Hotel Cafe Royal

Hotel Cafe Royal

On Regent Street, where Piccadilly Circus traffic fades into Mayfair's calm, Hotel Café Royal occupies a building that has welcomed guests since 1865, its rooms once hosting Oscar Wilde's salon and Winston Churchill's steak, stilton and Champagne dinners. That history still earns its keep: the two-Michelin-starred cooking of Alex Dilling shares the building with Cakes & Bubbles, the dessert restaurant from Michelin-starred pastry chef Albert Adrià, a pairing not many hotels can offer, plus Ziggy's, a cocktail bar built as a tribute to David Bowie. Seven floors hold 160 rooms and suites, air-conditioned and soundproofed, each with a minibar, bathrobe and slippers rather than a plaque explaining the past. The Akasha wellbeing centre runs to more than 1200 square metres, with a sauna, steam room, massage rooms and an indoor heated pool, and a separate gym and yoga space for guests who want a workout rather than a treatment. Families are looked after with a kids' club, a playroom, babysitting on request and children's own slippers and toiletries, though this is not a hotel built for guests wanting to disappear: the lobby carries real foot traffic, and an eight-venue events wing with a ballroom for up to 250 people keeps the building busy on weekdays. Check-in runs from three in the afternoon, an extra bed costs 80 pounds a night, and a 100-pound daily deposit covers any damage. What separates Café Royal from its neighbours on this stretch of the West End is that the history on display is not decoration added to a new build. It is the actual room Oscar Wilde sat in, still doing the job. A Regent Street hotel dating to 1865, where Oscar Wilde once held his salon and Alex Dilling now cooks two-Michelin-starred French food beside Albert Adrià's dessert restaurant. The 1200-square-metre Akasha spa and eight event spaces keep it busy rather than quiet.