The Berkeley – where a rooftop pool meets pâtisserie theatre

On the corner of Knightsbridge and Wilton Place, within sight of Hyde Park, The Berkeley has occupied its current home since 1972, when the hotel moved into a purpose-built block designed by British architect Brian O'Rorke, a relocation that made it the only hotel in London with a rooftop swimming pool for decades to come. Owned and run by Maybourne Hotel Group, which also holds Claridge's and The Connaught in Mayfair, it keeps 190 rooms and suites behind a restrained stone façade, a world away from gilt-and-chandelier cliché. The MICHELIN Guide awards The Berkeley Two MICHELIN Keys, its mark of an exceptional stay. What distinguishes the house today is as much pastry as pedigree: Cédric Grolet's first counter outside France sits off the lobby, while the dining room that once held Marcus Wareing's two-starred kitchen now glows with the colours of La Môme's Riviera. It is a hotel that keeps reinventing its ground floor without ever touching its bones.

01The house

The move to Wilton Place in 1972 incorporated restored features from the hotel's earlier building, and the new Berkeley's defining feature, a rooftop pool, opened in a special ceremony that year; guests have swum and sunbathed amid panoramic views over the city ever since. For years it was the only hotel pool of its kind in London, a claim that held well into the twenty-first century.

Outside the entrance stands a more recent provocation: Fat Convertible, Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm's 2019 aluminium casting of a car with a softly inflated, cartoonish body, lacquered to a high sheen and installed on a plinth as the hotel's seasonal piece of public art, a wry note against the formality of Wilton Place.

02Rooms and suites

Behind the stone façade sit 190 rooms and suites, each the work of a different designer rather than a single house style. The Berkeley Park Suite Collection groups nine park-facing suites around the Hyde Park Penthouse, their windows looking straight over the plane trees of Hyde Park, while the Knightsbridge Pavilion Penthouse takes its cues from curved sofas, round marble tables and floor-to-ceiling glass dressed in gold drapery.

Insider tip

Short walk from Harrods and Harvey Nichols; Belgravia's Georgian terraces lie just behind the hotel.

Tucked within the hotel and opening onto its own private terrace, The Apartment is built to feel like a home rather than a hotel room, bathed in natural light at the heart of Knightsbridge. Suite guests are given complimentary access to Surrenne Belgravia, Dom Pérignon on arrival, personalised bathrobes, private return airport transfers, and breakfast taken in-suite, at The Berkeley Café, or at Jean-Georges' abc kitchens nearby.

03Where to eat

The dining room at the hotel's heart has a long memory. Gordon Ramsay installed Pétrus here under chef Marcus Wareing's direction in 2003; Wareing took over the lease and relaunched it under his own name in 2008 after parting ways with Ramsay; and Marcus at the Berkeley, by then twice MICHELIN-starred, served its final dinner on 26 December 2023 after two decades at the address. In February 2025, brothers Ugo and Antoine Lecorché brought their Cannes institution La Môme to the same room for their first venture outside France: a 170-cover restaurant with a further 28 seats on a newly built terrace, dishes finished in front of guests, from thyme snipped into olive oil to a whole fish deboned tableside, with evenings carried by a pianist, a chanteur and a DJ in rotation.

Steps from the lobby, Cédric Grolet opened his first patisserie outside France at The Berkeley in February 2022. It is also the only place in the world selling Grolet's trompe-l'œil fruit and flower cakes side by side, alongside a London-only addition: his illusionist take on a British scone.

04The bar

The Berkeley Bar & Terrace sits on a quiet stretch of Wilton Place, its outdoor seating bordered by greenery and facing a historic church, the kind of corner where a vintage pour feels entirely unhurried rather than performed for the room.

05Spa and pool

Every stay includes membership to Surrenne Belgravia, a wellness and longevity club spread across four floors next door, built around a 22-metre lap pool, saunas, aromatic steam rooms and a snow shower, a studio dedicated to Tracy Anderson's body-sculpting method, a cardio and functional gym, and treatment rooms offering four-hands massages and Oxygeneo facials, alongside a café menu curated by nutritionist Rose Ferguson.

On the hotel's own roof, the pool that made headlines in 1972 remains in daily use, and from 13 November is joined by private Rooftop Cabins perched above Hyde Park, built for Alpine-style sharing feasts and champagne summoned with the ring of a bell.

06The neighbourhood

The Berkeley sits at the edge of Hyde Park in fashionable Knightsbridge, a short walk from Harrods and Harvey Nichols, with Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge Underground stations both within a few minutes on foot. Belgravia's Georgian terraces and independent shops lie just behind the hotel, giving guests the choice of couture one way and quieter streets the other.

07Making the most of a stay

Guests can request guaranteed early arrival through the hotel's 10am Club, with a resting room offered if the booked category isn't yet ready, useful for anyone flying in overnight and heading straight to Cédric Grolet's counter or the spa. For private entertaining, a collaboration with British table-linen house Summerill & Bishop turns any suite into a dressed stage for in-room dining, arranged through the concierge team.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.