The Royal Horseguards occupies a French château discreetly located off Whitehall. The building was designed by Alfred ‘Natural History Museum’ Waterhouse for the National Liberal Club in 1887, and club founder, William Gladstone, great reformer that he was, probably would have approved of the recent refurb of the interior by the Guoman group. It’s immaculately clean, ‘classic but modern’ in style, with welcoming staff.
The bedrooms have useful dressing tables, iPod docks and wonderfully comfortable Hypnos beds, and bathrooms come with flatscreen TV and Elemis products. The buffet-style breakfasts are ordinary, but from the upper floors the river views of County Hall and the London Eye – whisper it – rival those of the Savoy.