Number 16 Hotel

A white-stucco Victorian terrace situated just steps from London’s major museums and even Harrods, only the corresponding house number suggests that Number Sixteen is a hotel and not an upscale private residence. Like the other Kit Kemp properties in town, the designer’s custom textiles are a study in elaborate detail and dramatic patterns in each of the 42 individually outfitted guestrooms. Guests can mingle in the hotel’s handsome drawing rooms, and some guestrooms have private courtyards overlooking the hotel’s stunning English garden. One drawing room is romantically adorned with rose prints and oil paintings, while the lobby greets guests with a more austere ambience. The eclectic furnishings – a mix of antique, modern, and ethnic accents – keep the aesthetic fresh and elegantly eccentric. The attentive service, however, might have guests wondering whether this isn’t a gracious private home after all. Number Sixteen’s sense of subdued, relaxed modernity is brought to its apex in the conservatory and exquisite private garden, whose reflecting pond, fountain, and lush foliage offer the kind of seclusion that is all too rare in this bustling cosmopolitan capital.