Two London Hotels

Offer Extraordinary Experiences

A trip to Southern California feels complete when booking accommodations at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. Positioned in the sophistication of the iconic zip code, this urban resort allows the guest to experience true luxury in a legendary Los Angeles hideaway.

St. Ermin’s
The Hotel that Has Secrets to Keep (and Guests to Pamper)

At the risk of sounding flagrantly politically incorrect, I wanted to be, just for a day, a “Bond Girl.” Better yet, forget being 007’s gun moll or mere sidekick, what I really wanted to be, was an actual spy!

I had just come from the illuminating, behind-the-curtain exhibit at the National Archives in Richmond (a short tube ride to Kew Gardens on the District Line), MI5: Official Secrets, and I was feeling the urge to traverse London, cloak-and-dagger style, visiting secret haunts and hangouts of the dramatis personnae of the Cold War. So, steeling myself under a Fedora and cape (well, not exactly), I checked into the hotel with real spy history, St. Ermin’s in St. James’s. 

Spy Stories
This charming, four-star property (now part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection) is utterly drenched in the annals of espionage. Its location, a stone’s throw from Parliament, has likely helped cement its place in spy lore. During the 1930s, the hotel and the adjacent building were used by the officers of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6), as a rendez-vous lair for agents, given that the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose cover was the Statistical Research Department (wink, wink), had offices here. Fact: Ian Fleming and Kim Philby worked from here. During the Second World War the building functioned as an annex for SIS, with other offices for MI8 and MI9 nearby. The hotel and its comfy Caxton Bar were regularly used by agents (think: the very British spy drama, Spooks, all about MI5); MI6 ran guerilla warfare classes here and among the students were Noel Coward and Anthony Blunt.

In 1940, Sir Winston (Churchill, of course) called a historic meeting at the hotel, asking a group of remarkable people to join him in “Setting Europe Ablaze”; the members of this plucky powerhouse were to become the seminal members of SOE, referred to colloquially as Churchill’s Secret Army, and they ultimately formed the basis of the SAS and took over an entire floor of St. Ermin’s Hotel as its headquarters during WWII, while MI6 was stationed two floors above! Caxton Bar figured into the lives of this group and Churchill was known to have a leisurely glass of bubbly in the bar. 

After WWII, St Ermin’s was again in the clandestine crosshairs of spies: Double agent and eventual defector Guy Burgess frequently met his Russian counterpart here, surreptitiously handing over top-secret government files to his handlers in Caxton’s. The hotel has also been used as an MI5 safe house. More intrigue: The hotel was used regularly by SIS, MI5, and Naval Intelligence Division case officers to meet their agents. Rumor has it that a tunnel runs from underneath the grand staircase to the Houses of Westminster. And to add credence to the chatter, there is a Division Bell, once used to alert lollygagging Members of Parliament that they had but eight minutes to get out of their cozy couches in the hotel and get to Parliament Square.

What to Expect Today, without Those Spies
All of this is to say, that you will revel in the small, but smartly exhibited and well-documented display in the hotel’s lobby, a part of the London Clandestine Warfare Collection. It’s assuredly a unique asset to this charming hotel, laced with graciousness, which will strike you when you first lay eyes on the driveway: A U-shaped entryway, set back from the roadway, and awash with verdant and flowering foliage, provides a dreamy pick-up and drop-off spot. And the porch in the front of the hotel—it may as well have borrowed a few hundred feet from the legendary Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan—invites loafing and people-watching. You expect picturesque, white rocking chairs to line the porch, as the scent of fragrant magnolias washes past you

Inside, more splendor awaits. Bolstered by Grade I-listed architecture, the extraordinarily sumptuous Rococo plasterwork—a corona on the ceiling—is gobsmackingly gorgeous, and it is all accented by elegant Art Nouveau styling; and, as a theatrical touch, surrounding the second level is a graceful balcony, with shapely, curvilinear lines, that embraces the walls stylishly. The furnishings are accented with antiques, curated carefully, standing proudly next to modern pieces, so that there are touches of Vivienne Westwood and Porta Romana next to cherished finds from the Bermondsey Antique Market.

