Hotel Café Royal

Café Royal has been a London address since 1865, and the names who ate and drank here, from Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill to Muhammad Ali and Diana, Princess of Wales, read like the city’s own guest book. It stands on Regent Street where Mayfair, Soho and St James’s meet, and the gilded Grill, all mirrors and carved gold, is where that history is kept.

Upstairs is another matter. David Chipperfield Architects remade the 159 rooms and suites in fumed English oak, Portland stone and Carrara marble, in a calm so complete that Regent Street, a few floors down, might be a rumour. Six signature suites, the circular Dome Penthouse among them, take the idea to its conclusion. Alex Dilling has a restaurant here, Cakes and Bubbles pairs pâtisserie with champagne, and Akasha keeps a pool and a spa within the building.

The corner of three Londons

Regent Street is the seam between three versions of the city, and Café Royal sits on it. Mayfair lies to the west with its tailors and galleries, Soho to the east with its noise and late kitchens, St James’s to the south with its clubs. The address has traded on that position since 1865, as the place London went to be seen: Wilde held court here, Churchill dined, Ali and Diana passed through in their turn. For a guest today, the geography means that dinner, the theatre and the walk home are all on foot.

Chipperfield’s calm upstairs

David Chipperfield Architects were given the rooms, and their answer to the gilt downstairs was silence. Guestrooms are finished in fumed English oak or Portland stone, depending on category, with bathrooms in Carrara marble; a Deluxe room measures 38 square metres, generous for London, and the views run from Regent Street itself to the rooftops and, from the grandest suites, across to Westminster. The six signature suites push further: a Tudor fireplace in one, gilding in the Celestine, and the Dome Penthouse, circular and 292 square metres, with London on every side.

The Grill, Alex Dilling and Akasha

The Café Royal Grill is the reason the building is famous: a gilded, mirrored room of the kind London no longer builds, in which lunch takes on the length it deserves. Alex Dilling’s restaurant brings serious modern cooking under the same roof, Cakes and Bubbles pairs pâtisserie with champagne, and the Green Bar keeps the late hours. Akasha is the quiet counterweight: a pool, a spa and a gym in the calm Chipperfield register, the place to recover from an evening in the Grill before starting another.