Facing the Thames from Victoria Embankment, where Cleopatra's Needle stands sentinel on the riverbank below, the white Portland stone facade of the Savoy has commanded this stretch of London since 1889 — making it the first luxury hotel in Britain to offer electric lights and lifts throughout. Built on the site of the medieval Savoy Palace by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, with later Edwardian additions overseen by architects T.E. Collcutt and Arthur Mackmurdo, the property carries two distinct architectural personalities: the art deco entrance court on the Strand side, famously the only road in Britain where traffic drives on the right, and the Embankment elevation visible here, its mansard roofline and Beaux-Arts detailing illuminated warmly against the dusk. The 267-room interior holds both registers in productive tension. Some suites follow the deeply traditional English country house manner — mahogany four-poster beds with serpentine headboards, crystal chandeliers suspended from plaster ceiling medallions, floral silk curtains in soft blues and pinks. Others, decorated by Pierre-Yves Rochon during the £220 million restoration completed in 2010, strike the more graphic note visible in the river-facing bedroom shown here: white panelled walls with lit display niches, dark walnut floors, and a burnt-orange geometric bedspread against cream linen. The Beaufort Bar and American Bar carry the deco sensibility forward, while the panelled dining room — its gilded plasterwork ceiling and red leather tub chairs unchanged in spirit since Escoffier cooked here — remains one of the great period rooms of London hospitality.

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