Georgian ‘Grand Taste’ fuses with sybaritic comforts at this eccentric Spitalfields hotel, a tribute to the area’s novelists, silk merchants, rogues and vagabonds.

In a well-heeled neighbourhood, this flamboyant hotel occupies a spread of converted Georgian houses filled with deep colours, original artwork, plush furnishings and a sense of fun.

London’s last grand hotel of the Edwardian era, The Goring is the epitome of old-fashioned luxury, from its silk-lined walls and liveried footmen to Michelin-starred dining and a secret garden.

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.

Close to Soho and the West End theatres, this Firmdale hotel raises the curtain on a burst of colour and contemporary British art.

In a quiet corner of tony Mayfair, this sophisticated hotel (Althoff Collection) houses silkily decorated bedrooms, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a plush, velvet-seated bistro and bar.

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

At the touch of a button, guests take control in this intimate Pimlico hotel on a tranquil garden square.

Guests receive the royal treatment at this chic, discreet hotel on the fifth floor of a historic building close to Buckingham Palace.

‘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.