The Lanesborough
The 2023 debut of the custom-built Peninsula London right next door has perhaps put the esteemed Lanesborough on its back foot, but there are longstanding and undiminished reasons why discreet guests continue to choose this over-the-top luxury landmark and not the new-money chain next door. Once, I sneezed at the Lanesborough. Moments later, my butler—everyone has one here—flew to my side bearing a silver tray of hot tea, fresh-cut ginger on a porcelain plate, and acacia honey. Here, guest needs are meticulously recorded, the cigar-and-Cognac salon entertains tycoons, the color palette favors Empire eggshell blues and lime greens, and anticipated and fresh-cut blooms are delivered to your bathroom counter the moment your back is turned. Every fixture was installed with made-to-measure finery—like a mansion of Wedgwood china, Corinthian leather, and canopy king beds. Previously a hospital building dating to 1844, it only became a hotel in the early 1990s, so this is technically an English pastiche for the one-percenters, but it's a pitch-perfect one, and it’s also a honeymoon nirvana. At the Lanesborough, operated by the Oetker Collection, intense formality strives to validate the extraordinarily high tariff, and it often succeeds. Should the tariff at one of London’s most expensive hotels understandably be out of your reach, at least stop by for the exquisite afternoon tea under the skylight of its magnificent Regency-style restaurant and beneath the watchful eye of a staff that seems to live only to please you.
The 2023 debut of the custom-built Peninsula London right next door has perhaps put the esteemed Lanesborough on its back foot, but there are longstanding and undiminished reasons why discreet guests continue to choose this over-the-top luxury landmark and not the new-money chain next door. Once, I sneezed at the Lanesborough. Moments later, my butler—everyone has one here—flew to my side bearing a silver tray of hot tea, fresh-cut ginger on a porcelain plate, and acacia honey. Here, guest needs are meticulously recorded, the cigar-and-Cognac salon entertains tycoons, the color palette favors Empire eggshell blues and lime greens, and anticipated and fresh-cut blooms are delivered to your bathroom counter the moment your back is turned. Every fixture was installed with made-to-measure finery—like a mansion of Wedgwood china, Corinthian leather, and canopy king beds. Previously a hospital building dating to 1844, it only became a hotel in the early 1990s, so this is technically an English pastiche for the one-percenters, but it's a pitch-perfect one, and it’s also a honeymoon nirvana. At the Lanesborough, operated by the Oetker Collection, intense formality strives to validate the extraordinarily high tariff, and it often succeeds. Should the tariff at one of London’s most expensive hotels understandably be out of your reach, at least stop by for the exquisite afternoon tea under the skylight of its magnificent Regency-style restaurant and beneath the watchful eye of a staff that seems to live only to please you.
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