Luxury is an overused word, but in a city as densely populated as London, a sense of space and solitude can feel very luxurious. To float all alone in The Peninsula’s 25-metre pool listening to music piped through underwater speakers and gaze up at the faux-skylight ceiling (ingeniously designed to mimic the changing light of the day) feels like a rare privilege.
It’s rumoured that Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels spent 30 years scouting for the ideal location in London for a UK addition to its Peninsula brand and, having taken over the site of a former office block in Belgravia, spent nearly a decade constructing the 190-room hotel. Building from the ground up (as well as down) has many advantages.
The Spa’s sense of spaciousness is replicated in The Lobby, with its coffered ceiling and triple-height stone pillars. The stand-out features in Peter Marino’s design are the hand-painted de Gournay murals that pay tribute to the various Royal Parks only a short walk away. While the concept of all-day dining doesn’t always have the best connotations, this is a cleverly planned, airy space in which to start the day with breakfast and an equally appealing setting for afternoon tea – even on a grey winter’s day, as the light falls on Grosvenor Place beyond the lofty revolving doors.
%400.25x.jpg)
High above the treetops on the hotel’s eighth floor, Brooklands Bar might lay claim to having the best panoramic views in west London. St Paul’s and Big Ben do, however, have strong competition from the interior details: a latticed ceiling inspired by a 1930s twin-engine bomber; carriage seating and leather-lined wall panelling echoing those of the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost; a chandelier modelled on the blades of a Rolls-Royce turbine jet engine. The bar’s private space, The Napier Railton Room, pays homage to the record-breaking 1933 aero-engined car that regularly raced on the Brooklands track. In the adjacent Brooklands Restaurant, a 13.6-metre aluminium model of a Concorde hangs from the ceiling, while a midnight blue Tai Ping carpet depicts a map of the night sky across Concorde’s route. The architects of Archer Humphryes must have had great fun seeing how many references to aviation and automation history they could pack into one rooftop space.
The no-expense-spared attention to design details continues in the ground-floor restaurant Canton Blue. Taking as a starting point the 19th-century maritime trade routes linking China and Britain, Henry Leung of Hong Kong-based CAP Atelier has gone all out to conjure a theatrically opulent space. Having entered through an ice-white porcelain doorway flanked by The Peninsula’s signature lions, we’re guided through the moodily lit Tea Room – impressive in its own right with an Yves Klein blue chimneypiece and ornately carved and gilded wooden ceiling – on our way to the main dining area. The prime position for surveying the room has to be in one of the banquette booths, each one decorated with a striking mural medley of plates. We’re delighted to be seated beside a wall of porcelain in shades of red, especially when we’re told about the colour’s auspicious associations with happiness and prosperity.
With some of the dishes on Canton Blue’s à la carte menu topping £100, any aids to affluence are to be welcomed. However, alongside special-occasion dishes such as Peking Duck (carved at the table with impressive artistry), there’s a good selection of less lavish options like dim sum and noodle dishes, plus tasting menus that offer a set-price chance to sample a few of chef Dicky To’s greatest hits. After dinner, we are encouraged to make a short detour to check out the interior of the Little Blue bar and marvel at the inventiveness of the tower of apothecary drawers and the porcelain bamboo tree with gilded leaves, which hangs from the ceiling like a miniature version of Singapore’s Supertree Grove.
In a hotel as lavishly appointed as The Peninsula, it might come as a surprise that Peter Marino’s schemes for the bedrooms are almost low key, with a cool-hued colour scheme that majors on cream and caramel. But fear not, in our Junior Suite, there is nothing understated about the dressing room resplendent with highly polished mahogany cabinetry. Or the enormous bathroom. A Toto loo with a motion sensor and heated seat might offer the ultimate in high-tech sanitaryware, but it’s the dazzling combination of mirror glass and Turkish honey onyx that impresses me. And proves to be so dramatically reflective that I’m unable to take a photograph until I’ve found the dimmer switch on the touchscreen smart-lighting panel.
The Peninsula, 1 Grosvenor Place, SW1X 7HJ
Price per night: from £1,100
%2520Alexander%2520Baxter_pnc05_46-production_digital.jpg)
%400.25x.jpg)
