Hip Apartments in London, UK, You’ll Want to Call Home

Named for London’s best-known bon vivant, Oscar Wilde, these sleek studios in Covent Garden are a blissful blend of home and hotel. Nearby is the National Gallery, the theatres at the West End and the famous flower market – if Oscar were alive today, you can bet he’d root himself here. The cocooning rooms come complete with Hypnos mattresses, Nespresso machines and rainfall showers. Step out to steakhouse Smith & Wollensky, where Wilde guests get a bountiful breakfast for a small sum.

Say sayonara to cramped city spaces – Leman Locke’s Aldgate-based studios are almost double the size of the average London hotel room. When you’re not hanging out on the blush pink sofa in your apartment, you’ll have the run of the communal areas. These include Shaman, an all-day coffee and juice bar with an outdoor terrace that’s perfect for catching up on emails and a fitness studio with machines, weights and weekly yoga classes (where all levels of bendy are welcome).

It’s hard to imagine a cooler spot than the canals in Camden for your London home from home – music, markets and vintage stores are synonymous with this counterculture enclave, where punk edge still underpins the area’s ethos. At the serviced apartments at STAY, you can survey the skyline from your own private balcony, cook meals in your state-of-the-art kitchen and store your flea-market finds in the very roomy wardrobe.

Caution: once you get used to life in these cleverly designed studios, you won’t want to leave. By day, you can tick off your to-do list in the co-working lounges, swim laps in the rooftop pool or practise your swing in the golf simulator. At night, networking opportunities abound in the city-surveying restaurant and wine bar. Peruse the packed cultural programme to join coding boot camps, swing dance lessons, cocktail masterclasses and more.

Exmouth Market, St Paul’s Cathedral and Sir John Soane’s Museum are all in walking distance from the stately Victorian red-brick building that houses the Rosebery’s smart studios. Each one has Sky TV, a king-size bed with luxurious linens and a fitted kitchenette. Though, when you rub shoulders with some of the best restaurants in the city, such as the Quality Chop House and St JOHN, no one will blame you for eating out.

On a cobbled street barely a bargepole from the Thames, this former Victorian tea warehouse is all exposed brick, polished concrete and enormous arched windows. Grab provisions such as pasta, porridge and cereal from the 24/7 pantry, and cook your own meals – even the smallest apartment (the Crash Pad) has a cute kitchenette. When you’re ready to venture out, the thriving hub of the South Bank hums just outside.

These apartments have plenty of style (a curated photography collection, leather armchairs and modish lighting), but sustainability is even higher on their list of priorities – there’s a top-notch programme in place to conserve energy and reduce waste. Plus, you couldn’t be better placed to zip around the city. The transport links on Liverpool Street take you to the West End, the South Bank and Shoreditch in minutes.

Set up house at Cuckooz in the hip Hoxton neighbourhood to have all of East London at your feet: the lively bars on Liverpool Street, the restaurants on Redchurch Street and the late-night scene in Shoreditch. Even if the skies remain stubbornly grey, these design-led apartments bring the sunshine in with bright colour-blocking, indoor plants and Pop art-inspired textiles. Each is equipped with a kitchenette, a balcony and a deep soaking tub.

Whether you’re in this part of the city to tick off Thameside walks, feast on brunches at Bluebird Cafe or admire art at the Saatchi Gallery, these smart apartments by the nearby 11 Cadogan Gardens hotel have everything you need for a spoiling stay. Set in a six-storey townhouse in well-to-do Chelsea, the suites are done up with marble-tiled bathrooms, pared-back cream walls and curated Taschen coffee-table books, while fireplaces give a subtle nod to the building’s Victorian heritage. Enjoy complimentary breakfast at Hans’ Bar & Grill, and take advantage of the private gardens on site.