Uncommonly good

Quintessentially English, most of the staff have been there for years, the Champagne is always on ice and this summer they introduced croquet lessons alongside the afternoon tea. But forget any notions of stuffiness, at The Goring they also believe that style doesn’t have preclude a little silliness.

It’s starts with the rooms. Twins and doubles don’t appear anywhere on the list of the hotels 69 rooms. Instead you can opt for the Delightful Queen-bedded Room, the Splendid Silk Room and for those with very deep pockets The Most Splendid Balcony Room. All live up to their billing and it’s easy to see why the Middletons decamped there before the royal wedding.

They took over a newly decorated five-room suit which contained Queen Victoria’s silk bridal gown and tiara, a grand piano, an original 19th century toilet and a caricature of Elizabeth I hung over the bath. Even those plumping for the Goring’s more modest accommodation will find a touch of eccentricity. Take the light settings. On and off isn’t enough, guests can choose between bright, calm, cosy and finally a setting simply called ooh.

Ever since it opened its doors on March 2, 1910 and became the first hotel in the world where every room had an en suite bathroom, The Goring has always ploughed its own furrow. The hotel was the brainchild of OR Goring who persuaded the Duke of Westminster to sell him a plot of land close to Buckingham Palace.

A pub, a string of cottages and a little slice of London’s past were demolished, but in its place leafy Belgravia got a hotel that would soon make its own history.

It’s still run by the Goring family – Jeremy is the fourth generation to take the helm – and it’s now the only five-star family run hotel in the capital. It was in the late 1990s that it moved up a notch when it received that fifth star and it is regularly named as one of the best hotels not just in Britain, but across Europe.

That kind of reputation comes with a hefty price tag, but what it buys you is a laid back luxurious haven in the heart of the capital and the kind of service which is frankly priceless. The Goring might be used to a certain class of clientèle – previous residents include Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother – but they don’t go in much for airs and graces here. It’s five-star service, but unlike most top-class establishments you don’t need to be dripping in designer labels to feel at home.

Partly that’s down to the fact it is still a family-run business, partly it’s down to its gregarious managing director David Morgan Hewitt (he wears pink socks) and partly it’s down to the staff who don’t feel the need to impress on guests just what a special place The Goring is.

They don’t need to, a quick glance through its history speaks volumes. When peace was declared at the end of the Second World War, it was the Goring where King George decided to celebrate taking his wife and two daughters for sausage and scrambled eggs.

In the 1960s it was The Goring where Jean Shrimpton was responsible for an outbreak of moral consternation when she was photographed wearing one of the first mini-skirts and the place was such a favourite of Anthony Powell, in his epic novels A Dance to the Music of Time, he named his heroine the Hon Angela Goring after the hotel.

However, the Goring isn’t stuck in the past. In 2005 its new dining room, designed by David Linley, was opened and much like the rest of the hotel while the menu has a nod to the tradition it also boasts some of the best cooking in London.

For starters, there’s everything from Scotch egg with shallot dressing to deep fried whitebait and mains run the gamut from steamed fillet of sea bass with vegetables and lobster broth to steak and kidney pie. While pies would be considered far too downmarket for most five-star hotels, The Goring is unrepentant. It knows what its guests want and it gives it to them.

Now to the eye-watering part. In 1938 the price of a room was £1.37 and in the 1960s it was £4. Today expect to pay anything from about £299 to £769 a night and if you want a suite, well that comes in at £1,800.

The Goring describes itself as a Baby Grand, the finest hotel in the perfect location but with the most intimate of atmospheres and personalised attention and while it might be an expensive night’s sleep it’s hard to disagree.

Some advanced booking deals are available online and the restaurant and bars are open to non-residents. Three-course dinner costs £48.50 per person. For more details, call 0207 396 9000 or visit www.thegoring.com