
Inside The Emory – London’s first all-suite hotel
The Maybourne Group’s first new London property in 50 years is the city’s first all-suite hotel and home to abc kitchens’ first restaurant outside of Manhattan
The contemporary narrative that informs The Emory is obvious on arrival. While the lavish new property sits on a prominent slice of central Belgravia, here there’s no top-hatted doormen or main street peacocking. Instead, an exclusive entrance that’s nothing if not discrete.
To alight from a darkened vehicle (transfers are included in the room rate – including via helicopter to London Heliport for anyone arriving at selected airports by private jet) is to step into a private atrium of open air and autumnal colour – met by a personal ‘Emory Assistant’ on hand to cover queries, concerns, arrangements, and to act as a personal guide to your reserved suite.
That final word, ‘suite’, gets bandied about a lot in the luxury space – overused as an overinflated descriptor of rooms that fall well short of the measured mark. That’s not the case here. The Emory is London’s first all-suite hotel, and, hot off the back of Raffles at The OWO and neighbouring The Peninsula, is undoubtedly the capital’s buzziest new opening.

The anticipation that accompanied the build was largely driven by design, and the championing of an alluring set of ‘firsts’. Almost 20 years in the making, on an architectural and design standing The Emory proves a legacy project for the late British architect, Richard Rogers. In an oeuvre that includes Paris’ Centre Pompidou and London landmarks the Millennium Dome and Lloyd’s building, The Emory will forever be Rogers’ only hotel – one conceived with, and ultimately completed by, his RSHP practice and partner Ivan Harbour.
The imprint of Rogers’ work is largely seen in the use of external outriggers and rooftop ‘masts’ – as well as in internal spaces that flash with industrial steel and colour, notably a bold staircase of fuchsia. Rogers was long fascinated by modernism, finding inspiration during an early round-trip to the United States with his first wife, Su.

“American industrial structures were on a scale I’d not seen before,” Rogers recalled in his 2017 book A Place for All People. “They were the undiluted and unornamented essence of functional expression. But they could also be visually exciting and even romantic.”
Rogers’ exterior creativity is a match for The Emory’s interiors – every two floors delivered by different international design studios of acclaim. On paper, this may strike as a curious, almost infantile art collage, though the results – the work of André Fu, Patricia Urquiola, Pierre-Yves Rochon and Champalimaud Design, among others – are nothing short of exceptional, finding coherence in a heady use of timber and marble, and across a natural palate that ultimately softens Rogers’ industrial output.
On the ground floor sit the hotel’s public areas: The Emory Bar and Abc Kitchens. The interiors are brought together by designer Rémi Tessier with the work of close friend Damien Hirst. The artist’s The Secret Gardens Paintings feature throughout.

As for those other ‘firsts’, The Emory provides Abc Kitchens’ inaugural outpost outside of Manhattan, while the destination Tracy Anderson fitness studio is the first of its kind outside of Los Angeles. Further, this is the Maybourne Group’s first new London hotel in 50 years.
The Emory’s general manager, Knut Wylde, speaks of the residential approach that framed the hotel’s creation. A central tenet regarding space, and lots of it, means that across eight floors there are just 60 suites – not including the glass penthouse by Rigby & Rigby.
“We set out to create a modern London masterpiece,” offers Wylde. “At one stage, we were looking to create a private members’ hotel and, even though we’re not doing that anymore, we retained quite a few of those elements. The desire wasn’t to create something ostentatious or over the top, but something with more of a residential feel – understated luxury, quiet hospitality.”

Indeed, it is a sense of peace, aided by a huge floorplan and lots of natural light, thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows, that typifies our stay in a ‘junior’ Urquiola suite. A contemporary use of timber waistcoated panelling welcomes you down a short hallway to a lounge-diner of muted colours, a low-slung couch and wooden table for two. The adjacent king bedroom is neatly aligned – penetrative natural light again a defining feature, providing what is, ultimately, a welcoming sense of sanctuary. Here, you’re part of the action, if removed – at least until you open a Juliet balcony that welcomes both fresh air and the street sounds of Knightsbridge.
The bathroom puts its luxury peers to shame, with separate shower and toilet, a freestanding bath, in-house products from the hotel’s Surrenne spa and, again, what is an indulgent sense of spaciousness.
To descend in The Emory’s contemporary lifts to the hotel’s impressive spa is an experience in itself. Here, you’ll find an elegantly-appointed lounge-café, offering juice or champagne, take your pick, and a 22-metre indoor swimming pool licked by natural light (a design quirk you can’t quite work out given the pool’s positioning). There’s also a secluded hammam, replete with daybeds, and the aforementioned Anderson studio. Forgotten your headphones? There’s a stack of individual earphones on offer – the kind of touch that speaks of the deep levels of service that informs a stay at The Emory.

Take the lift in the other direction, to the top of the hotel, and you’ll be met by the two (literal glass) jewels in the hotel’s crown. These elevated transparent boxes, Bar 33 and Cigar Merchants, are exclusive to hotel guests and their invitees – both opulent in autumnal-coloured, leathery finishes, and offering uniquely-placed 360-degree views of the capital.
To sit here, glass in hand, and take in near all of London, is to appreciate the wonder of the city, and the modern architectural achievement that is The Emory.
From £1,440 per night, visit the-emory.co.uk