Set within a Grade II* listed landmark building in the city’s Bloomsbury neighbourhood, The Principal London has undergone an extensive refurbishment, paying homage to the notable history of a building whose doors first opened in 1898, and restoring the grande dame to her original glory.
Behind the hotel’s distinctive au-lait terracotta façade lies 334 guest rooms and suites kitted out with custom-made beds and furniture, rich fabrics, and a colour palette that screams luxury. Perfumer’s Story toiletries, classic Penguin publications, and bespoke artwork make up the in-room amenities alongside award-winning Ruark music systems and marble bathrooms; Tara Bernerd & Partners fusing their signature mix of contemporary layers on top of original, listed features.
Plush cocktail bar Fitz’s—named after Charles Fitzroy Doll, who designed the hotel’s original incarnation in the Victorian era—has had a radical update from Russell Sage Studios. Befitting of its literary surroundings on Russell Square, Fitz’s Bar is decorated in sultry fabrics, dark wood panelling, and juxtaposes original features with a radiant disco ball suspended from a tented ceiling of ombre silk. Decadent and flamboyant, this is a bar to escape the real life; sinking back to a time of luxuriant hedonism. A spot for enjoying the finer things in life, a Fitz’s cocktail sweeps you on a journey through the senses, from the resinous to the robust with bittersweet, bracing and fiery flavours in between—originals and twisted classics devised by The Principal London’s head of bars, former Milk & Honey general manager Sean Fennelly.
Photography courtesy, The Principal London Hotel
