KIMPTON FITZROY
Oh, Kimpton Fitzroy, you are a showstopper of a hotel! Sitting proudly on the edge of Russell Square, its opulent terracotta facade exudes so much grandeur, and that’s before you’ve stepped into the majestic lobby where towering columns of marble soar above your head and an intricate mosaic, designed in 1898, still presides beneath your feet. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a hotel lost in time. Up the magnificent staircase, we discover the bedrooms are streamlined and modern, in shades of tan, grey and cream, with leather headboards and marbled bathrooms (if you’re travelling solo, the bijou ‘city single’ is a perfect way to experience the glitz of the hotel on a budget). It’s all in the details, so I am delighted to spot the ‘bathroom menu’ offering everything from tweezers and toothpaste to curling tongs, and the delicious mini macarons and popcorn-topped tarts that greet us on arrival. We love the comforts of our room, but it’s the communal spaces that make this a truly glorious place to stay. We start our morning with flat whites at the New York-style coffee house Burr & Co, followed by a day of mooching and a matinee theatre performance in Covent Garden (a 10-minute stroll away). Later, we return for oysters, steak and wood-fired cauliflower at Neptune, a Victorian-parlour-style restaurant, filled with design details I want to recreate at home (cane chairs/hanging plants/frilly chandeliers). Sadly, we don’t actually make it into cocktail den Fitz’s to recline on scalloped velvet sofas beneath the oversized glitterball – but it’s always good to have an excuse to return, right? SARAH TOMCZAK
TRIP NOTES Rooms from £359 (kimptonfitzroylondon.com)