The Savoy, Dorchester, Claridges… London is famous for its decadent hotels, many of which have delighted guests from around the world for well over a century.
Slightly less well-known are the city’s many boutique hotels, though they are equally sophisticated – and any visitor to the English capital would struggle to find a boutique hotel quite as ornate and beautiful as L’Oscar.
Situated a stone’s throw from London’s Covent Garden, L’Oscar is nestled amongst the hustle and bustle of Southampton Row. Its exterior is as grand as imposing as its neighbours, having been designed by Arthur Keen and constructed between 1901 and 1903 as the London headquarters of the Baptist Church. Whilst little about the exterior has changed, the interior has been entirely transformed.
Walk through the doors of L’Oscar today and you are sure to feel as though you have stepped into an entirely new world. The lobby is sumptuously decorated in deep purples and reds, the walls peppered with gold peacock motifs, complete with marble floors and dark mahogany columns and mezzanines throughout – it’s almost seductive in its interior. For some experienced travellers, these may be recognisable as the trademarks of a true master of interior design – celebrated French decorator and architect Jacques Garcia.
Across his career, Garcia has been responsible for designing many of Paris’ most breathtaking hotels and restaurants, including the Tour Montparnasse, the Royal Monceau à Paris and a series of hotels owned by Le Méridien. Garcia’s most unusual project – and, arguably, his most grand – was restoring the Château du Champ-de-Bataille, a 17th-century castle in Normandy. Incredibly, Garcia had purchased the castle for himself in order to take on the work.
At long last, Garcia brought his talents and creative eye to London to design L’Oscar, a triumph since its opening in 2018.
With staples of ornate Parisian design given a quintessentially London twist, L’Oscar is every bit as beautiful as each of Garcia’s previous interior design projects – and has clearly received just as much love and care throughout. Not a single detail in any of the hotel’s 39 luxury bedrooms or communal areas (the Baptist Bar & Grill is particularly opulent) has been left to chance, every corner decorated beautifully.
The hotel, of course, still fairly new – especially given that one year in the short two years since opening was by no means business as usual – yet it’s clear from a conversation with anyone lucky enough to have stayed there that L’Oscar is a truly incredible spot.
Old-fashioned glamour meets modern luxury behind the doors of L’Oscar. More than just a hotel, this is an escape from reality – and an incredible one, at that.
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