The creation of friends Peter McKay and Douglas Blain (who also own Hazlitt’s in Soho and who, as founding members of the Spitalfields Trust, are passionate about preserving Georgian property), The Rookery shares Hazlitt’s historic charm despite the fact thats it the less intellectual of the two hotels in London – it was once a brothel. Following extensive restoration to three adjoined (and near-derelict) 18th-century houses, The Rookery boasts 33 beautifully decorated four-star rooms (carved antique headboards, plush furnishings, claw-footed baths), mostly named after the building’s residents over the last 250 years. The Rook’s Nest, the most luxurious of the hotel’s three suites, has magnificent views across London’s rooftops from St Paul’s to the Old Bailey, a vast four-poster, and a bathtub in the corner of the bedroom. Like Hazlitt’s, The Rookery has gone for period-drama atmosphere over hi- tech mod-cons – think crooked floors, polished oak panelling, open fires and flagstone floors, and instead of a dining room or bar, there’s breakfast in bed, or in the Conservatory, and an honesty bar. Plus the odd American wooed by the novelty of history.