Number Sixteen

Number Sixteen

The kind of London hotel that people who know London tend to keep to themselves. A white stucco Victorian townhouse on a quiet residential street in South Kensington, part of Firmdale's collection and designed throughout by Kit Kemp, whose signature is a particular kind of bold, confident, feminine Englishness that manages to feel fresh but not studied. Forty-one individually designed rooms with oversized headboards, colourful glass beads on cushions, shell buttons on curtains, bold prints and bursts of colour against rich wooden furnishings and contemporary art, the details collected over time and better for it. South Kensington tube is a three-minute walk. The V&A is around the corner. Harrods is ten minutes on foot. Kensington Gardens is close. The neighbourhood is the kind of London that people who live here love and visitors discover with the particular satisfaction of finding the right version of a city. The private garden is the real argument. Most London hotels of this size have no outdoor space at all, and Number Sixteen has a leafy, tree-filled courtyard with a stone fountain, wrought-iron chairs, and the atmosphere of somewhere Parisian that has been dropped quietly into SW7. In summer it is where breakfast happens, where afternoon tea makes the most sense, and where a gin and tonic after a day at the museums becomes the correct decision almost immediately. The Orangery, light-filled and art-lined, overlooks the garden and serves all day. The honesty bar is generously stocked and reasonably priced, which is not something London hotels say often enough. Twenty-four hour room service. The hotel doesn't have a spa, or pool, or rooftop bar. What Number Sixteen offers instead is the feeling of staying in a very well-designed private house in one of the best neighbourhoods in London, which for a certain kind of traveller is precisely what London requires. Short version: Forty-one individually designed Kit Kemp rooms in a quiet Victorian townhouse in South Kensington, with a private garden that most London hotels of this size simply do not have, an all-day Orangery, a generous honesty bar, and a location that puts the V&A, Harrods, and Kensington Gardens all within easy reach.