The Private Traveller

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L'Oscar London - Romantic, Baroque & Boutique Luxury Hotel; A Leading Hotels of the World Review

The Private Traveller

Overview

As much as I love to revisit favourite five star hotels when in London, I also like to try out new properties and locations too. L’Oscar had come onto my radar a while back (it’s been open for just over three years now) but we had to cancel a trip last summer due to Covid, and (almost a year to day) were able to reschedule it.


The hotel was designed by Jacques Garcia; this French designer undertook his first project in London at L’Oscar. It’s an exclusive new 39-bedroom luxury hotel in the former Headquarters of the Baptist Church. It has now been fully restored and re-imagined as an opulent, boutique hotel but still retains all of the charm and history, but adorned with additional arts and crafts style of peacocks, glass birds and butterflies. It’s not a style I would want to live with full-time, but it’s great to experience different architectural and design styles when staying in a hotel.


Hotel website: https://www.loscarlondon.com

Would I stay here again?   For sure, it’s a fantastic location with beautiful accommodation options, great staff and a wonderful eclectic design. I’d love to go back when the Baptist Bar is open.

Hotel Review: L'Oscar London - Romantic, Baroque & Boutique Luxury Hotel.

Location

In the heart of Bloomsbury, seconds from the Holborn tube and a short walk to Covent Garden, West End (Oxford Street / Regent Street), Soho etc. everywhere was easily accessible either on foot, by tube, or taxi/Uber. Originally planning to travel to London by train, we would have arrived at King’s Cross then taken the Piccadilly line (only one stop en-route) to Holborn, only three minutes away. As it was, with LNER changing the train at the last minute meaning reservations were cancelled and we would have just had to find seats on the train, we decided to fly again so we arrived with British Airways into London Heathrow’s Terminal 5. We hopped on the Heathrow Express which got us to Paddington station in just 15 minutes, then just a further 15 minutes on the Bakerloo and Central line (via Oxford Circus) to Holborn; then in seconds we were welcomed into the hotel. 

Previously abandoned, the 110-year-old architectural gem is located in Holborn; the heritage building still retains some of its original tiling, flooring, carved fireplaces and ornate ceilings which have been restored during the hotel’s refurbishment. The building itself looks extremely traditional from the outside, and I believe a couple of new floors were added on as part of the redevelopment and refurbishment.

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Accommodation

There is a choice of two room types (Superior and Deluxe) with four/five suite options (Junior and Suite, with two one-offs - the Duplex & L’Oscar, also suites being able to be interconnected to create a two-bed option). We had booked a Deluxe room which was upgraded to a Junior Suite and we were allocated room 408 on the fourth floor. There are 39 rooms and suites in total, all designed in the arts and crafts style, with dark woods and rich wall colours, along with ornate fabric, regal though imitation art and all beautifully presented and spectacularly pristine clean.

There was an entrance hall as you entered the Junior Suite with a door frame (but no door) into the main bedroom area, a door to the side into a decent-sized walk-in closet/dressing area then another small corridor off the hall into the marble-lined bathroom. There was a separate (privacy) glass-doored WC, a separate walk-in marble-lined shower (see below, I loved the his and his toiletries) then a main bathroom area (with huge ceiling) with a large wash hand basin and traditional vanity unit, as well as a large soaking tub. Whenever a bathroom is large enough to accommodate twin sinks, I would always have put them both in, but I do appreciate this is just a personal preference. As was everything in this boutique hotel, the bathroom was spotless and cleaned not just in the morning for the main service, but also during a turndown service in the evening too. There were large white towels, body lotion, tissues etc. and a heated ornate mirror (and shaving mirror) which wouldn’t steam up. 

