We've got the latest on the newest hotels, a hot shopping neighborhood, where to enjoy yourself after dark and more in this roundup of all-things London.
The London Information Centre at Leicester Square, W. 1, has a new telephone number and new opening times. It is now open seven days a week from 8am to 11pm. For information, call 020/729-22-333. You can also call free on 0800 LONDON for city information and to book discounted rates for London hotels, theaters, sightseeing, and airport transfers. Advisers are standing by daily from 8am to midnight.
Accommodations
In the fashionable South Kensington area, within walking distance of Knightsbridge, The Derby Hotel, 155-157 Cromwell Rd., S.W.5 (tel. 020/7465-5150) is one of the most undiscovered and charming hotels in the area. All its 25 rooms are brand new, including junior suites and regular suites. Most of the bedrooms, each beautifully furnished, open onto well-landscaped gardens. This hotel, we predict, will become far better known when its charms are discovered by more and more visitors to London looking "for that small hotel."
Also opening in South Kensington is The Bentley Hotel, at Harrington Gardens, S.W. 7 (tel. 020/7370-6486). Following an eight-year renovation, it is charm itself, its 64 rooms decorated in a chic, rather lavish style. The Bentley is for those who prefer opulence to minimalism. Six-hundred tons of marble imported from Turkey, Africa, and Italy to adorn the place, along with gold-plated bathroom fixtures, deep-pile carpets, and Louis XIV accessories, along with gorgeous silk fabrics. The Imperial Suite even boasts a grand piano.
For a while the elegant late-Victorian terracotta brick pile, The Cadogan, 75 Sloan St. S.W. 1 (tel. 020/7235-7141), was growing a bit stale in the Knightsbridge area. It had its legends: Oscar Wilde was arrested there for so-called indecent acts and in the 1890s the halls rang with the laughter of Lillie Langtry, mistress of Edward VII. Suddenly transformed, the Cadogan is chic once again, especially after the arrival of the design doyenne, Grace Leo-Andrieu. And, as an homage to Oscar Wilde, ostrich feathers are strewn across the pillows in the very room (no. 118) where he met his doom. The hotel lies within easy distance of Harrods, Hyde Park, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Finally, another boutique hotel, The Zetter, 86-88 Clerkenwell Rd. (tel. 020/7324-44444), lies in a converted Victorian warehouse between the financial district and the West End. The 59-room hotel features seven rooftop studios with patios and panoramic sweeps of the London skyline. A sky-lit atrium floods the core of The Zetter with natural light. The vending machines on each floor even dispense champagne.
Attractions
Hailed by The Times of London, as the "best place to see contemporary art in north London," the Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd., N.W. 3 (tel. 020/7472-5500), has reopened after a major refurbishment that cost about 8 million dollars. Today it invites you with its café, bookstore, studios, and exhibition galleries. It features a frequently changing program of exhibitions.
A Memorial to Princess Diana was unveiled in the summer of 2004 in Hyde Park, a 260 foot-by-160-foot ring of granite filled with water that flows and rushes. Designed as a living memorial to the Princess, it was created by Neil Porter and Kathryn Gustafson. Children are encouraged to splash and wade in the attraction, which lies to the immediate south of Serpentine Lake at the western edge of the park. Financed by public funds, the work cost just under 7 million dollars. Queen Elizabeth dedicated the monument on July 6. The most critical members of the British press have called it "a drainage ditch" and a "waterslide."
Open for tours for the first time, the restored 1871 Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, S.W.7 (tel. 020/7838-3105), has completed an eight-year restoration. Seating 5,000, the hall is famed for staging the BBC Promenade Concerts from mid-July to mid-September. Starting at 10am daily, the 45-minute tours run throughout the day until 3:30pm. Tours, which cost $11.50 and are limited to only 15 participants, take in such sights as the Queen's Box and the Royal Retiring Room used by the royals during intermissions. Those on tour are also shown the newly restored Robert Albert Hall organ with its 9,999 pipes.
Shopping
Some of London's most fashionable and trend-setting shoppers are trekking over to the famous old Brick Lane in the East End of the city. Brick Lane is the main drag along "Banglatown" and has long been known for its low-cost curry eating houses and sari stores, catering to London's burgeoning population from India. Almost overnight funky little boutiques and home furnishing stores started moving in, no doubt attracted by the low rents. Today you can seek out such shopping delights as Beyond Retro, 110 Brick Lane (tel. 020/7613-3636), where the managers keep the displays interesting by adding 300 new vintage pieces daily; Mar Mar Co., 16 Brick Lane (tel. 020/7729-1494), where you'll find Scandinavian ceramics and china boxes glazed with retro wallpaper designs, along with dozens of other delights, and Work Gallery, 156 Brick Lane (tel. 020/7377-0597), with its collection of quirky jewelry. There are dozens of other shops awaiting your own discovery.
After Dark
The home of the English National Opera, London Coliseum, St. Martin's Lane, W.C.2 (tel. 020/7632-8300) has reopened following its first major refurbishment in a century. The Coliseum has survived more or less intact since it was first built, even when a Nazi bomb in 1941 fell through the roof onto the stage but did not explode. Originally designed to evoke the Colosseum in Rome, the new London structure has a revolving ornamental globe crowning its tower. All of the seats in the 2,364- patron auditorium have been replaced, and the original color scheme of cream, red, purple, and gold restored. Tickets cost from $10 to $165.
Frank Matcham was the designer of the Coliseum, and he also designed Hackney Empire, Mare St., E.8 (tel. 020/985-2424), an Italian style rococo opera house that opened in 1901. At a cost of $30 million, it too has been restored. Today its cultural venue ranges from opera to the Bard, with tickets costing $20 to $50.
In another development, The Savoy Opera, a new London-based company, will present classic opera such as The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro at the Savoy Theatre, the Strand, W.C.2 (tel. 020/7166-7372). This was the famous opera theater built in 1880 by Richard D'Oyly Carte that specialized in Gilbert & Sullivan musicals. Today, the 1,100-seat theater has been completely refurbished. It is one of the few West End theaters with an orchestra pit, and this one will hold the recently formed Royal Philharmonic Opera Orchestra.
An intimate candlelit bar, Claridge's Mecanudo Fumoir, has opened at London's poshest address, Claridge's Hotel, Brook Street, W.1 (tel. 020/7629-8860). Both sumptuous and moody, this eggplant-colored leather clad bar seats only 17 and is one of the most stylish and luxurious venues in town. It features the largest selection of Macanudo cigars in the country, plus more than 20 different Cuban cigars. Along with cigars, you can enjoy London's most special selection of cognacs, armagnacs, tequilas, ports, and other drinks of choice.