This year is set to be a bumper year for the London hotel scene with a plethora of luxury and boutique hotels due to open; which should also mean new, high-quality restaurants.
Towards the end of last year, The Savoy hotel reopened after a long and expensive renovation, bringing with it Gordon Ramsay's Savoy Grill, which is already receiving stellar reviews and the beautiful Beaufort Bar.
Another refurbished hotel will shortly follow suit with the reopening of the Four Seasons London scheduled for January 31, along with Amaranto, its modern Italian restaurant from Executive Chef Adriano Cavagnini (previously at Hotel Eden, Rome). It will also have a lounge, a bar and a garden terrace. The rooftop spa has glorious views of London, even from the sauna.
A short distance away, the Dorchester Collection's Park 45 Lane will open in the summer where Wolfgang Puck will launch "Cut", a restaurant he opened at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills in 2006. I visited the original restaurant shortly after it opened and can highly rate the steaks and the tuna tartare starter.
Leicester Square will shortly be home to two new properties with the St. John Hotel due to open in January, to be followed by the W Hotel. It will be the first W Hotel in the UK, which should be open in time for Valentine's Day. St Pancras Renaissance is finally scheduled to open in February, which will be ideal for Eurostar travellers, where Marcus Wareing will open The Gilbert Scott, a British brasserie.
In Clerkenwell, The Zetter is due to open a sister property in May 2011 across the road from the original boutique hotel in a Georgian townhouse. The property will have the feel of a private residence with just 11 rooms, two suites and a lounge and cocktail bar, all designed by interior designer Russell Sage. Further East in Dalston, the Avo Hotel will open with only six rooms and a penthouse. The Eccleston Square Hotel is also scheduled to open in May 2011 in Pimlico with 40 bedrooms all with £12,000 Hasten beds from Sweden and a large focus on the in-room technology.
The Corinthia near Whitehall will have a bar designed by David Collins when it opens in April and Thompson Hotels will open Belgraves in Belgravia later in the year. On the fringes of London, London Syon Park, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, is set to open in early 2011. It sits on the grounds of a 200-acre English country estate, Syon Park, home of the Duke of Northumberland. The hotel will look out across the Thames to Kew Gardens, and it is ideally situated between London and Heathrow.
Further properties are planned for 2012, including the ME hotel group's first foray into the UK hotel market, and there are also plans to open London's first six-star hotel. Located just off Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, the 36-bedroom townhouse hotel, The Wellesley, is currently undergoing a £36 million renovation, with plans to open in 2012. There are also rumors that Andre Balazs will open a hotel in a converted fire station in Marylebone.
The exciting amount of new luxury hotel openings is making us wants to pack our bags and check right in.
