Now open: 9 London hotel debuts you won't want to miss

London is having something of a hotel moment. From independent showstoppers to long-awaited outposts from iconic luxury brands, the city has welcomed a surfeit of new hotels over the last couple of years.

Many of these properties offer exclusive, guest-only experiences, and source inspiration from the neighborhoods and heritage buildings they occupy. Guests and residents are generally the only ones with clearance to enter The Spy Bar at the Raffles London at The OWO, for example, which nods to the hotel's legacy as the place where MI5 and MI6 got their starts. And at the whimsical Broadwick Soho, there's a private library exclusively for hotel guests. Whether you want to bed down in punk rock regalia or experience an artsy townhouse hotel, these London newcomers offer an experience you won't find anywhere else in town.

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Raffles London at The OWO (Whitehall, London)

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Follow in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill at the first Raffles in the U.K., which occupies Britain's iconic Old War Office. The subterranean rooms where the Secret Service Bureau (which eventually became MI5 and MI6) held its very first meeting are now The Spy Bar. This guests-only speakeasy features James Bond's custom Aston Martin DB5—and allows absolutely zero photos.

Standard rooms here are refined and timeless, while a few over-the-top suites pay homage to historical figures like war secretary Lord Haldane and operative Christine Granville. The latter, named for Britain's longest-serving female spy, has a palatial bathroom anchored by a copper soaking tub worthy of Granville's courage and ingenuity.

 

Broadwick Soho (Soho, London)

Designer Martin Brudnizki's maximalism is on full display at this 57-room property that opened near Carnaby Street at the end of 2023. Expect leopard prints, vintage finds like a 20th-century Murano chandelier, cheeky flourishes (in the guest-only lounge, the Nook, a bust dons a flower crown) and works by such artists as Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.

The hotel also punches above its weight with cozy communal spaces, bars and restaurants. Head to The Nook to curl up with a book in front of the working fireplace (the eclectic library includes texts on the decorative arts, English gardens and Basquiat). And don't miss Flute, the rooftop bar with an outdoor terrace that gleams with a mirrored ceiling and a gold DJ booth.

 

1 Hotel Mayfair (Mayfair, London)

Fans of the brand will find a familiar, leafy retreat near Green Park with rooms stocked with all the amenities you've come to expect during a 1 Hotel stay: a yoga mat, filtered water tap, live plants and HEPA air filters. Check out the group fitness classes or join the Friday afternoon run club as part of your wellness-focused stay. If your idea of self-care is more about laying low (or lying down), you can complement days touring London with a massage at the Bamford Wellness Spa or unwinding in your room with a rentable, infrared sauna blanket that promises to improve your mood, help you burn calories and reduce stress. Talk about a power nap.

 

Sun Street Hotel (Shoreditch, London)

Elaborate prints and saturated jewel tones make this 41-room hotel a standout in artsy Shoreditch. Behind the classic Georgian facade, the hotel is heavily inspired by "The Google Book" (a fanciful tale of the make-believe creatures living on the so-called Island of Imagination). On display are six original watercolors depicting author V.C. Vickers' fictional Poggle and Swank. You can even flip through copies of the book, originally published in 1913, placed around the hotel.

After exploring nearby Spitalfields Market and Liverpool Street, return to the hotel for cocktails at the bar, where the theme continues. Guests can sip cocktails named after the curious fauna, like the Lemonsqueezer (with lime-butterscotch whisky, galangal, ginger and lemon).

 

The BoTree (Marylebone, London)

At the nexus of Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho is a new 199-room hotel that opened in September 2023—the first in a whole new brand of properties.

All rooms at The BoTree have colorful floral-print features and the property is full of eye-catching floral arrangements. But in the singular BoTree Suite, which spans more than 800 square feet, the hotel brings its perspective to life in a wholly original way, with silk flowers woven into the ceiling and a gold cocktail station, perfect for recreating your favorite beverages from the hotel's signature Italian restaurant, LAVO.

 

At Sloane (Chelsea, London)

It's easy to mistake this discrete townhouse hotel in Chelsea for a Parisian pied-a-terre. There's no flashy signage to suggest guest rooms are behind the red-brick facade, and the clientele (to say nothing of the stylishly dressed employees) wouldn't be out of place on a French runway. Inside, the sultry black, white and red spaces are full of antiques and mismatched prints.

Skip the lift and take the stairs, lined with black-and-white photographs to reach one of the 30 rooms and suites. Consider upgrading to a Chelsea or Chambre room, both with soaking tubs and mosaic-tiled bathroom floors. Despite its size, the hotel has both an all-day restaurant and a speakeasy-style bar downstairs with wood-paneled walls, red velvet theater seats and private booths for evenings that demand even more discretion.

 

The Peninsula London (Belgravia, London)

Impress colleagues and clients at The Peninsula London, a decades-in-the-making debut overlooking Hyde Park in Belgravia. Fans of the brand will appreciate the attentive white-glove service and luxe finishes in the rooms like onyx, mahogany and hand-tufted carpets.

But the showstopper—the one you'll invite your airplane-obsessed friends to after your last meeting of the day—is the aviation- and motorsports-themed rooftop bar and restaurant, Brooklands. You'll pass a Concorde nose cone in the lobby and take an elevator ride that simulates a hot air balloon to reach the bar, which has a chandelier modeled after turbine engines. In the dining room, there's an airframe-inspired ceiling. You might not actually be airborne, but the 8^th-floor space still offers impressive city views.

 

The Chelsea Townhouse (Chelsea, London)

London's only Relais & Châteaux hotel, 11 Cadogan Gardens, welcomed a new sister property to the family in September of 2023. The 36-room Chelsea Townhouse occupies three red-brick Victorian buildings and, despite being one of the newest entrants to the London hotel scene, stands apart with its heritage details. Expect original fireplaces, vintage furniture and original cornices. Stick with the traditional ambiance and reserve a table for The Chelsea Garden Afternoon Tea, where everything from the menu to the tableware evokes the leafy surrounding gardens.

 

Chateau Denmark (Soho, London)

This boudoir-meets-rock hotel in Soho that opened in 2022 is on the block where The Beatles inked a major deal, Elton John took a day job at a music publisher and, reportedly, David Bowie lived in an ambulance. And the hotel pays tribute to the area's history through its punk and psychedelic decor. You can even sleep where The Rolling Stones recorded their debut LP or where the Sex Pistols once lived—the latter is a duplex suite called "I Am Anarchy" with caricatures drawn by the band's frontman, Johnny Rotten.

The Japanese-inspired bar, Thirteen, has rock and roll-spirited cocktails (the most obvious being the Lady Stardust) but, more importantly, brings the spirit of the street to life with DJs who spin everything from funk and soul to classic rock.

 

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