THE COUNTRY CLASSICS CALLING LONDON HOME

Beaverbrook Town House, 115–116, Sloane Street, SW1

So much for the urban mass migration: all the best country-house hotels are welcoming city siblings. Gleneagles in Perthshire now has Gleneagles Townhouse in Edinburgh; Chewton Glen in the New Forest, and Cliveden in Berkshire, have The Mayfair Townhouse; Beaverbrook hotel and spa in Surrey has Beaverbrook Town House. It overlooks the Grade-ii listed Cadogan Gardens (guests can request a key) and has 14 suites, an Art Deco bar, a Japanese fine-dining restaurant and a private event space. The original Beaverbrook’s muchloved interiors haven’t lost any of their quirky charm and playfulness. The suites are named after historic London theatres. Ask for The Adelphi—a television pops theatrically out of a blue linen-covered cabinet at the end of the bed and the bathroom, with bath and separate walk-in shower, is tiled in dramatic jewel-toned greens and blues. More than 500 posters, vintage illustrations and photographs cover the walls of the rooms, hallways and reception-cumlibrary space. They were chosen by Sir Frank Lowe, Beaverbrook’s creative director, who explains: ‘We sourced the majority from stock image agencies… but we also created a number of bespoke pieces, found a few lovely vintage photographs on ebay and even used one picture from my own home, a photograph of my opera-singer mother, Marion Lowe, playing a 1950s production of The Merry Widow at The Coliseum.’ RP From £400 per night (www.beaverbrook townhouse.co.uk)