Beaverbrook Town House Hotel

London

It’s the ultimate British country bolthole, without leaving the city. Beaverbrook Town House blends old and new in all the right ways, from the cream and turquoise rotary phones, art deco lamps, Oscar Wilde portraits and retro illustrations to an understanding that the beds need to be sumptuous, rooms cosy and cool, and food and drink has to be on point. The latter they get so right, with the bar – red- stained glass, leather booths, Japanese matchbox tables – serving martinis the Sir Winston way, Spitfire Collins, myriad Japanese whiskies, well chosen wines and East India teas.

Then the food: authentic Japanese, taking you from sashimi and nigiri, to sushi specials that include the adventurous ‘ike-jime’ red bream with shio koji and Kentish ants (always the tastiest). For something with fewer legs there’s also a robata grill, serving wagyu, black cod and monkfish.

The Spitfire logo that adorns everything from doors to drinks coasters is a nod to Lord Beaverbrook, the former pal of Winston Churchill and wartime minister of aircraft production who once resided in the townhouse’s Surrey-based sister estate. And it feels as if all the best bits of the already renowned modern British luxury of Beaverbook Hotel have been taken and given a city twist for a townhouse that is the perfect away-from-it-all break, whether you live in London or not.

Doubles from £370. 020 3988 6611, beaverbrooktownhouse.co.uk

Words by Alex Mead.