The Adria

The Adria occupies an 1870 stucco townhouse on Queen's Gate, a few streets from the Natural History Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. It was a private residence until Katara Hospitality bought it in 2021 and Hirsch Bedner Associates restored the interiors. It opened as a hotel in January 2022 and now has 22 rooms and suites, joined the Bürgenstock Collection the following year, and runs on butler service rather than a front desk.

The ground floor is given over to sitting rooms, and those are what the house hires. The Polo Lounge is the signature one, panelled in white and hung with black-and-white polo photographs above a claret velvet sofa and gilt-framed wing chairs. The Lounge is darker and greener, with a long velvet banquette, a checkerboard parquet floor and a brass drinks trolley. The Parlour holds one long table under lantern pendants beside a working fireplace, which makes it the room for a seated dinner or a board meeting. Behind them sit the Games Room, low-lit and panelled with backgammon and leather chesterfields, and the Dining Room, where afternoon tea is laid.

Those rooms have their own entrance on Queen's Gate, so a party arrives without crossing the hotel. The house takes up to 50 guests across the ground floor and seats 16 in the Dining Room, and catering for private events runs through Alexander & Björck. The Adria also shows contemporary art on the ground floor under its own Art at The Adria programme.