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Evening Standard

Travel

Claire Cohen

The Emory: is this London's most luxurious hotel?

London Shiv Roy United States Hyde Park (Location)

The newest London offering from the Maybourne hotel group is the capital’s first all-suite hotel — and its most luxurious too.

Where is it?

The Emory might be located in the heart of Knightsbridge, but from the moment you turn into Old Barrack Yard, you’ll feel a million miles away from the capital’s hotel zone. The glass box entrance, hidden down an alleyway, feels far removed from the busy main road behind you — even though you’re only a few steps away from Hyde Park, Harvey Nichols and both Knightsbridge and Hyde Park Corner tube stations. Not that anyone is arriving on the Piccadilly line here: transfers in a chauffeur-driven electric BMW i7 are all part of the expensive package.

Style

Think quietish luxury — even the armchairs in the reception are by Loro Piano and cost £20,000 each, while the art is by Damien Hirst. An episode of Succession certainly wouldn’t look out of place here. The hotel is one of the last projects of Pompidou-architect Richard Rogers, the steel sails on its roof rising above the trees of Hyde Park. Inside, several world-renowned interior designers were given two floors each: Pierre Yves Rochon, Patricia Urquiola, Champalimaud Design studio, Rigby and Rigby, and Andre Fu — the man responsible for my Hyde Park corner suite, where the soft colour palette, warm oak and marble touches work in harmony with the breathtaking autumnal view of Hyde Park through my floor-to-ceiling window.

In the communal spaces, attention to detail is everything (even the fire extinguishers are rose gold) and the four-floor wellness centre Surrenne is a masterclass in designing a high-end spa space with imagination and flair — I’m still coveting the Humans Since 1982 wall clock by the pool.

Special mention to the hotel’s sustainability credentials, too: the Maybourne group (Claridge’s, The Berkeley, The Connaught) has agreed that its London properties will be powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity and have a 90 per cent recycling rate. Staff in The Emory’s Surrenne spa wear trainers made from plastic bottles.

Which room?

The 60 rooms at The Emory are all suites and each comes with an ‘Emory assistant’, on hand to fulfil your every whim (alas, ours only extend as far as booking a fitness class and requesting a newspaper). The bottomless minibar is stocked with artisan beverages, salty nibbles and there are Apple chargers should you have accidentally left yours on the private jet on the way in.

The buzzword here is that the rooms have a ‘residential’ feel and they do — if your home is a deeply luxurious and comfortable piece of prime real estate, dedicated to ensuring you sleep like a nepo baby every night. I was able to live out my fantasies from The Holiday — squealing with joy, like Kate Winslet, when she discovers a button that activates the blackout blinds. There are Japanese Toto loos with seat warmers, all the Dyson hair appliances you could want, a £250 leather yoga mat, sheepskin slippers and Ascend toiletries with soothing scents such as clary sage. Yum. Aware that I have a bad back, I return from dinner to find that the turndown service has, without asking, left a special L-shaped pillow on my side of the bed. The Emory has thought more about my quality of sleep than I have.

Food and Drink

Eating takes place at ABC Kitchens — an amalgamation of award-winning Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s three New York restaurants. That means the menu spans Latin-American, plant-based and Mediterranean dishes, drawing in residents and locals to create a buzzy, communal atmosphere that's about as far from white tablecloth-stuffiness as you can imagine. The service (as it is throughout the hotel) is warm, professional and charming — the food is just as superb. We only semi-jokingly ask if the chef can bottle the green chickpea hummus (£23) for us to take home, while beetroot carpaccio (£19) and vegan mushroom bolognese (£29) will live long in the memory.

The place for drinking here is in the rooftop bar, which might just have the best view of the South Bank this born-and-bred Londoner has ever seen — it could give the New York skyline a run for its money from this angle. The vibe, and that of the adjoining cigar lounge, is a 1970s vision of the future and I mean that as a compliment. Super-yacht designer Remi Tessier has combined orange-toned leather and glass orbs, with circular lighting and marble. It’s bloody good fun, basically, as are the cocktails — during our stay, they’re via an Argentinian pop-up, one featuring ‘local rainwater’, which I hope has was collected in Buenos Aires rather than Marble Arch.

If you have space after the previous night’s indulgence, which we shockingly find we do, don’t miss breakfast: granola/chia/yoghurt bowls that continue that wellness feel, and soft scrambled eggs with aged cheddar and broccoli are highlights. The Emory is connected to its next-door sister hotel, The Berkeley, which means Cédric Grolet’s patisserie is also on hand.

Facilities

Relaxing at The Emory is all about Surrenne — the property’s four-floor wellness and fitness centre, open to all guests and just 100 external members, who pay £10,000 a year for next-level treatment and facilities, with a focus on longevity. For long-termers, that means a full medical check, advanced nutrition programmes by Rose Ferguson, treatments by NYC cosmetic surgeon Dr Lara Devgan and advisors including epigeneticist Dr David Sinclair. As a guest, I was more interested in the longevity with which I could recline at my poolside cabana, pressing the buzzer for iced water and smoothies (all afternoon, as it happens). It’s easy to wile away the day here: a 22m pool, sauna, steam room, premium gym, yoga room, Tracey Anderson workout studio with a sprung floor and heated to 34 degrees C (my husband returned from his beginner class a broken but triumphant man, not quite Gwyneth Paltrow but close) and — my favourite — a snow shower that I spent enough time under to make Wim Hof proud.

In the spa, I enjoyed a sublime 60-minute FaceGym Cryo Contour Facial, which was just the right balance of firm massage, heavenly products and cold micro-currents. Puffiness be gone. Special mention to the spa’s beautiful Alice Temperley robes, covered in flowers and birds; the first time I have ever had a pang of wanting to surreptitiously slip mine into my suitcase (I didn’t, but they’re available to buy for £350).

Extracurricular

If you really feel the need to venture away from Surrenne, then Hyde Park is surely first on the agenda — it’s just over the road. During our stay, Winter Wonderland was being set up and there’s no better park for people (and equine) watching. If shopping is your bag, the likes of Harrods, Harvey Nichols and umpteen Knightsbridge boutiques are on the doorstep. While down the road in South Kensington, you’re into museum-land — Science, Natural History and the V&A. But you aren’t short of tube, bus or taxi connections here, so anything is possible. Or just stroll the 15 minutes to Buckingham Palace — although, admittedly, if you’re staying at The Emory, you won’t feel far off royalty yourself.