SYMPHONY OF STYLE

The Gormley set the tone. How else to turn Selfridge’s one-time brutalist central London car park into a symphony of style that happens to be The Beaumont, a tip-top luxury hotel and regular meeting place for people who matter?

SUITE AFTER SUITE

The Beaumont is in a class of its own, and not only because of the Sir Antony Gormley sculpture that clasps a corner of the building’s exterior, wrapping around his eponymous suite within. Another favourite of the 101 Thierry Despont-designed rooms, all veneer and fab feel, is #505, the Roosevelt Suite.

ENGLISH OUTPOST

It's famous names, throughout. The cocktail-slick Magritte Bar sidles up to the Gatsby Lounge. A meeting room’s named Singer, after society artist John Singer Sargent – and yes, he’s represented among the names hung variously around the hotel. And today’s names, real people, choose this as their W1 hang-out club.

BELLINGCAT TO BENTLEY 

Regular literary readings, hosted by hotel MD Duncan Palmer, attract such authors as Chanel biographer Justine Picardie and Elliot Higgins, whose Bellingcat blew the lid off several intelligence plots. Savile Row-clad Mr Palmer’s in his element throughout, and at the end of his working day, he tootles home in a Continental Flying Spur Bentley. The Porsche Targa 911 is for weekends.

PROUD AS PUNCH

In fact, the entire Beaumont team seems to twirl through a life that’s devoid of the mundane. But it’s also homey. The Colony Grill serves food you warm to, like roast Cornish cod or boiled eggs with soldiers at breakfast. Throughout, it’s as if Duncan Palmer’s omnipresent, proud as punch.

HERE AT THE BEAUMONT

Look what we’ve done to the guest ‘facilities’, he gushes, eyebrows raised. Yards of polished Champagne marble lead to facilities beyond compare. Same Champagne theatres for gentlemen and ladies, though the latter are given more space to allow them to rotate in ballgowns. Here at The Beaumont.