Detailed Review
Overlooking the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, a short walk from the Royal Parks and Pall Mall, "41" is an exclusive haven for the most discriminating traveller. Recipient of five coveted red stars from the Automobile Association (AA), London's smallest, most intimate, boutique hotel provides outstanding service that cleverly blends abundant luxury with modern practicality. From a discreet private entrance guests enter an atmosphere of comfort and superb service that has all the trappings of a private club. Cared for by a personal butler throughout their stay, they eat, meet, drink and sleep in a secluded world of opulent warmth..
Everyone at 41 is very proud to receive the RAC 2004 award for "Credit to the Industry" which recognises excellence in all aspects of customer service. Whatever the purpose of your visit, "41" welcomes you with its unique blend of 21st Century technology and every possible traditional comfort.
Press Quotes
"The property offers the intimate atmosphere of a private club along with a level of personal service that's impossible to achieve at larger hotels." Frommers 06
Independent Reviews
-
"A 'concept' hotel for business people on expense accounts - on the fifth floor of sibling Rubens"
41 Hotel
By Angela Moore
Adjoining the Rubens but a world apart, 41 is a far more exciting (and expensive) proposition.
Ring at the unmarked door (taking discretion to extremes, perhaps; the hotel had to invite half of London’s black cab drivers for breakfast to ensure that they knew where it was). You’ll be let into a smart little lobby with two huge black leather armchairs to sit in (and prints of old Vanity Fair cartoons to admire) while you wait for staff to come down and meet you.
Sober dark wood panelling and black-and-white marble floors are set off by a dramatic arrangement of orchids. This sets the tone for the rest of the hotel: a smart, graphic black-white-grey palette and beautiful mahogany furnishings, relieved by the occasional exotic touch – here a huge antique gilt-and-sepia globe, there a zebra-print chaise-longue.
A lift goes straight up to the fifth floor where a single room, under a skylight, serves as reception, breakfast room, bar and lounge. Two high-backed bishop’s chairs and a high-backed sofa create a private cordon around the fireplace: good for plotting over a Scotch.
Each bedroom and suite is slightly different but all have the same amenities. There are enormous carved mahogany beds and cupboards, a spacious desk and leather chair for work, very high-tech wireless internet-TVs and energy-boost vitamins in the snack bar. Most rooms have fireplaces. Suites are on two floors with a library and sitting room downstairs – one has a skylight above the bed which whooshes closed at the touch of a button. Bathrooms were made in Germany and are as voorsprung-durch-technik as you’d imagine; however, not all have a separate shower.
41 has only 18 rooms and an intense feel of privacy. As it’s so masculine, it’s not somewhere you’d bring a family or a lover. Best for big business wheels on extreme expense accounts.
© Travel Intelligence. All rights reserved
