Short stay: Roseate House, Hyde Park, London, UK

Roseate House London is a white stucco confection of a 48-room boutique hotel within a five-minute walk of Hyde Park. An invitation to revisit an era when London aspired to become the next Athens or Rome.

Dating back to 1842, three Grade 2 listed townhouses with classical columns and balustraded balconies, make up this dignified retreat from modern life. Yet, with a quiet jazz-funk soundtrack playing in the bar, chic grey carpet and lamp room grey paintwork – Roseate House London is fashionably contemporary.

Westbourne Terrace, named after one of London’s lost rivers, which now runs underground, is frequently acclaimed as one of the capital’s finest streets. Tall architectural, shade-giving London plane trees recall a Victorian era that built and planted with one eye on posterity. Although Roseate House London is currently popular as a staycation, The Hyde Bar, with its 72 page Story of Whisky, offers a global tour: Campbelltown,…