Reviewed by Toby Skinner

Why book?

Because there aren’t really any hotels like this in London. It doesn’t fit into any of the usual city pigeonholes – heritage, urban-hipster, maximalist-whimsy – and resolutely refuses to shout about itself. With a grown-up sexiness and a Loro Piana tactility that feels more like Paris than London (more on why later), the prevailing sense is of arriving at the home of a supremely tasteful European friend.

Set the scene

It’s only the doorman who signals that the lovely red-brick townhouse of 1 Sloane Gardens is actually a hotel. It’s right next to the Sloane Square tube station, and yet the square’s hubbub feels miles away on this genteel street. Inside the vestibule, there may be a grandeur to the neo-Greek friezes, trompe l’oeil ceiling and restored William Benson chandeliers, but the prevailing sense is of discreet contemporary cool. In an adjoining room, reception is on a long table, strewn with magazines and futuristic backgammon and chess sets. Up ahead, a traditional close-door lift bypasses a stairwell lined with black-and-whites of iconic faces (Princess Diana, Kate Moss, George Bernard Shaw), and lots of shapely nudes – leading to jewel-box rooms, a slinky basement bar and a sixth-floor restaurant modelled after Thomas Jeckyll’s Anglo-Japanese Peacock Room from 1877.

What’s the story?

Originally built in 1888 by Liberty department store architect Edwin Thomas Hall, the building was turned from flats into a 30-room hotel on the instruction of the forward-thinking Earl Cadogan. He enlisted the French duo of iconic hotelier Jean-Louis Costes and interior designer Francois-Joseph Graf, best known for his private homes for the European elite, from Yves Saint Laurent to Valentino. Costes doesn’t tend to do interviews, and Graf – also a renowned art collector, who once worked as a curator at the Chateau de Versailles – is a proponent of what he calls “quiet luxury”. It’s not a place that will advertise the provenance of the William Morris wallpaper or the Chartres stained glass; the Arts and Crafts nods to Godwin, Hoffman and Mackintosh (Chelsea has a long association with the artistic movement). Connoisseurs will get it, and the rest of us will simply sense a rarefied quality in spaces where hidden doorways add playfulness but also maintain precious symmetry. For all the refinement and implied opposition to cheap design and big-brand conformity, there’s also a carnal undercurrent that recalls the spirit of Paris’s game-changing Hotel Costes (don’t call it a sister hotel): black-and-whites of nudes and embracing couples; ‘Love’ buttons in rooms to instantly dim the lights; the School of Life’s intimacy-inducing Pillow Talk card games in rooms; and, of course, the lounge-y playlist that can be turned on in each room.

The rooms

In a hotel world trending towards colour and obvious narrative theme, there’s something perversely bold about Graf’s bespoke curtain and carpet fabrics in geometric browns and blacks; to the cream-panelled walls and ceilings, and esoteric nods to 19th-century Arts and Crafts and Japonisme, which could veer twee or obtuse in the wrong hands. The overall effect is of timeless quality, but with books of Helmut Newton nudes and rakish black-and-whites offsetting any lingering Victorian rigidity. We stayed in the exquisite Sloane Suite, which flows from a lovely seated area through cashmere Loro Piana curtains to a bedroom and bathroom with an octagonal cupola wash area lit by stained-glass windows. On entering, there are secret doors on either side (everything is painstakingly symmetrical): one to a hidden loo, another to a lovely dark wood dressing area, with yet another secret doorway that leads back into the corridor. Everything, from the TV to playlist, blinds and “love” lighting, can be controlled from little tablets or rotating bedside digital interfaces, and there’s a little bath-side table for Champagne drinking in the extra large floor-standing tub. Lest it all gets a bit intimidatingly cool, there are Curly Wurlies and Eton Mess Candy Kittens in a minibar stocked with fancy libations, from Silver Patron tequila to Tobermory gin.

Food and drink

Not many London dining spaces feel as rarefied as At Sloane’s stained-glass-lit restaurant on the sixth floor, especially the private dining space in the octagonal corner cupola. Around low tables and Josef Hoffman and Charles Rennie Mackintosh chairs in a series of intimate spaces, white lacquered shelves are packed with candles and hundreds of Chinoiserie vases hand-picked by Graf in Singapore. The hotel likes to keep the chef’s name under wraps (apparently he’s an alum of former Scandi fine diner Aquavit), but the French-meets-Asian menu bears close relation to that of Hotel Costes in Paris. The classics – foie gras, beef tartare, Saint-Jacques scallops, tender steaks with Bearnaise sauce – are offset by miso salmon, chicken curry and dim sum that will be familiar to Costes regulars. The speakeasy-style basement bar is sultry in soft reds, with theatre seats and velveteen private booths setting the scene for louche decadence over Bellinis and Chasse-Spleen 2020 Moulis-Medocs. Corridors lined with black-and-whites images of wild parties and kissing couples hammer home the sense of sly licentiousness.

The neighbourhood

Sloane Square is right there, the Saatchi Gallery just a hop away, and the civilised pleasures of the King’s Road stretch westward. While things get more serious in Belgravia and Park Lane to the north – and clogged with embassies and car dealerships – this really feels like a Chelsea hotel, with so much life and culture within easy reach.

The service

Unobtrusive but classy, with staff smart and self-possessed in their own clothes. The young manager, who also didn’t wish to be named, has done stints at properties ranging from The Dorchester to Nobu Shoreditch and Hong Kong’s Upper House. He clearly gets the contemporary London hotel scene, and relishes At Sloane’s positioning as quieter and sexier than even nearby Cadogan Estate hotels like the Belmond Cadogan and the whimsical Beaverbrook Townhouse.

Who comes here?

Over cocktails on a surprisingly buzzy Monday night, the stylish crowd included a gentleman in tweed suit and round glasses, like a cross between David Hockney and TS Eliot. Over breakfast and generally enjoyable people-watching, we spotted a glamorous jeweller formerly of a certain Chelsea-based reality show. The interest of the local set has clearly been piqued.

For families and pets

Pets under 10kg are allowed in some room categories. Really, though, this is a place to seduce and be seduced, with “naughty rooms” in the bar – we’d recommend leaving the kids and even the handbag chihuahua at home.

Eco effort

An automated heating and cooling system reduces electrical consumption, while linen is reused. There are efforts to use conscious suppliers, too, like luxury fragrance house Sana Jardin Paris (the hotel smells gorgeous), which empowers women in its supply chain to become micro-entrepreneurs.

Accessibility

The lovely lift is DDA compliant for wheelchair access, and there’s one accessible room. A hearing loop sound system throughout the hotel helps those with hearing aids.

Is it worth it?

Prices are similar to the likes of The Twenty Two and The Chiltern Firehouse, just about the most comparable stays in London. Of those, this is the most subtle, the most timelessly luxurious and the most like staying in an exquisite private home.