London

London balances heritage and reinvention with unusual authority. Royal parks, private clubs, galleries, theatres, Mayfair, the City and new creative districts create a capital whose influence is both historic and contemporary.

London grew from two cities: the City of London, the Roman and medieval trading town that remains its financial district, and Westminster, seat of the monarchy, Parliament and the Abbey, two miles upriver. Between and around them the West End developed from the seventeenth century in a pattern of squares and terraces laid out by aristocratic estates, which still shapes Mayfair, Belgravia, Marylebone and Bloomsbury today.

Its royal parks — Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Green Park, St James’s Park and Regent’s Park — give the centre an unusual amount of open space. The museums of South Kensington, the British Museum, the National Gallery and Tate Modern are free to enter, and the theatres of the West End, the Royal Opera House and the concert halls of the South Bank give London an exceptionally full cultural calendar.

Late spring and early summer form the London Season. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens in May; June brings Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot, Wimbledon follows at the turn of June and July, and the BBC Proms fill the Royal Albert Hall from July to September. Long evenings, with daylight until after nine, make this the most social time of the year.

Autumn brings the Frieze art fair in October and the start of the theatre and opera seasons, with weather that is mild and often bright. Winter is grey and damp rather than severely cold; December has the illuminations of Regent Street and Oxford Street and the Christmas windows of the great department stores. The weather is changeable in every season, and an umbrella belongs in the luggage year-round.

London’s grand hotels gather in a few districts. In Mayfair stand Claridge’s on Brook Street, The Connaught on Carlos Place and The Dorchester on Park Lane, with Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane a short walk south; in Knightsbridge, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park opens directly onto the park; and on the Strand, The Savoy has looked over the Thames since 1889.

LVXVRY books Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane through Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park through Mandarin Oriental Fan Club and The Savoy through Accor Preferred — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay. For Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Dorchester, LVXVRY advises on and arranges the stay directly.