London Calling

Tucked away in a residential area off Sloane Square, 11 Cadogan Gardens serves quintessential British eccentricity with a dose of history.

- Aaron De Silva

There are hotels that you instantly fall in love with, and those that you gradually warm up to. In the case of 11 Cadogan Gardens in London’s Chelsea, it was the latter.

The cold, wet weather that greeted my arrival one March morning might have put a dampener on my spirits. The property’s dark, gloomy interiors did nothing to buoy the melancholy. But over the course of two nights, the darkness became a source of cosy comfort, creating a womb like atmosphere that was the perfect antithesis to the drab conditions outdoors.

The hotel, which has 56 rooms and suites, is housed in a series of four connected Victorian town houses with redbrick facades. The 19th-century buildings once formed part of the prestigious Cadogan Estate. They were converted into a hotel to accommodate travelling aristocrats and politicians.