The Wellesley Knightsbridge

Set in a 1920s Art Deco building at Hyde Park Corner, where Knightsbridge meets Belgravia, The Wellesley runs at the scale of a private house: 36 rooms and suites rather than a grand hotel. The address has a musical past and the place leans into it, with live jazz in the lounge on weekend evenings and the cut-glass glamour of the period carried through the bars and dining rooms.

Events happen across a handful of intimate spaces, not a ballroom. The Crystal Bar, with its curved marble counter and a deep collection of whisky, cognac and Armagnac, takes private cocktail receptions of up to 100 standing. The Oval Restaurant, an oval dining room set beneath a domed ceiling, seats around 50 for refined Italian cooking and a private dinner. The Jazz Lounge pairs afternoon tea by day with live music and dining after dark.

A heated cigar terrace with its own humidor suits smaller gatherings, and the duplex Penthouse, spread across the top two floors with a private staircase and a roof terrace over Belgravia, hosts board dinners for up to eight. There is on-site parking and an events team to run the evening.