Luxury London Holidays

London is less one city than a collection of neighbourhoods, each with its own pace. Mayfair and St. James’s are home to Claridge’s, The Connaught, and The Ritz, along with the tailors of Savile Row and the shirtmakers of Jermyn Street. Marylebone has the feel of a village, with independent shops along its high street, while Notting Hill is known for its pastel terraces and the antiques stalls of Portobello Road.

East London moves at a different speed, with the street art, markets, and late-opening bars of Shoreditch and Spitalfields, and across the river, the South Bank runs from the London Eye past Tate Modern to Borough Market.

Where you stay shapes the whole trip. Mayfair puts Hyde Park, the Royal Academy, and the shops of Bond Street within an easy walk, while Covent Garden and Holborn suit a stay built around theatre and the British Museum. Four or five nights leaves time for the main sights and a few long lunches, with a day out of the city at Windsor Castle or in the Cotswolds.

Afternoon tea is about as British as it gets, and London takes it seriously, from the Palm Court at The Ritz, where a jacket and tie are still expected, to the Art Deco foyer at Claridge’s. For a different view of the city, a private boat down the Thames passes the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge on the way to Greenwich, and as the sun goes down, a pint on the terrace of a riverside pub in Southwark or Limehouse is a London ritual. Higher up, the Sky Garden at the top of the Walkie-Talkie building and the bars of the Shard look out across the whole skyline.

London’s major museums are free to enter, which changes how you use them. The British Museum and the National Gallery are quietest in the first hour, when a private view makes the most difference, and Tate Modern’s galleries fill a former power station on the river. At the Tower of London, the Yeoman Warders lead the way through the fortress to the Crown Jewels, and in summer the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace open to visitors, with evening tours on selected dates. A night in the West End, with seats arranged in advance, rounds off the day.

On Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Sir John Soane’s Museum preserves the home of the architect who designed the Bank of England, kept as he left it under an Act of Parliament passed in 1833. Its rooms are packed with classical sculpture, architectural models, and paintings by Hogarth and Canaletto, with the Egyptian sarcophagus of the pharaoh Seti I standing in the basement.

In Spitalfields, Dennis Severs’ House on Folgate Street is arranged as if an 18th-century family of Huguenot silk weavers has just stepped out of each room, with candles burning and meals half-finished on the table. Visits take place largely in silence.

Every night shortly before 10 p.m., the Yeoman Warders lock the gates of the Tower of London in the Ceremony of the Keys, a ritual that has taken place for around 700 years. Only a small number of visitors can attend each evening, and tickets sell out well in advance.

Most international flights arrive at Heathrow, about 15 miles west of central London, with nonstop service from many major US cities. The Heathrow Express reaches Paddington in about 15 minutes, while a private car to central London takes between 45 minutes and an hour and a half, depending on traffic and where you are staying.

US passport holders do not need a visa for short visits but must apply online for an ETA, the UK’s electronic travel permit, before departure. Within the city, walking and black cabs are the easiest way to move between neighbourhoods. Eurostar trains leave St Pancras for Paris in a little over two hours, and trains from King’s Cross reach Edinburgh in around four and a half hours.