Review: The Peninsula, London

Why book The Peninsula London?

Because there can’t be many more serenely frictionless bubbles in London. All the hallmarks of one of the world’s most iconic hotel brands are here – the pristine service, the all-encompassing tech, the Rolls-Royces in brand green, the tinkly underwater music in the pool; every lion statuette, marble surface and Japanese maple tree blessed by a hallowed feng shui master. And because London, with its heritage hotels and crisp Soho-standard boltholes, doesn’t have anywhere that feels quite like this. It may look out over Wellington Arch, London’s answer to L’Arc De Triomphe, and the Household Cavalry may trot past most mornings en route to Buckingham Palace – but The Peninsula London’s rarefied neutrality somehow feels distinctly Asian, and induced in me a hazy-happy sort of nostalgia for Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Set the scene

Beyond the lion statuettes and the smiley doorwoman in a white puffer jacket, it’s pouring with rain outside, with a growing queue of cars waiting as an open-top tourist bus edges round a growing puddle on Hyde Park Corner. Inside The Peninsula’s vast lobby, though, there’s an abstract sense that the red buses and black cabs outside might as well be a digital projection. Afternoon tea time is drifting into supper time as a three-piece band on the mezzanine croon a hushed, lounge-y version of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. Barely a week after its September soft opening, the place is already busy with an international crowd, between the columns and chandeliers, overlooked by London Parks murals by wallpaper specialists De Gournay. For approximately the 17th time since recently arriving in a silent electric BMW i7, I hear the words, “Good evening, Mr Skinner”.

What’s the story?

Sir Michael Kadoorie, whose family opened the original Peninsula Hong Kong back in 1928, is said to have spent more than 30 years looking for a Goldilocks site in London. His team ended up buying the offices of building company McAlpine, then employing the same builders to knock down their own HQ to build this cream-colored eight-storey edifice, with three underground levels that will house, among other things, the hotel’s spa. At a cost of more than £1 billion, and including 26 residences around the central courtyard, this is London’s first new-build five-star property since the Bulgari opened in 2012, less than a mile west in Knightsbridge. It is a serious opening salvo in a remarkable London hotel boom – largely driven by Asian money – that will include Raffles in Whitehall’s Old War Office building and the Mandarin Oriental on Hanover Square. Finally arriving in London with its 12th hotel feels significant for the brand. During my visit, more than one of the hotel staff mentioned Kadoorie’s infectious emotion during the hotel’s opening ceremony, when time capsules were hidden inside the lion statues, which were auspiciously “awoken” when their red blindfolds came off.

The rooms

The 190 rooms were designed by American Peter Marino, whose flamboyant personal style (think ‘YMCA’ cop) is in contrast to his understatedly tactile-luxe designs for the likes of the Cheval Blanc Paris and a series of Chanel and Louis Vuitton stores. All the rooms here have a prevailing sense of haute-generic seven-star neutrality – darker woods, creamy soft furnishings and marble in bathrooms – but are set apart by elaborate technology and extreme comfort. We stay in the smallest category, but it’s still a suite-like 53 square metres, with views over the Wellington Arch and the curiously hypnotic traffic. When it eventually opens, the Peninsula Suite will be 470 square metres, very possibly the biggest in London. As with all Peninsula hotels, merely opening drawers is something of an adventure here. One by the minibar (three Penisula-branded Champagnes, Charbonnel et Walker truffles) reveals a printer, an immaculate stationery set and a series of plugs and charger points. In the large powder room, there’s a Dyson Supersonic hair dryer and a futuristic nail dryer. With tablets and phone-style devices next to beds (for reading newspapers or using the WeChat-style PenChat to contact reception), there are digital interfaces galore, including in the robotic loo, where water, seat and dryer temperatures can be carefully calibrated, and the three types of cleansing jets can be set to pulsate or oscillate. My favorite, though, is in the bath, where the vast choice of channels for the wall-set TV reflects a certain clientele, from Al Arabiya and Qatar TV and Phoenix Chinese News. Opting for Sky Sports, I tire of Erik Ten Hag’s deflated press conference, and press the ‘Spa’ button for the lights to dim and soft music to play. There’s not much coy conceptualism here – this is a globally-minded, 400-thread, capital ‘L’ sort of luxury, with intricate chocolate replicas of the Wellington Arch to boot.

