Side by side Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge vs The Chancery Rosewood London

This is the former Port of London Authority building turned Four Seasons, and the scale of that conversion is most of the case: five-metre ceilings, hand-carved plasterwork, suites that run to 70 square metres with gas fireplaces and freestanding tubs. Base rooms face an internal courtyard rather than the Thames, but the trade-off is quiet, genuinely quiet, in a way few central London hotels manage. The building alone is worth the detour east.

The catch is location and food, and both are price-conditional rather than dealbreakers. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are on the doorstep, and the tube is a minute away, but Mayfair and the West End are a 30-minute Uber, which matters if that's why you're in London. Afternoon tea is the recurring sore point: guests report 45-minute waits, cold scones, savoury portions that don't match the sweet course, and a kitchen unwilling to comp a top-up on a five-star bill. Breakfast is similarly hit-or-miss for a hotel at this level, while the Rotunda Bar's cocktails get named and praised repeatedly, with Trey behind the bar coming up on his own merits.

The spa is a genuine draw, an 18,000-square-foot basement space with a proper sauna and steam room, best visited early morning before the pool fills with children (there's a no-kids-after-11am window that regulars plan around). Book this for the room, the quiet, and a hotel that resolved a broken air conditioner at midnight by moving a guest into a better suite without fuss. Skip the tea, and if Mayfair proximity matters more than square footage, that's a fair reason to look elsewhere.

A suite here starts north of £1,000 a night, and most of what arrives for that money is genuinely special: Joseph Dirand's interiors turned a brutalist former US Embassy into something warm, with walnut, suede, and rare green marble in bathrooms big enough to actually use. The all-suite layout means even the entry-level Grosvenor junior suites run 570-plus square feet, which is enormous by London standards, and the building itself, with its rescued rooftop eagle and carved-out 18-metre basement spa, is worth the visit on its own.

Where it gets shakier is the follow-through. One couple ordered specific teas for afternoon tea and never got them, waiting through a flower tea substitute instead. Another guest watched the AC cycle on and off all night for no reason, with pipes banging every time a tap ran. A five-night stay saw the same pattern repeat daily until checkout, offset mostly by one standout staffer doing more than his job required. The individual service can be exceptional (a butler giving an unscripted private tour, a reception manager remembered by name weeks later) but the hotel doesn't yet run at that level consistently across every shift and outlet.

None of this should talk you out of booking, but go in clear-eyed: this suits someone who wants a striking, modern room and top-tier design over old-world formality, and who can shrug off the odd service stumble at a hotel still finding its rhythm a year after opening. If you want London's old guard doing everything by muscle memory, Claridge's or The Connaught will feel more polished on any given night. For the building, the suites, and Mayfair's best new rooftop bar, book the Chancery.