Westwood’s Free Spirit Goes East With Mandarin Oriental’s Second London Outpost

There is no shortage of ultra-luxury hotels in London, but Mandarin Oriental firmly believes there is room for a second outpost at the beating heart of the city, in addition to its Knightsbridge location.

A boutique-size setup by Hanover Square, Mandarin Oriental’s latest London project sits right within a small patch of land bound by Oxford, Regent and Bond streets, which also hosts the U.K. headquarters of Sotheby’s and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, not to mention a string of luxury flagships.

Susanne Hatje, general manager of Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, who previously held the same position at Mandarin Oriental New York by Columbus Circle, says the Mayfair outpost aims to create a unique blend of art, fashion, and culture that would be embraced by the local community, as well as its guests.

“We knew we had the capacity to have more than one Mandarin Oriental hotel and we recognized Mayfair as being the perfect destination to complement our Hyde Park property,” says Hatje. “The hotel may only have 50 guest rooms and suites, but the public areas are spacious and in keeping with the very best of London’s grand hotels.”

As the first new-build hotel in Mayfair in over a decade, the architecture was designed by the internationally acclaimed Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the mastermind behind London’s famous cheesegrater building. The hotel’s building drew inspiration from the Georgian terraces on Hanover Square and was completed with a U.K.-first Vierendeel structure.

Its public spaces, including the reception, atrium, the modern Asian restaurant Akira Back, the lounge bar ABar, the 14-seat Korean culinary experience Dosa, and the spa were handled by Tokyo-based interior firm Curiosity.

The team at Curiosity took inspiration from Mayfair’s blend of tradition and modernity, designing the spaces around the concept of “a walk in the park,” incorporating natural elements like wind, water and salt to engage the senses.

At Akira Back, for the first time in London guests will be able to enjoy the celebrity chef’s signature fusion dishes such as tuna pizza, wagyu tacos and “hot mess” sushi rolls filled with sashimi poke, crab tempura and spicy ponzu aioli.

Dosa, where Back scored his first Michelin star at the Seoul branch, offers an intimate, chef’s table dining experience where dishes inspired by Korean traditions and techniques will be prepared right in front of guests.

At the spa, there is a 25-meter indoor pool, the largest in Mayfair, as well as a gym that provides personalized fitness sessions from private health club BodySpace. The treatments, meanwhile, follow a “time” concept and use all-natural products from Seed to Skin Tuscany. For advanced antiaging sessions, it uses products from Swiss Perfection.

The rooms and suites were designed by Studio Indigo. They blend modern style with traditional British elements, creating a cozy, homelike environment for those who are looking for a more discerning luxury stay, which costs from 1,050 pounds for a deluxe room to 10,000 pounds for the three-bedroom Hanover Apartment.

For that extra touch of discerning luxury, the hotel has partnered with local Mayfair artisans to offer items such as silk dressing gowns by New & Lingwood in the signature suites and a bespoke scent created by Ormonde Jayne that is diffused throughout the reception area.

“Our concierge team is also on hand to arrange exclusive art tours and personalized shopping or jewelry creation experiences with some of our prestigious neighbors,” Hatje adds.

Speaking of the hotel’s connection with fashion, each Mandarin Oriental hotel comes with a dedicated fan, a symbol of the hotel chain’s Eastern roots, and each hotel’s personality. It’s often designed by a distinguished designer who shares a deep connection with the city the property is in.

In Guangzhou, China, the hotel’s fan was designed by Vivienne Tam, who was born in the city before moving to the U.S. and later embarked on her decades-spanning fashion career. In Paris, the hotel’s interior designer Sybille de Margerie commissioned Maison Lesage, one of Chanel’s ateliers specializing in embroidery and tweed, to create the fan.

For the Knightsbridge location, which opened its doors in 2000, Jenny Packham designed an 11-bladed fan inspired by its neighboring Hyde Park.

As for the more vibrant Mayfair in location, Mandarin Oriental enlisted Vivienne Westwood, whose flagship is a stone’s throw away from the hotel, to illustrate the rich past of Hanover Square on the fan for the hotel.

“The design of the fan sees two silhouettes meeting, dancing. Dramatic — well dressed — mysterious, perhaps friends meeting in the afternoon, perhaps glamorous lovers,” says Alex Krenn, senior designer at Westwood. “The two figures are inspired by traditional paper cutouts and Vivienne Westwood campaigns. The silhouettes are framed on a hand-drawing of the square, turned on its head. Vivienne did this in the early years, in her Worlds End shop, with an image of Piccadilly Circus upside down.”

Different from the Knightsbridge location, where Mandarin Oriental owns the property, the Mayfair property is owned by Clivedale, a central London luxury property developer founded by Sameer Gehlaut, who made his billions in building Indiabulls, one of India’s biggest financial service providers.

In addition to the hotel, the location has 80 private residences with prices starting at 4.1 million pounds for a one-bedroom.