And Expect More
You’ll not want for fulfilling fare at Caxton Restaurant & Bar, with everything from beer-battered haddock, triple-cooked chips, and minted peas to marinated butternut steak, smoked garlic chimichurri and corn puree, and salted granola, to vegan fare and even a children’s menu. The restaurant has a casually elegant feel and is a welcoming dining spot all day long.

And speaking of kids, if you have come with the wee ones, ask for the kids’ Spy Pack and Spy Quiz. There is also a doggie concierge, and ask about the hotel’s proprietary rum and gin. Until recently, an apiary called the third floor terrace home; the bees have now, at least temporarily, decamped to the country. Not coincidentally, St. Ermin’s has garnered many industry accolades, including a nod as a Top London Hotel in Condé Nast Traveller’s Reader’s Choice Awards and it has also claimed major accolades as the UK’s top hotel; second-best hotel in Europe; and sixth-best hotel in the world in the 2025 Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Awards.

I never got to play Mata Hari while in residence at St. Ermin’s, but I am angling to return, to just lounge on that beckoning front porch, maybe with an oversize pair of sunglasses covering my face, as I wait for a “drop” from a mysterious, foreign stranger. For additional Info: sterminshotel.co.uk
All photos courtesy of St. Ermin’s Hotel

London’s Remarkable nhow
A Hotel that Knows How to Make You Smile

A sensory blitz overtakes me as I shamble (yes, the result of that red-eye, early-morning arrival at Heathrow, so I am a little beleaguered) into the very groovy nhow Hotel lobby in Shoreditch, a London neighborhood that has (to quote Wikipedia) “become synonymous with the concept of contemporary ‘hipsterfication’ of regenerated urban areas”.

Is it too ‘50s or ‘60s to describe the lobby as very kitsch? The brainchild of James Soane of the very forward-, out-of-the-box thinking of Project Orange, the hotel’s lobby readily invites countless choices upon entry: Should I have a welcoming limeade and biscuits from the “sweets” buffet? Or go over to the seven-foot-tall, cuddly teddy bear (seated in a peacock-back chair), with a big sign around his neck: “Free Hugs?” Do I go to the funky gumball machine and get a few jawbreakers, or waltz into the black London telephone booth, adrift in the middle of the lobby, pretending I’m Superwoman, about to transform my outfit?

Located in a district marked by an industrial past and a technological future (think Silicon Valley, but across The Pond, in a nabe that is a mix of art and tech galleries, artsy and dot-com businesses, and a bustling gentrification of industrial areas), the nhow embraces traditional design touchstones, metabolizing them with gusto and regurgitating them in an unconventional and disruptive way. Here, tradition and innovation collide. 

When I get to my room, I see that the reading lamp above a comfy wing chair (upholstered, it would seem, by Jackson Pollack), is a black-metal bowler hat suspended from the ceiling. Punk graffiti adorns the walls of the 190 unique guest rooms, and towels are emblazoned with “King” and “Queen.” The obligatory amenity slippers are flip-flops, embellished with a design pattern of neon-colored, geometric shapes. In the loo is the pièce de resistance: On the wall, facing the commode is a larger-than-life portrait of Louis Quatorze, with his entire groin pixilated, as if he were naked, and the artist wanted to spare the hotel guest the shock!

Delightful comforts and Amenities abound.
The nhow has more room amenities and toiletries than a posh, five-star property—bath salts, lip balm, and even little packets of throw-in-your-pocket tissues. And lest I forget: The “Do Not Disturb” door-hanger features a somewhat digitized picture of Queen Elizabeth, and alerts housekeeping: “I’m absolutely cream crackered.” (Yes, it means you’re exhausted, so Do Not Disturb.)

The breakfast buffet in the lobby, at the hotel’s open-plan restaurant, Guilty by Olivier London, is also a treat. There is a picture of Winston Churchill at the juice bar, but he’s wearing cat-eye glasses, also pixilated. The dinner menu suggests “less guilt and more foodporn,” and offers up many traditional items—whether tacos, nachos, or a Zen garden bowl, with a sneaky, tasty twist. You will find the staff helpful, eager, and knowledgeable. Yes, these histrionic décor touches also come with hand-holding. Convenience matters, as well: Tube stops for Angel and Old Street are but a ten-mintue walk away. A perfect slice of new age heaven in Shoreditch.

All photos courtesy of nhow Hotel