Brown's Hotel

Brown's Hotel occupies a row of Georgian townhouses on Albemarle Street in Mayfair, a two-minute walk from Green Park Underground station and close to Bond Street's flagship stores and the Royal Academy of Arts. Piccadilly and Berkeley Square are both within a short stroll, placing the hotel at the centre of Mayfair's gallery and shopping district.

Opened in 1837 by James and Sarah Brown, it is London's oldest luxury hotel and has never changed name, location or ownership structure in the way many contemporaries have; Rocco Forte Hotels has managed the property since 2003, following a £24 million restoration completed in 2005 that preserved its wood-panelled corridors and English country-house character while updating guest room technology.

Accommodation spans Classic Rooms through to the two-storey Kipling Suite, named for Rudyard Kipling, who wrote The Jungle Book while staying at the hotel; rooms are decorated with English antiques, contemporary art and marble bathrooms. Charlie's at Brown's, overseen by chef Adam Byatt, serves modern British cuisine in a dining room hung with Vogue photography, while the Donovan Bar takes its name from photographer Terence Donovan and serves cocktails beneath a rotating collection of his prints. The English Tea Room hosts one of London's most established afternoon tea services, running since the hotel's earliest years.

The Spa at Brown's offers ESPA treatments in a set of below-ground treatment rooms, alongside a fitness centre for guests who prefer to keep to a routine while travelling. Concierge and round-the-clock butler service are available across all room categories, and the hotel's compact size — 115 rooms — allows staff to keep track of returning guests' preferences. The location and quiet residential streets around Albemarle Street suit both leisure travellers seeking a traditional Mayfair base and business guests attending meetings in the surrounding financial and gallery district.