The Beaumont, Mayfair, London review: A monopoly on poshness

Amy Cooper

Nov 22 2015 at 12:15 AM

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Our rating

5 out of 5

THE LOCATION

Mayfair boasts the highest price tag on the Monopoly board. In the real world, it's much the same; a swath of central London poshness containing luxury bastions Claridges, The Dorchester, Fortnum and Mason, Bond Street and Savile Row, right near Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Oxford Street and Pall Mall. For affluent establishment London unsullied by hipster grunge, head here.

The Beaumont is the first hotel from acclaimed restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King – who gave London Le Caprice, The Ivy and The Wolseley. They've sought to recreate the neighbourhood's pre-war elegance with an injection of roaring '20s New York. The result is a five-star hotel that, although barely a year old, successfully convinces it's from the same era as its heritage 1926 facade.

THE SPACE

Corbin and King have crafted their 1920s time capsule with meticulous zeal. The 73-room hotel is a deco-fabulous feast of dark cherry wood panelling, geometric wool carpets, original art, bespoke reproduction furniture and hundreds of photos of 1920s socialites and stars.

Amid the opulence is The Beaumont's most talked-about feature: a very contemporary, three-storey "habitable sculpture" called ROOM, grafted halfway up the hotel's façade. ROOM, from sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, is a giant, crouching, cuboid human figure whose interior forms the bedroom of a second-floor suite. The work's presence on an otherwise period-perfect exterior is arresting, but beautiful.

THE ROOM

My one-bedroom suite, Harriman, is a grand deco affair, with a long, generous living area, two bathrooms and dimensions that shout "statesman in residence".