The Berkeley

A Maybourne hotel on the corner of Wilton Place, The Berkeley has anchored this stretch of Knightsbridge for more than a century, its address tucked between Hyde Park and the Belgravia squares. A recent multi-phase renovation gave it a new Rogers Stirk Harbour facade and, in 2019, added The Berkeley Bar & Terrace, designed by Bryan O'Sullivan, alongside the long-running Blue Bar. That bar sets the tone for private events here: dark walnut panelling milled from a single 300-year-old tree felled in the 2007 storm, a half-moon marble bar, a central fireplace and Brutalist archways that nod to the grenadier stables once on the site.

For intimate gatherings we look past the hotel's larger banqueting rooms to The Snug, the bar's reservable hideaway beneath a face-filled mural by New York artist TM Davy, with its own service and a curved blush banquette. Glass doors from the bar open onto a terrace overlooking St Paul's Church, a rare outdoor pause in the middle of Knightsbridge. The Wilton and Knightsbridge rooms, with their curved timber ceilings and a window of blue art glass, interconnect for cocktail receptions and private dining, while the John Heah-designed Belgravia room brings daylight, mirrored pillars and a faceted ceiling to mid-size receptions.

The hotel runs a dedicated events team across its spaces, and most of the bars and restaurants can be taken over for private functions. For a DJ-led evening, the bar and its Snug, the Belgravia room with its terrace, and the Wilton and Knightsbridge rooms give the most flexibility short of the ground-floor Ballroom.