St James’s Hotel and Club is one of those smart little hotels tucked discreetly behind Green Park. The Mayfair location, the doormen with polished shoes, and the dark maroon façade of this Victorian townhouse all add an air of refinement.

The “Club” part of the name is still going strong alongside the hotel. St James’s Club has had various central London homes since its incarnation in 1825, but moved to its current location in Park Place in 1981 when Peter de Savary took it over and installed the likes of Roger Moore, Liza Minnelli and Gregory Peck as committee members.

The management is too discreet to name current members, and although I didn’t spot any A-listers, the two couples sat behind me at dinner pondered a shot of the hotel’s most expensive whisky – at £550 a glass.

They may not have ordered it, but their sharp suits and discussion of this year’s best leather-bound desk diaries (Smythson versus Louise Vuitton) told me they weren’t staying here on the company expense account.

St James's Hotel & Club, Mayfair, SW1

A Victorian townhouse with exquisite decor and central Green Park location

BACKGROUND

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BACKGROUND

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BACKGROUND

• 51 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1

• Haymarket Hotel, St James, London, SW1

• The Stafford, London, SW1

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The 60-bedroom hotel reopened in August 2008 after a complete refurbishment undertaken by new managers the Althoff Hotel Collection. The result is exquisite.

Designer Anne Maria Jagdfeld has captured the sleek feel of a boutique hotel, but stepped away from the genre with some clever touches.

The colours are elegant taupes, olives, creams and blacks, with touches of burnished gold, copper and aquamarine. There’s plenty to touch too – silk wallpaper, gleaming lacquer tables, velvety armchairs, cashmere bed spreads and the softest sheets I have ever slept in (“fibre de ligna” cloth is the secret apparently).

Art is also unusual – the hotel’s Rosenstein Collection, from the 1920s - 1950s, includes pencil sketches, oils and watercolours that stop you in the corridor.

My room was a deluxe suite so had a separate living area with sofa and television, plus a huge bathroom with an alcove for the toilet, another for the vast rain-soak shower and the centerpiece was a double sink and bath, which had jets and a flat-screen television at the foot (the room’s third television). There was also a walk-in wardrobe with full-length mirror and lots of hanging space.

Each part of the room was well-proportioned, so the overall effect was cosy, rather than cavernous.

My room, like every bedroom in the hotel, had free wireless internet, plus internet access through a wireless keyboard and one of the televisions, I-pod docking station, modern cordless telephone, L’Occitane toiletries, quiet air conditioning and minibar.

The bed was high and comfortable with stylish monochrome frame in laquer and metal and the afore-mentioned blissful sheets. The bathroom had more monochrome – glistening black tiles and contrasting white fluffy towels and padded towelling slippers.

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