COMO The Halkin

COMO The Halkin opened in September 1991 as the group's first hotel, credited by several histories of the London hotel scene as one of the city's earliest boutique properties. It occupies a converted Georgian building on a quiet Belgravia corner, a few minutes' walk from Hyde Park Corner — the reception now stands roughly where the pumps of a petrol station once did, before Milan's Laboratorio Associati gutted and refitted the interiors; a later refresh under designer Linzi Coppick softened the palette without disturbing the townhouse scale of 41 rooms and suites.

Private hire runs through two connecting ground-floor rooms. The Garden Room sits under a ceiling threaded with several thousand hanging glass vessels, its floor-to-ceiling windows looking onto the hotel's own garden; next door, the smaller Private Dining Room opens to it through mirrored doors, so the two can be booked together as one floor or closed off separately. Upstairs, a handful of COMO Suites double as intimate reception or boardroom spaces for parties under a dozen.

The hotel's Michelin-starred Ametsa with Arzak Instruction, the Basque restaurant led by Elena and Juan Mari Arzak, closed in 2020 after seven years. Ground-floor dining today centres on the Halkin Bar, an all-day room of arched windows and banquette seating just off the lobby, for cocktails, a short kitchen menu and the house's own gin.