AN INSPECTOR CALLS
He pays his way... and tells it like it is
On TURnInG out the light at the Four Seasons in Trinity Square opposite the Tower of London, I realise my mobile telephone is missing. I am about to get dressed and pop down to the Mei Ume restaurant, where we had enjoyed a wonderful Chinese dinner, when I see a note has been left under our door.
Typed on letterheaded paper, it says that a waiter has found my mobile but ‘due to the late hour we did not want to call the room . . . in case you need the phone, call reception and we will send it up’.
Service at a Four Seasons is always exemplary. In fact, sometimes it is almost too perfect. At breakfast, when I place my napkin momentarily on the banquette beside me, a waitress rushes forward to fold it and puts it back on the table.
And it might sound churlish given how my phone was lost and found, but there are only so many times I want to be asked how my ‘day has been so far’ and what plans I have ‘for the rest of the evening’, if I have ‘come far’, and hoping ‘everything is satisfactory’.
Everything was satisfactory. And the building itself is stupendous. Built in the Twenties as the Port of London Authority headquarters, it was opened by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and hailed as one of the finest in the country.
Its design was the result of a nationwide competition won by Sir Edwin Cooper, who adopted a neoclassical style with Corinthian columns, large portico and central rotunda that mirrored the dome of nearby St Paul’s Cathedral.
We’re not sure what Sir Edwin would think of the gold chandelier bowl in the lobby, or the huge carpet with red and mauve splodges but, in general, he’d be delighted at how the Grade II-listed building has been preserved.
It oozes glamour and opulence, with Tiffany-style lamps in and around the copper bar, a Michelin- star French restaurant in addition to Mei Ume, and acres of space to meander or sit and cogitate.
not many rooms have views of Tower Bridge, but ours does — just, with a peep of the Tower of London in the foreground. The marble bathroom glistens: gold taps, huge mirror that doesn’t fug up, ambient lighting, separate shower and WC.
If you don’t sleep well here, you won’t sleep well anywhere. We read in a brochure by the bed that the king-size duvet has 29oz of 100 per cent white duck down in it, and you can buy one for £300, and the bed for £2,600.
nothing is cheap. Continental breakfast costs £24 per person; the full English for £28. If you bring your dog he or she can have room service ‘organic chicken breast’ for £15, served with a side of rice, pasta, seasonal vegetables or steamed carrots.