Few hotels can have generated quite so many salivating column inches, before they even opened, then the Haymarket Hotel in the heart of London’s West End. The Haymarket is the latest offering from Kit Kemp of Firmdale Hotels, the people behind the equally swish Charlotte Street and Soho Hotels. In a superbly central location, between the National Gallery and Piccadilly Circus, the hotel is housed in an elegant John Nash townhouse and has 50 stylish and individually decorated rooms.
The look is ‘contemporary English,’ with subtle splashes of cerise and lime; facilities are of a predictably high standard with no detail overlooked. Linens are crisp and the granite and glass bathrooms are beautifully designed. The fairy-light-bedecked basement swimming pool is a particular highlight and the hotel’s Brumus restaurant, with its distinctive raspberry wallpaper and menu of tempting Northern Italian dishes, is rapidly becoming one of the capital’s destination dining spots. For the ultimate indulgence, book the hotel’s exclusive Townhouse suite, spread over four floors and with its own private entrance.