Claridge's opened in 1856 and has been the standard against which London luxury hotels measure themselves ever since. The Art Deco renovations of the 1920s and 1930s produced the interiors that remain today: the geometric black-and-white chequerboard marble floors of the Grand Foyer, the wrought-iron Art Deco lifts, the great chandeliers in the ballroom. These are not preserved for heritage purposes. They function, daily, as the most elegant hotel lobby in Europe.
The roughly 190 rooms and suites are individually designed, so no two are identical and the quality holds across the board. Standard rooms begin at a generous size and carry the details, the fireplaces in senior suites, handwritten room notes, flowers changed daily, that larger hotels describe in a brochure but rarely deliver at scale. The royal and penthouse suites occupy the upper floors of the Brook Street building; several have hosted heads of state and rank among the finest hotel accommodation in London.
The Claridge's Bar is one of Mayfair's most reliable destinations for a late-evening drink, its cocktail programme referencing the hotel's Art Deco period with intelligence rather than nostalgia, and the hidden Fumoir sits alongside it. The Foyer & Reading Room handles the famous afternoon tea and a strong power breakfast. On the dining side, note that Daniel Humm's Davies and Brook closed in 2022; the main restaurant now runs as Claridge's Restaurant (modern British), with the New York import Dante at Claridge's added for cocktails and seasonal plates.
The spa, the Claridge's Spa, was relaunched and expanded in recent years. It operates on a model of restraint: fewer treatment rooms than some larger properties, each executed at a higher standard. The swimming pool, tiled in the Art Deco idiom of the hotel, is narrow but long and heated to a temperature that most London pools do not manage. The fitness suite is equipped without ostentation and staffed by people who know what they are doing.
The combination of scale, beauty, and uninterrupted service makes Claridge's the most defensible honeymoon choice in London. Mayfair means Bond Street within walking distance, the parks a short distance further, and the sense, important for a honeymoon, that you are staying somewhere that will be remembered with precision, not merely warmly. The hotel's tradition of discretion means that two people who want to be left alone will be; two people who want the city's full attention will find the concierge entirely capable of providing it. No London hotel manages both registers as fluently.
The Reading Room doubles as the best client breakfast venue in Mayfair, which is saying something in a neighbourhood of serious restaurants. The hotel's WiFi is fast and reliable, the meeting facilities are available without the institutional atmosphere of larger conference hotels, and the address itself remains the most legible signal of seriousness available to a London host. The Connaught may offer comparable dining, but Claridge's communicates a particular kind of established confidence that the boardroom understands.
Rates from £930/night. Check availability at Claridge's.
The closest neighbours on our Top 20 London Hotels list.
Editorial · #2 on the Top 20 London Hotels 2026 list
Claridge's ranks #2 in London on the strength of its continuous Mayfair operation: the property has held the Brook Street address since 1856, a run no competing London hotel matches. The Art Deco interiors from the 1920s-30s, kept current through successive renovations, remain its defining aesthetic, and recent suite and penthouse additions sit on top of that heritage base.
For London visitors, Claridge's is where the grand-hotel tradition is at its most fully realised: the Foyer & Reading Room afternoon tea is among the most recognised in the city, and the hidden Fumoir is one of London's longer-tenured cocktail rooms. Brook Street puts you a few minutes from Bond Street, Berkeley Square and Oxford Street. Its Three Michelin Keys, shared with The Connaught, confirm the top-tier position. The honest note: it edges in just behind the Connaught at #1, which pairs comparable rooms with a three-star restaurant and a landmark bar.
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