In the main bedroom area, as well as the oversized bed (extremely comfortable and beautiful linens/pillows) there was a traditional writing desk but complete with hidden compartments for a hairdryer and all technology connections (power points, USB, HMDI etc. though I couldn’t get the Bluetooth connection working which presumably would be for music throughout the suite). There was a large armoire which housed a mini-bar fridge (not stocked, which I assume would be a Covid restriction) and a coffee maker. There was lots of mineral (still and sparkling) water provided and this was replenished daily. On arrival we had a bottle of champagne on ice with a selection of handmade chocolates, along with a welcome card from the hotel Manager,

There were a couple of chairs around a mock fireplace and a chaise-sofa in front of a large LCD TV on the wall above. Unfortunately the TV seemed to be stuck on audio description, but we didn’t realise until switching it on late the first night and lived with it (it kept announcing what was happening whenever there was a break in conversation). Only on the second night (again too late to do anything about it) we remembered, but again couldn’t find out how to stop it.

Hotel Review: Ponta dos Ganchos, Gov. Celso Ramos, Brazil

Food & Drink

When we were there the only option for dinner was in the L’Oscar restaurant; the main restaurant was open throughout the day from breakfast to dinner on the ground floor of the hotel, but also had a separate entrance to the side so it was open to non-residents too. There was a great choice of food, perfect for a vegetarian like myself but to non-veggies alike. Service was attentive, excellent quality of food and the chef even came out at one point to check everything was ok for the diners. I had the Burrata with Heritage Tomatoes to start (£12.50) followed by Spring Vegetable Linguini with Citrus Beurre Blanc (£17). Having had quite a late lunch, we didn’t opt for a dessert but our server brought us a selection of handmade chocolates to have whilst settling the bill.

For breakfast, which was included in our package there were two options - first a full English breakfast with a choice of eggs, juice, water, coffee/tea or a healthy option with the same juice, water, coffee/tea and either a fruit bowl or porridge followed by avocado crushed on sourdough with pomegranate and seeds. The first morning we opted for the healthy option, the second we went for the full English albeit I had a vegetarian variant with sourdough toast.

Although not open when we were there, the original octagonal chapel has also been restored, and was home to L’Oscar’s fine-dining restaurant, the Baptist Grill. We were lucky enough to be shown round this area of the hotel, albeit not currently operational it didn’t have the atmosphere that I’m sure it would normally have. There was a bar area and seating on the ground level with the restaurant area above on a mezzanine. I’d definitely come back and stay, so it would be good to do so when this restaurant and bar has been able to reopen.

Hotel Review: Ponta dos Ganchos, Gov. Celso Ramos, Brazil

Facilities & Service

In terms of the accommodation and general ambience of the hotel, this was absolutely spot on as was the service from every single member of staff that we came into contact with. The restaurant was great as was the adjacent (amber-lite) bar and there was an outside space (called the Blue Tree Yard) at the back of the hotel right in between the surrounding buildings. There were a few other options for private events (like the stunning Committee Room or the Library) which were set up when we had a peek in, but without the Baptist being open for dinner or drinks there wasn’t much else, nor did we need anything else. Unlike some of the other larger hotels that we frequent when in London, like the Langham, Hotel Café Royal or the Landmark there was no pool or gym, but for a short break we didn’t need this when we did so much walking around the city.

ThePrivateTraveller’s top tips (any areas for improvement?):

  • It’s hard to say, but the only addition I could think of would be a large mirror on one of the walk-in closet walls; to give a full length option and to create the impression of more space.

  • There was also a green LED light in both the bathroom entrance and main bedroom area, I think this must have been some sort of emergency power/security light as it stayed on all the time. I do like to sleep in complete darkness and the bedroom one did light up the room somewhat, but didn’t really affect our stay. I should have brought an eye mask for occasions like this. It was easy to close the bathroom door and block out that light.

ThePrivateTraveller’s absolute highlights:

  • Great location - literally seconds from the Holborn underground station and both the Piccadilly & Central lines

  • People - from booking the stay with Sophie to the welcome from Abban (Head Concierge), restaurant staff etc. it was such a friendly unpretentious environment.

  • At dinner one night, the Maitre D’ came up during our meal to explain that he was leaving for the night as would be back on shift in the morning, but that he was leaving us in the hands of his colleague. The two went round every table in the restaurant for this handover, and it was such a nice touch rather than just leave mid-service. 

  • Within the walk-in shower there were two shelves, each had a set of Roja toiletries (shampoo, conditioner and shower gel). I guess normally these would be set up with a his and hers set; but very thoughtfully for us they were both ‘his’ - a real nice touch.

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