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The triumvirate of the Cadogan dynasty, Jean-Louis Costes, and Francois Graf partner to create Chelsea’s sumptuous hotel, ...At Sloane

TAKE ME THERE

The elusive and influential hotelier, Jean-Louis Costes, is not one to platform himself or indeed to compromise. Thus, when he signed a deal with the 300-year-old Cadogan Estate to create a boutique hotel in Chelsea, ...At Sloane, it took a good six years to transform the handsome redbrick mansion block into a five-star premises that elegantly merges an arts and craft aesthetic with all the levels of discretion and comfort that one might look for in a central London hideaway.

Costes gave the design honours to architect and interiors maestro, Francois-Joseph Graf who set about recalibrating the interior into a 30-room hotel adding a sixth-floor level with a cupola. The building was originally designed by the visionary Edwin Thomas Hall (1851–1923), behind the mock Tudor splendour, Liberty London, and Hall’s respect for the humanity and artisanship of the Arts & Craft movement steered Graf’s delightful reimagining.

The Reception

...At Sloane // Press Imagery

One Sloane Sitting Room

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Graf is known for his cultural smarts and his rigour (he is behind many projects both public and private including the La Mirande Hotel (Avignon); restaurant L’Ambroisie (Paris); the renovation of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and homes for private clients like Henry Kravis and Valentino; and those six years were spent opening up the floors and re-navigating the space, commissioning contemporary artisans in panelling, marbling, stained glass, mosaic, textiles, and bespoke furniture to create a harmonious whole. Walk through the front door and the feel is more townhouse than hotel with the hallway adorned with Grecian friezes and the lobby library with a mosaic floor and original or new brass Benson lights.

Lighting is at the forefront of any Costes plan: recall the sultry bordello lighting at the Hotel Costes that gives Jacques Garcia’s interior that mischievous ambiance? It is an aspect of design, like the scent and touch of the bed linen, that lodges in the memory. There are no less than 700 fixtures in this property. A splendid iron work lift ascends to the all-day French restaurant that is housed on the new sixth floor and takes reference from The Peacock Room created in 1876 by Thomas Jeckyll and James McNeill Whistler. It is delightful, genteel with its intricate latticework and antique mirror walls displaying a collection of Chinese ceramics and glass ware. Descend to the lower level and submerge into a deep terracotta red speakeasy bar with its own Holbein Place street entrance.

The bedrooms are plush, quiet in their neutral tones and William Morris textiles and papers. Punch the light switch marked Love and the room will instantly take on a seductive amber glow which is sometimes the cue we desire after a night on the mosaic tiles.