The Peninsula London

Few hotel openings have been as patiently plotted as The Peninsula London. The Hong Kong group spent years securing and then building this site at Hyde Park Corner, and the result—designed by Hopkins Architects with interiors by Peter Marino—reads as a modern classical palazzo arranged around a quiet inner courtyard. Wellington Arch and the Royal Parks sit directly outside; Belgravia's white stucco begins immediately behind.

Because the building is new from the ground up, the rooms enjoy proportions and engineering that converted Victorian rivals cannot match: deep silence, dressing rooms, marble bathrooms and the brand's obsessively considered in-room technology. Craft is the running theme, from British artists' commissions in the public rooms to the hotel's signature fleet of green cars waiting in the courtyard.

Brooklands, the rooftop restaurant styled around British aviation and motor-racing heritage, delivers precise modern cooking with views across the park towards the city, while Canton Blue takes the group's Cantonese pedigree seriously at ground level. Below it all, the spa and 25-metre pool rank among London's most impressive wellness floors. It lacks the patina of a century-old address—but as a statement of what a new-build grand hotel can be, it is formidable.