DEIRDRE MCQUILLANstays at number sixteen, in London
NUMBER SIXTEEN is actually numbers 15, 16, 17 and 18 Sumner Place, four lovely white stuccoed mid-Victorian houses on a quiet street a few minutes from South Kensington Tube station, in London.
I’ve stayed around this area over the years because of London Fashion Week’s location at the Natural History Museum nearby, and I only wish I’d known about this hotel before now.
It’s close to the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Brompton Oratory, Kensington Gardens and Knightsbridge and has a particular advantage in having a lovely garden filled with trees, shrubs and shady nooks with tables where you can have lunch or entertain friends. It’s occasionally used for weddings and private parties.
Owned by husband-and-wife team Tim and Kit Kemp, Number Sixteen is one of their six award-winning boutique hotels in central London, including Soho, Haymarket, Charlotte Street – where I stayed once and can recommend – and Covent Garden. (Their company, Firmdale Hotels, is to open its first hotel in the US, the Crosby Street, in New York’s SoHo area, next month.)
Each has been designed by Kit Kemp in her own very individual manner, a fresh take on English style. (She
was named Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year in
2008.)
Her lavender pillow spray and Victorian mannequin dressed in upholstery fabrics are signature touches in every room.
In Sumner Place, the hotel has 42 individually designed bedrooms, some overlooking the garden and some on the ground floor, whose small courtyards with access to
the garden make them suitable for families with
young children.
The small but welcoming reception leads into two small, brightly coloured ground-floor drawing rooms with a quirky mix of modern art and furniture and a well-stocked honesty bar.
My bedroom, with a big window and bold striped wallpaper, had a king-size bed with sheets and a coverlet rather than a duvet, a small desk and table, two armchairs, a wardrobe (with proper hangers, towelling robes, hairdryer, safe and minibar), plasma TV and wireless internet access. Steps led up to a small bathroom in polished granite, oak and glass, with Miller Harris toiletries.
I had breakfast in the garden conservatory, which is furnished with huge African artefacts typical of the flamboyant but feminine decor throughout. The food was a buffet of fresh fruit, compotes, mueslis, rolls and croissants, good if expensive at £16.50 (€19.50).
The hotel does not have a restaurant, but a room-service menu provides a line-up of Asian, Greek, Italian and British staples, such as spring rolls, hummus, spaghetti carbonara and Cumberland sausages, along with a list of hand-produced silver-tip teas.
You need to watch extras; I was charged £4 (€4.75) for a cup of coffee offered while waiting for my room.
The hotel is close to many good places to eat, a favourite of mine being Brompton Bar and Grill, opposite Brompton Oratory, and the recently opened Hummingbird patisserie, a branch of the trendy Notting Hill bakery famous for its tempting array of mouth-watering cupcakes.
Number Sixteen, which opened in the 1980s, was one of London’s first boutique hotels, offering affluent visitors an alternative to the larger hotels on Park Lane. It was taken over by Firmdale nine years ago, given the company makeover and now boasts a 50 per cent return rate.
The hotel was fully occupied on my brief stay, including by two families with small children, several couples and one guest who told me that he lived both there and at home with his wife and children.
- WhereNumber Sixteen, 16 Sumner Place, London, England, 00-44-20- 75895232, www.number sixteenhotel.co.uk.
- WhatBoutique hotel on a quiet road in central London.
- Rooms42, ranging from singles to deluxe doubles.
- Best ratesDoubles from £207 (€245) per night, including continental breakfast; minimum two nights. From £224.25 (€265) per night at weekends, also with continental breakfast. Doubles normally from
- £230 (€272), excluding breakfast (£14.50-£24.50/ €17.50-€29).
- Restaurant and barNo restaurant, but room-service menu and honesty bar.
- AmenitiesConservatory and private garden, business services, concierge.