Reviewed: 100 Queens Gate, London

Anthea Gerrie reviews 100 Queens Gate, which turns out to be, a highly eclectic boutique hotel member of a famous chain.

The elegant boutique hotel known as 100 Queens Gate is actually a Hilton – one of a new breed of hotels owned by a chain which has been endowed with its own name and personality and a distinct absence of branding. Part of what is now dubbed the Curio Collection, this resting place plays strongly to its location on one of South Kensington’s most handsome boulevards and its proximity to London’s finest museums.

Visitors are expected to be curious, as presumed museum-goers, so decor is highly eclectic, prompting a few questions about their provenance of the objects – I’m still wondering why whoever did the interiors chose to showcase a collection of ancient pliers in a display case which sits above a bust of Virginia Woolf in the ground-floor corridor.

“Whimsical and spectacular” is the official keyword for the design concept, but happily my room overlooking Queen’s Gate was more traditional than whimsical, yet endowed with all mod cons. What looked wide enough to be an outside terrace was not accessible, but it was good to see the beautiful Victorian balustrades beyond the large picture windows. My room category must have been a Luxury King, given that it contained a handsome but quite useless “feature fireplace” – possibly dangerous, as loaded with real logs it can’t be long before a guest tries to set fire to them in a bid to cosy down for the night!

The traditional quotient was all in the furnishings, replete with restful aqua bed dressing, a button-back headboard, and a really useful marble coffee table to work from at a cocktail chair which for once was perfectly positioned to watch the 49-inch Chromecast TV screen. The always welcome in-room espresso machine would give guests energy to get through the hotel’s online catalogue of 120 different international newspapers and magazines, and a small fridge would be handy for anyone bringing back leftovers from the many neighbourhood eateries within a few paces of the hotel, whose own W/A restaurant is well-rated.

While bathrobes are always welcome and the provision of an iron was a nice touch, the ironing board was not engineered to stay open. Full sustainability marks, though, for providing Molton Brown toiletries in large in-shower containers, though the shower was so difficult to figure out how to work I settled instead for the bathtub – another very welcome accoutrement rapidly disappearing from city hotels.

With 228 rooms and 11 suites the hotel feels more intimate than it actually is, the size of it only becoming apparent at breakfast, when the hordes descend for an excellent buffet. This was one of the few hotels where I have discovered properly soft scrambled eggs on the steam table which so often overcooks them, and the cold table offered smoked salmon and a better than usual cheese selection. Even the pastry table fielded an international flavour with properly made pastel de nata (Portuguese egg custard tarts). There are also proper Belgian waffles, one of the specialities of the restaurant, which offers all-day dining when the breakfast service is done.

I would like to have felt brave enough to ask to sit in Botanica, a delightful intimate space opposite the entrance to the breakfast room, which is only used when there is serious overflow in the mornings and otherwise reserved for afternoon tea. And perhaps I should have done, as staff were so charming and helpful, they probably would have told me I was welcome.