With the feel of a private club rather than a hotel, this 'very special place' lies behind the 18th-century facade of three shop-houses in a once-notorious area that is now filled with hip eateris and bars.

Under the south tower of One Crown Place, on the Shoreditch/City border, six 18th-century town houses form the front of this new hotel.

On a pedestrian street, steps from the Royal Opera House, this Georgian town house is home to four floors of individually styled bedrooms of character – and though they don't serve breakfast, Covent Garden abounds with places to eat and drink.

Within a Georgian house in a trendy corner of East London once home to Huguenot silk weavers, Peter McKay and Douglas Blain set out to weave a fantasy of their own.

Hip and convivial, this modish Spitalfields gastropub-with-rooms is a stroll up the colourful street from the Whitechapel Gallery.

Beyond a pristine, Greek Revival-style John Nash exterior, this family-friendly hotel, bursting with colour, has a glamorous basement pool, library, gym, treatment rooms and all-day bistro.

You can imagine nodding off in an armchair over the latest issue of Samuel Johnson's Idler, or William Hazlitt's polemics in the Tatler, when you step into this time-warp hotel and close the door on trendy Soho. It was here, on a Georgian terrace in the 1820s, that essayist Hazlitt penned his valediction, and antiques and furnishings keep faith with a bygone age.

This is an exuberant, hip, modern hotel, from its residents-only roof terrace to buzzy basement bar, bedrooms decorated with a sense of fun, vast restaurant, spa and 1950s bowling alley.

A Bloomsbury Group theme runs through this lively hotel with pavement café tables, thoughtfully equipped bedrooms, lounge, library, heated terrace and all-day dining.

In vibrant King's Cross, this Victorian townhouse hotel mixes comfort with studied eccentricity, so expect upcycled coal-hole covers and repurposed airline trolleys alongside modern air con, smart TVs, good wines and platters in the TOAST B&B lounge.