In a once run-down neighbourhood of clockmakers and communists, now a hive of creativity, the former home of the Zetters football pools company was reborn in 2004 as a cool, child-friendly, eco-friendly hotel.

Just across the cobbled square from the mothership (previous entry), in an area described by George Gissing in the 1880s as one of ‘abortive streets, of shadowed alleys’, today as hip as you please, a pair of Georgian town houses have been reinvented as a one-off small hotel.

The absurdist wit and whimsy of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear coupled with an imaginary wicked Uncle Seymour inspired the whacky design of these two brick-and-stucco Georgian terrace houses.

A saunter from Hyde Park, this elegant hotel is spread over three Victorian town houses on a tree-lined avenue.

Vintage furnishings and modern artwork make a lively mix at this ‘elegant, sophisticated’ Firmdale hotel in the heart of Theatreland.

‘Distinctly cool’, this City hotel, designed with playful flair by Terence Conran, is filled with eye-catching works of contemporary art.

An apt choice for the animated neighbourhood, a Tony Cragg bronze sculpture seemingly in motion greets visitors in the tree-lined courtyard of this design-conscious Soho hotel.