The Gore Hotel consists of two handsome Victorian terrace houses on the corner of Queen’s Gate in fashionable Kensington. The polished mahogany reception is all but hidden by sculptures, chandeliers and lofty walls clustered with paintings. Like a private art gallery, 5000 oils, watercolours and engravings crowd the hotel’s downstairs rooms and bedrooms.
Each of the hotel’s 53 bedrooms is furnished with Victorian or Edwardian antiques: mahogany half-testers, carved oak four-posters, French chaise-longues, elegant writing tables, and silk and velvet drapes. The bathrooms are panelled with mahogany and antique delft tiles.
Despite the grand, period fittings - 21st century technology is dovetailed into the design. All rooms have dataports, satellite TVs, bathrobes, minibars and safes.
In the bar and restaurant the atmosphere is a cross between a, slightly decadent, gentleman’s club and a Parisian brasserie. Bar One Ninety - all mahogany panelling, leather Chesterfields and polished floors - is thick with media and fashion folk. Bistrot One Ninety is refreshingly buzzy and informal, not at all the fusty hotel style, serving exceptional Mediterranean cuisine.
The Gore also features two delightful meeting rooms, both fully air conditioned. Catering for meetings, receptions and private dining, the maximum capacity is 150. Panelled walls hung with gilded mirrors and French Verdure Tapestries beautifully conceal 21st century technology.