Food and drink

The lobby will feel familiar to anyone who’s stayed at a Peninsula before, as will the sense of food that hits many palates: congee or har gaw prawn dumplings as a breakfast alternative to the epic Peninsula breakfast with fruity coconut parfait before the full English; laksa and Herdwick double lamb chops on the all-day menu; and the famed afternoon teas, with Oscietra caviar and lobster thermidor tarts. The Canton Blue restaurant is far more focused – a low-lit, lushly Oriental space designed by Cap Atelier’s Henry Leung to reflect the contents of the 19th-century trading ship, the Keying junk. Bright walls of china plates and delicate cups are the backdrop to Pensinsula veteran chef Dicky To’s dishes, which fuse Cantonese techniques with British ingredients. Alongside classic xiao long bao or Peking duck, there are fusion twists: a dry-aged Highland ribeye with black bean sauce, or Atlantic king prawns sauteed with XO sauce and served with salted egg yolks. The Keying junk idea continues downstairs to the sexy street-side Little Blue bar, where ex-Cheval Blanc mixologist Florian Thireau has created a lovely cocktail list that’s themed by the Keying junk journey (to Hong Kong, St Helena, New York and London) but is really a series of twists on classics, like a wonderfully smooth ‘Gentleman’ whisky sour with bourbon, cherry and cinnamon. On the rooftop, the Brooklands bar and restaurant opens soon. Themed around automobiles and aviation (Kadoorie is both a pilot and classic car collector), and named after the world’s first banked race track, guests will pass a 1933 Napier Railton car and Concorde nose on the way to a lift styled like a hot-air balloon, and a faintly Jetsons-styled rooftop bar and restaurant, with knockout London views from the terrace, rare Cuban cigars and classic British food by former Bibendum and Hibiscus head chef Francesco Di Benedetto. On street level, there’s also a lovely little cafe/bakery/deli in what was once a Pret A Manger, but now with great coffees and pastries as well as special Peninsula Champagne and gin.

Wellness

The two-storey subterranean spa area won’t open until November, but Peninsula veterans will know that the pool will be well-sized (25 metres here) and have that tinkly underwater music and that the gym will likely feel like the future. With nine treatment rooms, the plan will be to focus on purpose-driven wellness, with different experts on different days of the week, and a particular emphasis on alternative therapies and Chinese medicine.

The neighborhood

Beyond The Lanesborough to the north, it’s a hop across the road to Hyde Park or stroll west into Knightsbridge. To the east, beyond the Wellington Arch, there’s Green Park or Buckingham Palace Garden. Surrounded by the embassies of Belgravia, London addresses don’t come much grander.

The service

As immaculate as you’d expect, partly because so many of the staff are already well-briefed on the legendary standards here – not least managing director Sonja Vodusek, who has worked at Peninsula hotels in Manila, New York and Tokyo. Added to the slickness, though, there’s also a palpable enthusiasm. Even my driver to the hotel, not a direct employee, waxes lyrical about everything from the restored 1935 Rolls-Royce Phantom in the underground car park to the gender of the lions outside the entrance (the female is protecting what looks like an egg). Like everyone throughout my stay, he is incredibly smooth, even when I accidentally turn on his in-seat massage and attempt to ask probing questions about celebrities and footballers.

Who comes here?

We spot Chelsea hedge-funders as well as immaculately pencil-skirted Hong Kong executive types, and headscarves and logos at afternoon tea. The Peninsula feels like it’s primarily aimed at the Middle Eastern and Asian elite.

For families and pets

There’s no kid’s club, but there is a Children’s Programme with board games, treasure hunts and in-room treats. Small domestic pets are allowed, with pet-sitting services and pet-walking available.

Eco effort

As a new-build, The Peninsula is BREEAM-certified, placing it in the top 10 per cent of sustainably managed buildings, with energy- and water-efficient fittings, and a 70 per cent electric fleet of cars. While single-use plastics are still standard at this sort of hotel, The Peninsula London does have high-tech waste separation and plans to send nothing to landfill by 2030.

Accessibility

All public areas are accessible by wheelchair, and there are ten dedicated ADA rooms (eight rooms and two suites).

Anything else?

There’s a shopping arcade with nine boutiques, including high jewellers Moussaieff and Asprey, the former close to what will be the second-largest ballroom in London when it opens. And apparently, there’s been a clamor for the residences, with American hedge funder Ken Griffin just one of those to have snapped up an apartment in the complex, where the Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea designed the courtyard forecourt to be particularly suitable to low-slung supercars.

Is it worth it?

Okay, rooms at The Peninsula start at £1,300 a night, but few places do service and technology like this. And there aren’t many London locations that feel quite as rarefied. Apparently, £5,000 is a relative bargain for the Cohiba Majestuosos cigars available at the Brooklands walk-in humidor. Maybe, just maybe, the same could be said for the hotel as a whole.