Is this London’s sexiest hotel room?
Suite Sloane comes with a bathtub for two and its own ‘mistress door’. For our new series where we hunt for the best hotel rooms in the UK, Lotte Brundle checks in to ...At Sloane just before Valentine’s Day.
Suite Sloane in Chelsea’s chic ...At Sloane may be the most intimate room to book this Valentine’s. Located in the original ‘Best Bedroom’ of Edwin Thomas Hall’s Victorian mansion, it is the finest, and most sensual, of its 30 rooms.
The hotel is a relatively new venture. It opened in the September of 2023 after a six year renovation and is slimly advertised (it doesn’t even have a sign outside) preferring to be the go-to for ‘those in the know’. It is a collaboration between the designer Francois-Joseph Graf, the hotelier Jean-Louis Costes (responsible for the legendary Hotel Costes in Paris) and the 300-year-old Cadogan Estate. Overlooking Sloane Square and the surprisingly quiet Sloane Gardens Street, Suite Sloane can be linked with an adjoining room to become a two-bedroom apartment that can accommodate up to four people, but it is much better suited for a romantic couple’s trip, I think.
'Love' lighting can be used to set the mood in the suite.
A bathtub for two lends this rooms to a couple's stay.
‘The hotel has been created with couples in mind’ the staff say — and it is easy to see why. Its 46 square metres includes a luxuriously soft king bed (flanked either side by discreet boxes of, ahem, tissues), a spacious bathtub for two and a hidden ‘mistress door’ that only opens from inside the decadent mahogany walk-in wardrobe. ‘It’s unusual for hotels to actively encourage affairs,’ one staff member joked of the unique feature, the entrance to which can only be spotted once you already know it’s there and is decorated with black and white photographs of Julie Andrews, Josephine Baker, Marisa Berenson and Cecil Beaton.
Strawberries, a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne in an ice bucket, and a handwritten note greeted us. The lighting was flatteringly dim — always key for romance — and could be made more so by a mere click of the ‘Love’ button on the room’s bedside control panel. There was music softly playing over the speaker system and, if you somehow wanted to set the mood even more, guests can indulge in ‘Pillow Talk’ prompt cards to spark intimate conversations, or purchase a small ‘Partner’ kit if they saw fit.
If guests do decide to remove their clothing — which this room seems to suggest they should — they can revel in being confronted with their own naked image practically every which way they turn. It’s a bit like being in an extremely sensual hall of mirrors: without the risk of a scary clown jumping out (unless you’d invited one to come in through the mistress door). This becomes less surprising when you consider that Vincent Guerre, who was involved in the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, also supplied and installed old mirrors in the rooms ...At Sloane, a considerable amount of which are located in Suite Sloane. Even the shower and the toilet door have floor-to-ceiling mirrors. It’s an excellent booking indeed for the body-confident traveller.
The bedroom in Suite Sloane. Man pictured not included (the writer brought her own).
Details in the suit pay homage to the Arts-and-Crafts movement, which the area of Chelsea has long been associated with.
The five-star private home is not only elegantly suggestive, but homely too: no doubt due to the French artisans that helped create it. Elegant vases of white roses are perched on the coffee table as well as on the dresser in the bathroom, which has white, black and yellow flooring courtesy of London Mosaic. The room itself is a mix of dark wood furnishings, floral motifs reminiscent of the Arts-and-Crafts movement, which the Chelsea area has a longstanding relationship with, and kooky books (including The Art of Wallpaper: Morris & Co. in Context and The Star Wars Archives: Episodes IV-VI). Upholsterer Alexandre Phelippeau’s French workshop has given the furniture a personal touch and chairs sourced from the antiques dealer Paul Teebes and reupholstered by Phelippea make for plenty of comfy seating (much of it cheetah print).
Glorious light is let in through stained glass windows, the structure for which was manufactured by Maison Meilleur, and created and installed by Ateliers Loire Chartres. Monochrome photographs, curated by Westside London, are the show-stopper; while lounging on the bed, couples can be put in mind of other great pairings — Jean Marias and Jean Cocteau on the set of Beauty and the Beast, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Barkleys of Broadway, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, and Roger Vadim and Brigitte Bardot.
Tiling by London Mosaic makes for floors that are a joy to stand on.
Westside London's photographers throughout At Sloane definitely catch the eye.
Putting that aside, the sheer variety of tipples in the hotel room’s bar are enough to set the mood on their own, for even the most buttoned-up couple. The only thing that could have made it perfect would have been doing away with the troublesome iPad that is used to control the temperature, blinds and TV, in favour of a good old-fashioned remote.
Room rates are subject to enquiry and may vary. For enquiries, please visit ...At Sloane’s website.
