I’ve been fortunate enough to check into my favourite London five star hotel, The Beaumont, on a couple of occasions since it opened in 2014, but never during the festive season when the spectacular monochrome lobby, with its elegant and highly polished chequered floor and 1920s-inspired seating heralding the immaculate Art Deco style you’ll find throughout the hotel, is given a splash of colour with traditionally dressed Christmas trees and garlands aplenty. Located in central Mayfair, even when the hotel is full to capacity during the busiest season of the year it somehow always feels serene.
After the charming porters have whisked away the luggage and valet parked the car you won’t find it easy to leave, but if you must you’ll be glad to know that all guests have complimentary access to the hotel’s chauffeur-driven limousine for local trips, turning your usually frantic Christmas shopping dash into a veritable pleasure. There’s nothing quite like arriving in a limo for getting VIP treatment at the nearby designer boutiques of Bond Street or The Burlington Arcade. Who cares if the capital’s world-famous department stores Selfridge’s, Liberty London and Fortnum and Mason are all within walking distance?
If you arrive at The Beaumont with nothing to do other than relax and indulge in the hedonistic offerings, better still. First, head to the white marble Art-Deco oasis that is The Beaumont Spa. Located down a flight of stairs like something from a 1930s ocean liner or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film set, everything is the last word in Hollywood-style glamour, from the salon with traditional barber seats and a profusion of mirrors to the luxury changing rooms with black and white framed photographs. There’s a gymnasium and a decadent hammam with a plunge pool and sauna, while you can choose from a wide selection of treatments including facials using award-winning British skincare brand, Oskia London or specialist hot stone, warm oil or innovative Akwaterra massage therapies featuring different-shaped ceramic pods filled with warm water to remove stress and tension. What stress?
If Cary Grant had ever owned and designed a hotel, it would have looked like this. As one who spends their life reviewing hotels and finding fault with the best of them, The Beaumont is my idea of perfection and where I’d stay if I was royalty or Elon Musk. Scratch that, if I were Elon Musk I’d move in. With 50 rooms and 22 suites and studios including the glamorous penthouse ‘ROOM by Antony Gormley’ which occupies the interior of a giant semi-abstract sculpture, The Beaumont was inspired by the great hotels of the 1920s and is large enough to offer everything you could possibly want whilst retaining a distinctive intimacy and personal service. The end of 2023 will see the culmination of a three-year refurbishment of all existing rooms and suites in a subtle evolution of The Beaumont’s sophisticated Art Deco style and the addition of 29 rooms and suites in a seamlessly connected neighbouring building.
In 2021 the hotel underwent a gentle refurbishment of its bars and restaurants with the addition of a brand-new lounge and an al fresco dining terrace, under the creative direction of the leading New York-based designer Thierry Despont and even when I’m not staying I regularly pop by for dinner at the New York-inspired Colony Grill Room or a drink at Le Magritte where my husband is rather fond of enjoying a cigar on their year-round heated terrace. A Sunday lunch date at the hotel’s Colony Grill is the perfect way to settle in. With its clubby deep red booth and banquette seating, with crisp linens and table lamps, the fact that it’s a windowless space makes it all the cosier and cocoon-like come the winter months. Dine with someone you love and wallow in the atmosphere. Sunday is a please-all at The Colony with classic brunch dishes such as Eggs Royale alongside a classic roast beef you just know will be flawless due to their reputation as one of the city’s best steak restaurants. And it is; roast dry aged sirloin served rare with bone marrow, epic Yorkshire puddings, golden roast potatoes, bbq sprouts, glazed carrots and lashings of horseradish sauce and beef jus. Let’s just say we were wise to begin with one of the lighter appetisers, the New York shrimp cocktail with Marie Rose.
When it comes to dessert the choices make refusal an impossibility; rum baba with plums, cheesecake with mango, or the celebratory Bananas Foster flambéed table side with spiced rum. But nine times out of ten I won’t be able to resist the Colony’s bespoke ice cream sundae with options presented on a notepad with a pencil to tick however many boxes you so wish. Who could resist limitless toppings? I opted for the festive-sounding apple, pear and ginger sorbet and smoked salt caramel ice cream with honeycomb topping, whipped cream and warm salted caramel sauce. Suffice it to say, a lie down was required. The Christmas shopping would have to wait.
Our 32 square metre Superior Room overlooking Brown Hart Gardens featured a magnificently comfortable king size bed with the most pristinely pressed white Egyptian cotton bedlinen I’m yet to find on my travels, while The Beaumont’s fabulously Deco en suite bathrooms in soothing eau de nil with black and white accents all feature monochrome mosaic tiled and underfloor heated floors. Luxurious Beaumont monogrammed robes and the softest fluffy towels are at the ready, for you’ll probably want to spend a considerable amount of time here sampling the large tub or rain shower with by-royal-appointment heritage British D.R. Harris toiletries including bath salts and traditional soaps. A welcome touch of nostalgia.
Remembering that neither myself nor my husband drink alcohol, the hotel kindly left us a bottle of Jing sparkling tea on ice with two champagne flutes, along with a basket of fresh fruit. The coffee, teas, soft drinks, still & sparkling water and snacks from the in-room minibar are complimentary, so grab the candies and curl up on the bed for a truly Home Alone Lost in New York moment. I recommend going the whole nine yards by ordering a late night feast from the irresistible room service menu. The hamburger and to-die-for fries (Nigella Lawson’s personal favourite) is unbeatable this side of the Atlantic. You’ll also find a pack of snazzy Beaumont playing cards with a booklet of card games by the bed which you can make use of in The Gatsby Room, the hotel’s lounge serving their elegant afternoon tea and an all-day menu and now hosting a Games Night on the first Tuesday of each month.
There are many beautiful hotels in the capital but none quite as special as this. To spend the night at The Beaumont is to be given a brief glimpse of heaven, a conviction secured when you taste The Colony Grill’s devilishly good home-made Viennoserie in the morning. Angels would surely breakfast on The Beaumont’s generously filled and sugar-dusted almond croissants, albeit they might not float so easily afterwards. The French toast with sour cherries and clotted cream is also the stuff of legend, while those from other shores trying this impeccable version of a Full English for the first time will undoubtedly get a rude awakening when they experience it anywhere else. But that sums up the entire hotel; the only thing that I loathe about The Beaumont is that it spoils you for staying anywhere else. Gift vouchers are available if any relatives reading this would like to treat me to another magnificent stay or spa experience as the ultimate Christmas present!
The Beaumont, 8 Balderton St, Brown Hart Gardens, London W1K 6TF. For more information and reservations please visit the website.
