedingly comfortable, and the style is both plush and posh, if not certifiably plummy.

There’s a high-end restaurant and a swanky little bar and bistro, and the St. James’s semi-public spaces seem never to end — if there’s anything about it that’s got the spirit of the best London clubs it’s the conspiratorial atmosphere that develops in the little side-rooms and antechambers. Even better, for our money, are a couple of the suites, which look out over the West End from rooftop terraces.