The Peninsula London – thirty years in the waiting, at Hyde Park Corner

On the roundabout where Knightsbridge meets Hyde Park Corner, beneath the gaze of Wellington Arch, stands a hotel the Peninsula group spent more than three decades trying to build. The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company broke ground on the site in 2017 and opened its first London address on 12 September 2023, after Covid-era delays pushed back an original 2021 completion date. Unusually for a grand five-star debut in a historic city, nothing here was converted from an older building: the site had been occupied by a 1960s office block, demolished to make way for a new-build hotel designed by Hopkins Architects, with every interior — from the 190 rooms to the subterranean spa — shaped by Peter Marino, in his first UK commission. The bill ran past £1 billion. The MICHELIN Guide now rates the hotel Three MICHELIN Keys, and on the eighth floor, Claude Bosi's rooftop restaurant Brooklands carries two MICHELIN Stars, awarded within four months of opening — among the fastest such honours in British restaurant history.

01The house

The Peninsula's thirty-year search for a London site ended at 1 Grosvenor Place, a plot between Hyde Park Corner and Wellington Arch that the brand judged, at last, perfect. Planning permission was first submitted in 2015 with a projected completion of 2021; the pandemic and staffing pressures pushed the opening back to September 2023, by which point the hotel had become, by some measures, London's first hotel development to cost more than £1 billion.

Hopkins Architects shaped a building of eight storeys above ground and five below, built to sit comfortably among its Belgravia neighbours rather than announce itself. Four Chinese stone lions guard the entrance, their eyes ceremonially unveiled at the September 2023 opening — a Peninsula signature repeated from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Behind the building, a quieter cobbled courtyard designed by Enzo Enea holds two Japanese maples already 120 years old, their jasmine and wisteria left to climb the stonework over time.

The Kadoorie family, whose Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company has run the Peninsula brand since the first hotel opened in Hong Kong in 1928, remain majority shareholders — making London the group's twelfth property and its first in the UK.

02Rooms and suites

All 190 rooms and suites were designed by Peter Marino, with mahogany-panelled dressing rooms, bathrooms finished in honey onyx, and the brand's signature Valet Box built into every wardrobe. Bedside touchscreens control lighting and temperature, guests can stream from their own devices to the room TV, and PenChat offers a round-the-clock e-concierge by text. Deluxe Rooms look over the hotel's landscaped English courtyard rather than the traffic of Hyde Park Corner.

Insider tip

Hyde Park Corner, steps from Buckingham Palace and a 15-minute walk to Knightsbridge's Sloane Street.

At the top sits The Peninsula Suite, described by the hotel as the largest private hotel accommodation in London: a sixth-floor residence with its own terrace over Hyde Park Corner, a 13-seat private screening room, a dedicated gym, and its own lift. Up to six further bedrooms can be connected to form a seven-bedroom suite for larger parties. Reporting from Forbes in 2026 described its onyx marble bathroom with jacuzzi bath, a living room with working fireplace and grand piano, and return Rolls-Royce Phantom transfers from the airport for international guests.

03Where to eat

Brooklands by Claude Bosi occupies the rooftop, opened on 4 October 2023 under Chef Director Claude Bosi with Francesco Dibenedetto as chef de cuisine. On 5 February 2024, Michelin awarded it two stars in its debut year — among the fastest such accolades handed to a British restaurant. The room, themed around the Surrey racetrack that gave Britain its motorsport and Concorde heritage, is fitted with swivel chairs by French designer Pierre Paulin and floor-to-ceiling windows onto a Mediterranean-style terrace. Menus favour British ingredients worked through French technique, served as a six-course tasting menu or à la carte, with dishes such as Devonshire cod with red pepper miso and eel compote.

On the ground floor, Canton Blue pays tribute to the Keying, the three-masted Chinese trading junk that sailed between China and Britain from 1846 to 1848. Designed by Hong Kong-based Henry Leung of CAP Atelier, it unfolds across four rooms — the Tea Room, the Music Room, the Silk Room and the main dining room — under Executive Chef Dicky To, with a Cantonese menu built for sharing, from dim sum to Peking duck. It holds a MICHELIN Plate recommendation.

The Lobby handles breakfast, all-day dining and the house's Afternoon Tea beneath triple-height, intricately moulded ceilings — a bright, formal room at the centre of the hotel rather than a corridor to somewhere else.

04The bar

Brooklands Bar and The Delage Lounge sit alongside the restaurant on the eighth floor, continuing its motoring and aviation theme into the evening with sunset cocktails and skyline views. The Tasting Room, nearby, is given over to rare whiskies and Cuban cigars, with climate-controlled lockers for guests who buy more than they can smoke in one sitting. Downstairs, Little Blue is Canton Blue's own cocktail bar, pouring drinks built around the flavours of the East, while the street-level Little Blue Noodle Bar serves dandan noodles alongside Hong Kong's Gweilo beer.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Peninsula Spa & Wellness Centre opened on 1 December 2023, spread across two subterranean floors. Its centrepiece is a 25-metre heated pool set in a double-height chamber lined with mosaic landscapes, its overhead panels shifting through the day to mimic natural light and underwater speakers piping in music. Four thermal cabins, seven wood-panelled treatment rooms and a 24-hour fitness studio fitted with Technogym equipment complete the floor, alongside a dedicated hair atelier where Belgravia stylist Errol Douglas MBE takes appointments.

Treatments draw on exclusive partnerships with Swiss anti-ageing specialists Margy's Monte Carlo and Ayurvedic house Subtle Energies, alongside Ricari Studios' non-invasive longevity therapies — the spa's own description of a programme built around results rather than ritual alone.

06The neighbourhood

The hotel sits directly on Hyde Park Corner, with Wellington Arch opposite and Green Park and Buckingham Palace a short walk north. Knightsbridge's Sloane Street, and the flagship doors of Harrods and Harvey Nichols, lie around fifteen minutes on foot; the V&A and the Natural History Museum are some thirty minutes further down Exhibition Road, or a few minutes by chauffeured car. It is one of the more central starting points in the city for a day spent entirely on foot.

07Making the most of a stay

Afternoon Tea in The Lobby runs through amuse-bouches, finger sandwiches and a seasonal pastry course, served with a choice of teas including the hotel's own Peninsula Long Jing, or a glass of the house NV Deutz Cuvée Peninsula. Canton Blue's tea lounge goes further still, pouring rarities such as a 500-year-old Tree Dancong oolong and a 1985 Zhong Cha by the pot. By day, the Peninsula Boutique & Café on the ground floor turns out pastries from its roving crêpe trolley, a detail worth timing a stroll through the lobby around.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.