The Ritz London

Mick Jagger was once refused afternoon tea at the Ritz for want of a jacket and tie, a small act of institutional stubbornness that tells you most of what you need to know about the place. The hotel opened in 1906 as London's first steel-framed building, with César Ritz modelling it on the grand Belle Époque hotels of Paris he knew so well. Charlie Chaplin stayed. De Gaulle broadcast to occupied France from inside these walls. Margaret Thatcher celebrated every election victory in the same suite, which suggests either sentimentality or superstition, possibly both. 136 rooms on Piccadilly, and a level of formality that has never once apologised for itself.