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At the height of one of the many summer heatwaves, my husband, daughter and I left the sweaty crowds at Green Park station behind, slipped into a side street off Piccadilly and strolled through the greenery-decked entrance of 1 Hotel Mayfair into a blissfully air-conditioned lobby. We were 40 minutes from home but it felt like we were four hours away: who needs a flight when you can take the Jubilee line?
Especially when you have a small person in your life. I was never exactly a light packer; now I can easily fill two suitcases with spare outfits (big and little), snacks and sticker books. Carting all that through airport security while being asked for said snacks and stickers every two minutes is not the most restful start to a holiday. What a delight it was, then, simply to jump on the Tube and take ourselves on a minibreak in our own city.
1 Hotel Mayfair
1 Hotel Mayfair
We were at the five-star 1 Hotel Mayfair, which opened in 2023, for a Starlit Sleepover – aka the most luxe movie night my daughter is ever likely to have. First, however, was lunch. Like the rest of the hotel, its Dovetale restaurant is built around sustainability: meat, fish and dairy are all ethically sourced. It’s a beautiful space, full of plants and light — like a very bouji conservatory. The Saturday menu is a welcome lunch/brunch hybrid, with shakshuka and steak and eggs alongside oysters and sea bream. Best of all is the retro knickerbocker glory menu, which arrived with a pencil so my daughter could tick off her own, rather idiosyncratic choices: gianduja, strawberry sorbet and rainbow sprinkles wouldn’t have been my top combination, but I wasn’t about to argue.
After lunch, we headed up to our suite. There were two squeals of excitement as we walked in: my daughter’s when she spotted the unicorns, rainbows and butterflies on her Z-bed duvet cover (tick, tick, tick) and then mine as I spotted first the balcony and then the view. Which was of… The Ritz. To our left, Piccadilly curved away towards Soho, the road far below studded with toy-like red buses and black cabs; to our right was Green Park, the grass scorched in the sun but the trees still valiantly green. And directly opposite: The Ritz. Under wraps during its renovation, but still — The Ritz.
Dovetale, 1 Hotel Mayfair
Dovetale, 1 Hotel Mayfair
Our extraordinary view was matched by our extraordinary room(s). There was a living/dining room, with a corner sofa and four-seater dining table, an enormous bedroom, a bathroom with freestanding bathtub and rainfall shower, a dressing room, even a Japanese-style loo… Everything was designed to feel beautiful as well as look it; the walls and floor were tactile cream stone or warm wood, with the same materials used for finishing touches — a bedside table seemingly carved from a tree trunk, a fluted stone lamp, a smooth wooden tissue box.
The cream and brown palette was leavened by the hotel’s trademark greenery; as part of its sustainability mission, it incorporates 1,3000 plants, shrubs and trees throughout the property. And that’s without the living walls, which feature not only on the hotel’s exterior but also, in miniature form, in the rooms, above an elegant bronze tap dispensing filtered water to reduce plastic use.
1 Hotel Mayfair
1 Hotel Mayfair
Not that my daughter was worried about sustainability: she was more concerned with bouncing on the bed, unrolling the yoga mat and telling off the black cabs for hooting (once the floor-to-ceiling windows were shut, our quiet oasis returned). Even a room as palatial as this couldn’t keep a four-year-old entertained for long, though — especially post-knickerbocker glory – so we reluctantly left our new home to brave the Piccadilly crowds and introduce her to the Hatchards children’s section.
Our reward, apart from a signed Michael Rosen book, was the feeling of total calm on returning to the plant-filled peace of the lobby. Even the lift was home to greenery; peering upwards, we realised the ceiling was lined with moss. The hustle and bustle of Piccadilly fading with every step, we strolled along the hushed, dimly lit corridor, through our door and into… what felt like our own private planetarium.
1 Hotel Mayfair
1 Hotel Mayfair
While we were out, the friendly staff had set up a star projector, a tent, a plate of warm cookies and a glass of milk. After more squeals, we changed into our robes – hooded, in soft grey sweatshirt material; there was an adorably tiny one for our daughter, too – and curled up to watch Tangled. Later, while she snored beneath her butterfly bedspread, I sank into the bath and let the grime of London float away.
The next morning, after breakfast at Dovetale — eggs royale for me, eggs Florentine for my husband, pancakes and off-menu cornflakes for my daughter — we spent a final couple of hours up in our Piccadilly retreat, taking in the view and enjoying the feeling of being far removed from the bustle below. Then we checked out, a little sadly, and rejoined the crowds to take our daughter on a long-promised trip “to see where the King lives”. We’d been at 1 Hotel Mayfair for less than 24 hours but we left feeling calm, rejuvenated and a little more in love with London. Not bad for a Tube trip…
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