The Portrait
Forty-five rooms is a small number for Park Lane, and it is the point of the house. Thierry Despont built the interiors in an Art Deco key and the brief, in the group’s own words, was more private residence than grand hotel. Hyde Park is three minutes on foot across the road, and the Dorchester is a few doors along the same pavement.
The categories run from a 36-square-metre room — 388 square feet — up to the Penthouse Terrace Suite at 170 square metres, 1,829 square feet, with its own lift. In between sit two- and three-bedroom Park Lane suites of 136 and 171 square metres. Most categories come with a butler. Downstairs there is CUT, Wolfgang Puck’s first restaurant in Europe, the Michelin-starred Sushi Kanesaka, and a spa with the longest pool on Park Lane. Parking is 60 £ a night.
What it does not have is a kitchen, in any category. This is a hotel that works for a long stay because of its size, its service and its address, and we would rather write that than let the word residence do work it has not earned. No rate is published; the suites desk quotes by dates.
Who it suits: a stay of a week or a fortnight in Mayfair where the park is the view, three bedrooms are needed under one roof, and nobody intends to cook.
Written by the Selloua editors from the address’s own published facts. Nothing in this entry was paid for.