Blakes Hotel has been a byword for elegant sophisticated glamour on the London hotel scene for many years. The product of renowned designer Anoushka Hempel, the interior is a grown-up take on the excess of the eighties parked in pretty South Kensington.
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7370 6701
Price: £265–565
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Arguably the original boutique hotel, Blakes was the theatrical first venture of Anouska Hempel (aka Lady Weinberg, the wife of leading city financier Sir Mark Weinberg) and reflects her background as both fashion designer and actress. Opened in the early 1980s, the five-star Victorian townhouse hotel is a temple to the heady excesses of the time – heavily swagged, themed rooms have a sumptuous, boudoir feel with trompe-l’oeil murals and fantastical beds bedecked in exotic silks. They are perhaps a little de trop for more contemporary tastes but impressive nonetheless and a lot of fun. Fans of minimalism should instead beat a path to The Hempel (see page 46) in Bayswater, Anouska’s painterly masterpiece in a staggering 32 shades of white. Downstairs, the décor is dark, dramatic and sexy, particularly in the oriental-themed restaurant. The superbly executed international menu has attracted a glamorous crowd for over 20 years. It seems that here conspicuous consumption has never gone out of fashion.
