If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP177.08), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Flâneurs flock to Grand Hotel Bellevue, a Victorian townhouse turned Paddington pied-à-terre. Though there’s plenty of French flirtation at this chic basecamp, an around-the-world ambience prevails: sip tête-à-tête tipples in the Indian-inspired bar, admire bespoke embroidery from New York’s Bode, tuck into a Gallic breakfast buffet, stretch out in the bohemian fitness studio or retreat to a cabin-like crashpad. And it’s not just the world that’s your oyster chez Bellevue – London is too, thanks to its sought-after address.
Smith Extra
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Free access to Studio Nohrd. GoldSmiths also get a glass of wine each at the Pondicherry Bar
Noon. Check-in, 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £212.50, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates at Grand Hotel Bellevue are room-only; buffet breakfast in the Green Room starts at £24.
Also
Unfortunately, this Victorian townhouse is not suitable for guests with reduced mobility. Although there are two lifts, the entrance and several rooms are accessed by stairs only; staff are always happy to help with bags.
Please note
This hot-off-the-press bolthole is putting some final touches on certain parts of the hotel, but the work won’t be disruptive.
At the hotel
Gym and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV with Chromecast, air-conditioning, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes (on request) and slippers, and Floris bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Room 101 at Grand Hotel Bellevue is nothing like Orwell’s – you’re warmly welcomed into this Executive Room by a burnt orange seating area, floor-to-ceiling windows with a belle view of Norfolk Square and a soporific king-size bed. If there are any champagne-popping celebrations to be had (perhaps a night without your little Smiths), the Grand Norfolk Suite is the hotel’s pièce de résistance. You’ll be charmed by its high ceilings, ornate original cornicing and antique furniture; the double walk-in shower and egg-shaped bath tub are equally seductive.
Packing tips
The area’s eponymous bear would advise a few marmalade sandwiches and a tomato-red hat…
Also
The hotel’s gym, Studio Nohrd, inspires even the most exercise-adverse to limber up – its easy-on-the-eyes décor comprises chequerboard tiles, Persian-style rugs and mahogany-panelled machines. You’ll need to book ahead for your workout (or photoshoot).
Children
Little Smiths are welcome, though there’s no specific kit. The Executive Rooms and Grand Norfolk Suite have sofa-beds, and baby cots can be added on request.
By the large internal window in the breakfast room, so you can keep tabs on when the pastries get replenished.
Dress Code
As long as they’re a feather-trimmed Sleeper set or from chic Desmond & Dempsey, you might be able to get away with your pyjamas at breakfast.
Hotel restaurant
There’s no formal restaurant, but the Green Room puts on a day-starting French spread. And don’t worry if you haven’t fully woken up yet by the time breakfast rolls around – the moody space is a sight for sleepy eyes with its Nocellara-olive-hued walls, gently glowing shell lamps, khaki banquettes and mahogany tables. Once you’ve come around, there’s pastries, fruit, cold cuts and made-to-order eggs galore.
Hotel bar
Named after the Indian city, Pondicherry Bar entices with its spice-like shades – paprika-painted walls, turmeric high stools, cumin banquettes and cinnamon furniture. The bespoke embroidered-by-Bode tapestries are another nod to globetrotting traditions, and behind the bulb-studded bar, mixologists shake up cocktails and pour all-French wines.
Last orders
The Green Room only serves breakfast, which is from 7am until 10.30am. Pondicherry Bar pours from 9am until midnight, Monday to Wednesday; until 1am, Thursday to Saturday, and until 10.30pm on Sundays.
Grand Hotel Bellevue is in a quiet townhouse-lined square, just around the corner from Paddington Station in central London.
Planes
London’s Heathrow Airport is a 50-minute drive from the hotel, and Gatwick Airport is under two hours away; staff can arrange transfers from the former from £80 each way, and from Gatwick prices start from £200.
Trains
Paddington station is a five-minute walk from the hotel; the Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express will whizz you from the airport to here in less than half an hour. If you arrive into St Pancras International, staff can organise a one-way transfer to the hotel from £15.
Automobiles
Hiring your own set of wheels would be a faux pas – Paddington train and Tube station are on your doorstep, and taxis are easily available. For determined drivers, paid street parking is available.
Worth getting out of bed for
Grand Hotel Bellevue’s central co-ords will set you up well for days at large in London. Wander along the canal to Rembrandt Gardens in Little Venice, a leafy spot where you can watch boats chug by, or stroll to Hyde Park’s Italian Gardens to survey the Serpentine. In Notting Hill, eye up the sorbet-shaded houses before heading to Portobello Road for its in-vogue vintage market, the bookshop and plenty of people-watching. If you haven’t yet dropped, there’s more shopping to be done on Marylebone High Street, which is dotted with designer and indie boutiques. You’ll get your culture fix at the Wallace Collection, an antique-filled townhouse, or the Royal Academy of Arts, which has impressive year-round exhibitions as well as its storied summer show.
Local restaurants
Canalside the Summerhouse is nautical to a tee – it has views of the water, a seafood-centric menu, and lashings of navy-and-cream stripes. The Victoria in Paddington is a plush pub serving best-of-British comfort food and crisp ales (their fish and chips get rave reviews, too). Its intimate setting, authentic Greek fare and designed-to-share dips make Ammos Hyde Park a locally loved haunt.
Local cafés
Picture-perfect pastries, such as miso-bacon or pistachio-chocolate swirls, draw an in-the-know crowd to Arôme Bakery on Duke Street. The clue’s in the title: Treelogy Speciality Coffee serves house-roasted brews – alongside breakfast bagels and tempting sweet treats.
Local bars
Let’s hope its name isn’t a premonition at Naked & Famous, a 70s-inspired underground bar which shakes up mezcal- and tequila-based tipples. Hands up – Heist Bank has a lot going for it: industrial-chic interiors, a terrace with canal views, house beers and cocktails, and wood-fired sourdough pizzas.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this worldly hotel in Paddington and unpacked their turquoise tins of tea and pret-à-porter purchases, a full account of their capital break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Grand Hotel Bellevue in London…
When designing Grand Hotel Bellevue, Paris-based architect Fabrizio Casiraghi created a fictional couple to inspire the décor at this boutique basecamp. His answer to Mr Smith is an aristocratic Englishman with a penchant for antique furniture and paintings; Mrs Smith is a wanderlust-fuelled bonne vivante with an eye for colour. And so, Bellevue is where their tastes come together: glossy dark wood, original cornicing and market-found treasures contrast pumpkin-orange walls, brightly tiled bathrooms and a print-packed gym.
Though there’s a curious cauldron of cultures and aesthetics at Bellevue, the unifying thread is undoubtedly Français – the intimate bar pours all-Loire-Valley wines, breakfast is a buffet of homemade pastries, madeleines and other Gallic eats, and the manager, owners and staff are largely from across the Channel. Although size-wise this bolthole is rather petite, its scope is as grand (and French) as its name.
