Corinthia hotel London is where to take your date celebrity spotting
The new Velvet Bar has opened at the Corinthia Hotel, one of the grandest central London hotels. We checked in to try it out
A sharp intake of breath, then my masseuse pummelled me some more. “I like to fix people.” As I exhaled she put her bodyweight on a knot in my upper back and I winced again. No pain, no gain, after all, and I had asked for it. Unlike other masseuses, she was actually trying to make my back health better.
I had been in one of a multitude array of startlingly glamorous rooms off from a seemingly infinite corridor with gold trimmed doors that shine as you walk past them, like walking into the curves of a pretty shell. (I’d once strolled down what purported to be the ‘world’s longest corridor’ at a building in Leeds – I know, some claim – but this felt longer and more labyrinthine.)
At the other end of the curiously twisty-turny walkway deep below central London are a selection of cosy bathing pools with jets and areas for laying where bubbles continue to do the work of my masseuse. A minute from the river at Embankment, the Corinthia hotel is the bull’s eye of London: and the spa is one of the attractions that attracts the clientele of A-List celebrities and politicians.
When I stayed, so had the President of South Africa. He swept past me in the foyer unbothered by the hotel’s guests with a smile on his face. Prince William and Kate had been in earlier and a film star was on the first floor doing a film junket. A collection of restaurants and bars on the ground floor, and the foyer in general, is the main sell: with a gentle white colour scheme, and a mixture of textures and tones in foyer-length curtains, statement furniture pieces and stone detailing, it feels impossibly elegant. Less intimate, more like the sprawling feel of a Vegas hotel, with the floor plan to match. Everything about the Corinthia feels like a statement, from those elaborate design touches, to the fresh bouquets and the grand dining rooms, the best of which is currently run by Tom Kerridge.
I was there to try the new Velvet bar, a contrasting sort of space to the foyer, with warm crimson furnishings that feel so red and soft they must be some metaphor for sex. (Go and let me know if you disagree.) There’s the sort of low-slung sofa seating you could confess your greatest sins in, and spend hours doing so over a good cocktail. It’s something like The Baccarat Bar at Harrods but even cosier and way more romantic. They take bookings for non-hotel guests so pop in for a late snack and a drink after a show. There’s a fun pop-up space in the atrium too which does summer pop ups. This year’s is called The Garden and is Mediterranean themed, but in the winter the Alpine lodge concept is one of the cosiest and most theatrical in London.
My room, a Signature Suite, was modern without feeling fussy, and had a generous living space for working from. If you want to go all out, splurge on one of the penthouses, which have private rooftop gardens and views out across the Thames which is a stone’s throw away, but all rooms have the essentials done with more than a flourish; I can only assume the President of South Africa slept as well as me.
The Corinthia hotel London has rooms from around £700; book the bars, restaurants and overnight stays online