Mere moments from Sloane Square and the King’s Road, The Chelsea Townhouse is a carefully curated celebration of the best the southwest London neighborhood has to offer—so it’s no wonder this brand-new opening was where the Vogue team checked in this week for Vogue World: London. Here, find everything you need to know about the buzziest new hotel in town.
The elevator pitch
Following the launch of The Mayfair Townhouse and 11 Cadogan Gardens, the Iconic Luxury Hotels collection has transformed The Draycott—a well-worn yet beloved institution known for its homemade shortbread and leatherbound Wodehouse collection—into The Chelsea Townhouse, which sees the history, culture, and style of SW3 writ large across three Victorian townhouses connected by hidden corridors and secret passageways. The snug attic rooms just under the eaves are the sort of place you can imagine writing a novel from start to finish with a Conway Stewart pen, fortified by cups of Earl Grey and toast brought up to you on a sterling silver tray. Meanwhile, on the ground floor, suites give out onto Cadogan Gardens—a park so beautiful, you can picture Henry James characters taking the air on the lawn.
What’s the aesthetic?
London has seen a deluge of hotel openings over the last few years—many of which are state-of-the-art, yes, but also a little soulless. The Chelsea Townhouse, by contrast, is the type of place that could only exist in the British capital; staying here feels less like checking into a hotel, more like visiting a well-heeled friend with a green thumb, a collector’s eye, and a top-notch wine cellar. The décor is classic and refined, with a botanical theme running throughout; in and amongst Berkshire landscapes and portraits of Lady Astor are watercolor illustrations of crocuses and hyacinths, while rooms have been filled with ferns in a nod to Victorian pteridomania. Gone are the dust ruffles, tasseled curtains, and chintzy wallpaper of The Draycott, refocusing visitors’ attention on the marble fireplaces, intricate cornices, and antique chandeliers, which refract the light that pours in through the generously sized sash windows and French doors.
What’s for dinner?
In lieu of a restaurant, meals at The Chelsea Townhouse are served in the downstairs salon—arriving on the ground floor via a delightfully retro dumb waiter. Guests are welcome to eat their crab toast or pear tart anywhere, further adding to the upscale house party vibe. In the warmer months, you can (and should) lunch beneath the shade of Cadogan Gardens’ London planes and stroll between its 300-year-old mulberry trees with a gin and tonic in hand, while you would be hard-pressed to find a cozier spot for a postprandial digestif in the winter than The Chelsea Townhouse library, kept toasty by a crackling log fire and lined with books by the likes of Walter Scott and Evelyn Waugh. If you can tear yourself away from the hotel, it’s worth nipping around the corner to Pavilion Road, too, home to 11 Cadogan Garden’s Hans’ Bar Grill along with dozens of other restaurants; ask The Chelsea Townhouse staff, all of whom are walking Zagat guides, for their recommendations in SW3 and beyond.
Where to visit
Stand outside The Chelsea Townhouse’s Queen Anne-style façade, and the only noise you can hear is birdsong and occasional laughter from the students at nearby Hill House School, whose alumni include King Charles III. And yet you’re right around the corner from Sloane Square and the King’s Road here, meaning the likes of the Royal Court and the Saatchi Gallery are on your doorstep. If the rooms at The Chelsea Townhouse—individually named after botanists and gardeners such as Humphry Repton and William Salisbury—pique your interest, make a pilgrimage to the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, to learn more about the ways that horticulture has shaped the neighborhood. Today, the Physic Garden’s four acres along the banks of the Thames are home to more than 5,000 varieties of plants, not to mention an impossibly lovely place to while away an afternoon.
How to unwind:
It’s hard to imagine anything more relaxing than stretching out in Cadogan Gardens with a cup of tea, but if you’re set on a spa treatment, decamp to one of the Iconic Luxury Hotel collection’s properties in the English countryside, home to some of the best spas in the UK. As of this month, Spa Experience Days are available at Cliveden House in Berkshire, whose gorgeous outdoor pool is where the Profumo affair reportedly began. Read up on the history of the estate in owner Natalie Livingstone’s utterly gripping read, The Mistresses of Cliveden, then indulge in a massage with The Cliveden Body Collection, whose scents nod to the Grade I-listed home’s former chatelaines, including a “reviving and enlivening blend” of rosehip, evening primrose and calendula inspired by Nancy Astor.
Why go now?
The Chelsea Townhouse is the sort of hotel destined to become a place people return to over and over again; get in now while you still can.
