Up on the fifth floor, I was relaxed by that explanation just enough to sleep. Le Gavroche, one of London's most exclusive French restaurants, operates in the hotel's basement. Langham Hilton Located in the West End, just a block from the upscale, curved shopping strip known as Regent Street and not far from Regents Park and the London Zoo, this hotel was established in 1865. It was London's first grand hotel. Reopened in 1991, it has been restored to its original splendor.
Rooms are posh, pale, and thoroughly modern, with all-marble bathrooms.
Understatedly elegant, it spoils guests with marble bathrooms featuring deep tubs equipped with full-size soaps and shampoos in Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet fragrance. My favorite amenity was the soft, fluffy terry cloth slippers that greeted me on my pillow at turndown instead of a chocolate. Embroidered with the hotel's name, they felt sublime on my tired feet, which were still throbbing from a long evening walk through the London streets. The hotel's celebrated, cozy American Bar is decorated with an eclectic collection of ties, baseball caps, and other items that travelers have purposely left behind. Its head barman, Charles, claims to have exported the first dry martini to the U.S. Afternoon tea in the legendary Palm Court at the Ritz is just a block away, and shopping in Fortnum and Mason's and along sedate Jermyn Street is just a few blocks the other way.