Since 1865, the curved Portland stone facade at the top of Regent Street has anchored one of London's most culturally loaded addresses — a building where Oscar Wilde held court in the Domino Room, where the Bright Young Things of the 1920s made their reputations, and where the Grill Room's gilded excess became a byword for a certain strain of Victorian confidence. Hotel Cafe Royal, which opened in 2012 following a conversion by David Chipperfield Architects, holds 160 rooms across the Grade II-listed Norman Shaw and John Nash-influenced building, threading contemporary hospitality through a structure whose bones resist easy domestication. Chipperfield's approach separates rather than homogenises. The landmark Grill Room — visible here in its full Rococo extravagance, crimson leather tub chairs beneath a ceiling of gilded cartouches and painted panels — was preserved intact as the Oscar Wilde Bar, its mirrors multiplying the ornament into something approaching hallucination. Against that, the guestrooms operate in a cooler register: some wrapped in aged oak linenfold panelling with wide-plank floors and saffron-upholstered beds, others finished in pale stone-effect panelled walls with herringbone parquet and brass reading lamps in a palette of chalk and buttermilk. The Domino Bar, anchored by a curved oxidised-steel counter and deep bottle-green lacquered walls, references the building's bohemian past through a large figurative portrait rather than period pastiche — a distinction Chipperfield's edit maintains throughout.

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Hotel Cafe Royal is a modern grand hotel in the heart of London's West End between Mayfair and Soho. The hotel features 159 guestrooms and suites have been created in a contemporary yet refined style. Two-Michelin starred Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal flips the switch on gastronomic French cuisine in an intimate 34 seat dining room. The Green Bar is the perfect place to relax and unwind with a cocktail. The award-winning traditional afternoon tea service is served in the ornately gilded Grill Room is the place to indulge in a glamorous setting. Cakes & Bubbles, fronting vibrant Regent Street, is a dessert and Champagne experience by the legendary Spanish Chef Albert Adrià. Barbounia at the heart of the hotel serves contemporary twists on Mediterranean classics. To complete the experience, the wellbeing centre, Akasha, is an urban retreat spanning featuring an 18m pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and gym and offers a range of treatments and classes.