The Royal Horseguards ★★★

A posh five-star luxury hotel overlooking the Thames in the heart of Westminster's government centre

This luxury hotel by the Thames, perfectly sited a few blocks from Trafalgar Square where the West End meets Westminster, occupies an 1884 French chateau–like listed building that was the original Scotland Yard and WWII HQ for the head of MI6 (the person the James Bond movies calls 'M").

The decor is something like Victorian modern, with luxe appointments like Elemis toiletries and flatscreens TV over the bathtubs.

Executive rooms are lager than Deluxe ones. "City View" rooms often means overlooking the buildings next-door. If you aren't going to plump for a river view—it's right across from the London Eye—aim for a Garden View room, which are on the same side as River View but are lower down so what you see is mostly the trees of Embankment gardens (except in winter, when you can see the Thames though the branches).

It has a piano bar and a lovely One Twenty One Two Restaurant (a nod to the old Scotland Yard phone number, "Whitehall 1212"), as well as an outdoor dining terrace.

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