14 May 2021 • 10:23am
The 'Eliza' bedroom at Henry's Townhouse in London, a beautiful new exclusive-use rental that was originally conceived as a hotel
In a complex year, perhaps it’s no bad thing that No. 24 Upper Berkeley Street in London’s Marylebone will be the boutique hotel that never was. Born and raised around the corner, Jane Collins bought the property with her husband Steven in 2018: already proprietors of Temple Guiting Manor in the Cotswolds, they had high hopes of turning what was then a “really grotty, awful B&B” into Henry’s Townhouse, an intimate luxury hotel. Through its dishevelled state they could discern true architectural and structural beauty – it was Grade II listed for good reason – and there was the obvious appeal of its location, on a discreet residential street still just minutes from Hyde Park and Selfridges.