The 9 Best Hotels in South Kensington

The rooms at The Ampersand Hotel take their lead from the area’s local landmarks, in particular its museums, with a bird-themed room representing the Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum being channelled by planet-themed decorations in another. While gimmicky can sometimes stray dangerously close to tacky, this boutique hotel – built in 1889 – is all luxury. There are five themes governing the design of the hotel: botany, music, geometry, ornithology and astronomy. There’s also a vintage-inspired Mediterranean restaurant and cocktail bar, a wine room and a vividly coloured tea room.

The rooms at Number Sixteen are filled with bright, bold and colourful prints and pleasantly clashing patterns, giving it a real sense of personality. With owner Kit Kemp doubling as an interior designer, each modern, English-style room has been given the personal touch, uniquely decorated with its own colour scheme, made all the more inviting by large french windows. There’s also a lovely tree-filled patio for guests to enjoy in the summer months, and an airy conservatory for the winter.

This opulent Art Deco-inspired hotel has a dramatic and theatrical air. The grand restaurant has a long marble bar, black panelling and gold-framed mirrors, making you feel like you’re in a golden age Hollywood movie – head down to plush late-night lounge Blakes Below for a nightcap. Rooms range from the understated to the opulent, and each signature double is utterly unique. Provence is a whimsical retreat in shades of lavender field, and the black-and-gold Gypsy room is covered in elaborate designs.

Luxury spills out of every gilded fibre of this Victorian building, where rooms – dripping in ornate antiques and fringed red velvet drapes and dramatic carved wooden beds – encapsulate a regal elegance rarely seen outside stately homes. The bar achieves a distinct British rock-’n’-roll-meets-royalty charm with tartan pillows, silk ottomans and rich mahogany walls that once served as the setting for a Rolling Stones photoshoot. Rooms are named after equally iconic guests: the Judy Garland Suite comes complete with the Hollywood starlet’s very own bed frame, lined with a pacific-blue peacock-feather blanket and cushions. Comfort is ensured with the pillow menu, bathrobe and (unfortunately not ruby-red) slippers, which you can don after a soak in the ancient Roman-inspired marble bath.

An award-winning hotel, The Milestone underwent a metamorphosis, taking it from 17th-century dwelling to luxury bolthole. Deluxe rooms are done up in themes of decorative schemes such as Matisse and Margaret Rose, and overlook the meticulously manicured lawns of Kensington Gardens (they also come with a platter of fruit or home-made cookies on arrival, and are stocked with toiletries from British perfumer Penhaligon’s). The opulent suites have also been distinctively styled, ranging from Ruhlmann-reminiscent black-and-gold glamour, to the Harlequin Suite’s golden sunburst headboard and diamond-patterned cabinets, to a sultry, red-velvet-clad room inspired by French singer Mistinguett; and all have 24-hour butler service to boot.

Last but certainly not least comes The Exhibitionist – perhaps the most extravagant and eclectic on this list, as its name suggests. This arty boutique hotel in Kensington doubles up as a gallery (actually, there are eight), and describes itself as “an intervention” – a blazing flash of anarchic colour and curatorial precision; it is the ultimate expression of the new boutique. While we’re not sure anything with so hefty a price tag can be called anarchic, The Exhibitionist certainly is a sight to behold. Spaces in the hotel are opened up for artists to display their work, the collection being switched up twice a year, while set pieces such as a life-size bull and a Jimmie Martin mannequin lamp decorate the open-plan ground floor.