Blakes Hotel London

Blakes London was created in 1978 as the world's first luxury boutique hotels. Based in South Kensington and Chelsea, it is famous for its design, service and privacy. Recognized for the dark colour of the façade, it occupies a group of Victorian Houses, the main ones being the Blakes and Benzies.

Blakes is a seductive design journey through India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and on to the Pyramids, back through Italy, ending up in the heart of London. An elegant, eclectic, ethnic picture reflected in the abundance and luxury of accessories, furniture and artefacts found all over the world by Anouska Hempel herself over the many years of her far-flung travels. It evokes past and current intrigues and dark mysteries.

The rooms and suites are dramatic interpretations of deep, rich tones and subtle contrasts and the compositions are startling, luxurious and operatic. What might have easily slipped into being ‘over the top’ is somehow neither too saccharine nor too precious. Rather, these interiors are fascinating exercises in design imagination, choreographed by the masterly eye of Anouska Hempel herself.

The ‘Opium Den’ that is The Chinese Room, sits next to the critically acclaimed restaurant adorned in luxurious soft furnishings and a myriad of slipper orchids where candles and books are in profusion, stacked high on the squat tables waiting for guests to leaf through their exotic pages. Chinese ancestors smile knowingly down from the walls, black lacquer trays and colourful canapés gives the perfect background for the gentle and elegant service that glides unobtrusively from room to room giving the most discreet attention one could ever wish for. Yet at the same time the place is busy, bustling, bohemian and beautiful.

The bar is also hugely popular with London’s fashionable ‘it’ crowd who regularly pop in for a sharpener! The restaurant walls are exotically layered with fans, made from the feathers of rare birds from exotic climes such as Brazil and the Ecuadorian rainforests.

Around each corner there is a surprise and the chance to discover more of the mystery and magic that has been created here. If the term ‘Design Hotel’ means attention to detail and the entire aesthetic experience, then Blakes London veritably deserves that title. Hempel’s motto: Design, Refine, Repeat, on an individual level.