The Country Mouse visits London
The excitements of London are dizzying, and if you are already a Town Mouse instead of a Country Mouse, you will feel right at home. I am always a little overwhelmed by it, myself, so I have concocted a few tried and true ways for dealing with this feeling. The most direct way to escape traffic and crowds is to walk in St James’ Park, where noble trees tower over you and crocuses and daffodils grow in patches in early spring.
Perhaps the most direct infusion of calm is to find a really fabulous hotel and head there immediately. (By the way, I can highly recommend a transportation company called ‘Just Airports’, and you can ring them up a few days before your trip to collect you from wherever you are flying into.) On my latest trip, I rushed from Heathrow to the Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair, and was instantly swept into a cheerful ambiance.
The porters spring forward with such alacrity to seize your luggage that you will be left looking around you on the empty pavement, wondering where they have gone? The Chesterfield presents itself as a kind of Victorian gentleman’s club, with leather sofas (Chesterfield, of course) in the lobby, strewn with elegant needlepoint pillows. A feature I have always loved there are the two silver bowls with green apples in one and red apples in the other. If you like symmetry and open-handed generosity, the Chesterfield is for you.
It is, roughly speaking, a businessman’s hotel, which means that the service is utterly extraordinary. The staff must cope with short-tempered, briefcase-carrying Men in Suits all day long, and if you simply turn up as a tourist, they know exactly what to do for you, and—now this is the key point—they have a lot of panache, too.
As it happened, my mother arrived to join me on Shrove Tuesday, which means Pancakes in the traditional feast before Lent. The chef set up a long table in the lobby and made us all scrumptious crepes with flambéed fruit and fresh berries. We sat in the bar, drinking tea, and tucking into freshly made crepes; it was a delightful welcome.
I can also highly commend the restaurant, which offered specially cured smoked salmon, (carved tableside), and a delicious Caesar salad with huge chunks of lobster on it. The Chesterfield is an excellent base for setting out to tackle London’s museums, not least because it is in one of the quietest and most central locations. An especially nice feature of the hotel is a monthly summary—on one page—by Ian, the head concierge, of his favorite sights and theatre events in London at the moment.
The Chesterfield has my deep respect for making a welcoming atmosphere for travelers, in the midst of the city. There is a pianist in the bar nearly every evening, which makes for a cozy spot in which to settle into those huge leather armchairs and have a long chat with a friend over a cognac at midnight.
By Janice Rossen
Courtesy of TravelLady Magazine
