Hotel 41

Hotel 41 sits on the top floor of a building that began life as the Grand Ballroom of The Rubens at the Palace next door, opposite the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace in Victoria. Red Carnation bought the site in 1998 and opened it as a hotel in 2000, after a two-year renovation; it now holds 28 rooms and suites.

Private use here is deliberately small in scale. The Executive Lounge, mahogany-panelled and built around an open fire, is the hotel's own social space; its Mezzanine floor takes private receptions for up to 20 guests, alongside interviews and breakout sessions. A ten-seat Executive Boardroom, panelled in the same dark wood, is fitted for video-conferencing and doubles as a private dining room for up to twelve. The hotel also takes exclusive-use bookings across all 28 rooms, for groups who want the building to themselves.

It has no restaurant of its own — guests cross a connecting door to The Rubens at the Palace for dining — which keeps Hotel 41 itself close to a private townhouse: no public bar, no passing trade, just a residents' lounge that opens for a private evening on request.