HOTEL LINKED WITH DANDY

Winning site on the Monopoly game board was always Mayfair. Get that and success was assured from the high rents you could charge any player unfortunate enough to land upon it.

And Mayfair retains its exclusivity in reality - and certainly in realty  – as the smart heartland of central London, and of which Savile Row is just one of its attractions.

Top designer shops, art galleries, gunsmiths, discreet restaurants, gentlemen’s clubs and fine jewellers as well as some of London’s swankiest private residences are crammed into an area flanked by Park Lane, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly.

Dotted throughout it are famous hotels favoured by Savile Row customers – the Connaught, Claridges, Browns, the Mayfair.  But there are also smaller, more intimate, luxury hotels tucked away in this ‘village’. One such is the Chesterfield.

What makes this particularly appealing for Savile Row devotees is that it has some dozen rooms within its ‘Savile Row’ portfolio. These are rooms decorated with male guests in mind, with light grey striped flannel wall coverings,

“Yes, guests do ask for these rooms,” says deputy manager Ben Seagar. “They have their favourites and like to come back to them when they are in town.”

With just 98 rooms and 12 suites, it is not a big hotel by international standards, and retains the old world charm and elegance of the three GeorgianTown house from which it was created.

The Savile Row Duchess suite above and, below, the Conservatory restaurant.

In Charles Street, hard by Berkeley Square of nightingale fame, these houses were built around the mid-1700s and housed a variety of chequered characters over the years, not least the Regency dandy, Lord Petersham, a contemporary and friend of Beau Brummell.

Also known as Beau, he is described as one of the more eccentric of the Regency dandies, and lends his name to Petersham ribbon, which he favoured to have trim his clothes; and the Petersham overcoat,a heavy brown woollen coat copied by the Prince Regent.

In more recent times, the hotel has been a hive of spooks, frequented by intelligence officers from MI5 and MI6, which had their headquarters nearby. Even though they have now moved, it has continued as a favoured meeting place for their intelligence officers .

The Terrace Bar provides the right sort of discreet ambience for a secret tete-a-tete, with a particularly good selection of whiskies. And the Butler restaurant, serving fine British fare, maintains a certain space between tables to allow for private discussions, whether of the security variety or romantic - it is a very attractive room for romancing.

The hotel is part of the Red Carnation Hotel Group, a small portfolio of luxury hotels, five more in London. Facilities for private functions and business meetings are available. Go to www.chesterfieldmayfair.com.

For an exclusive offer to Savile Row readers see the next copy of Savile Row Style Magazine out in June.