If London is already on your travel list this autumn, Shepherd Market is getting a new hotel worth building a stay around. The Shepherd Mayfair opens this October on a site known as Mayfair's oldest house, The Cottage. Dating back to 1618, here, a shepherd once tended his flock before the surrounding fields became home to the annual May Fair, which gave the neighbourhood its name.
For Gulf travellers who visit London often, the address does a lot of the work. Green Park is a short walk away, and so is Mayfair's main strip of shops and restaurants. Heathrow and London City Airport are both around 45 minutes by car, traffic depending.
The new hotel features 82 rooms and suites. It houses three separate places to eat and drink, and has six floors, built around a residential feel rather than a grand hotel one.
Rooms start from £500 a night. Inside, expect warm timber, softer colour palettes, touches of blue, red velvet curtains.
Some of the furniture pulls double duty, a desk that folds out into a dressing table, a console table that turns into a chessboard.
Floris London, Britain's oldest independent perfumer, supplies the in-room amenities, and the walls carry photography by Jack English and George McLeod.
Fayre is the main restaurant, 62 covers, open from breakfast through dinner. The menu runs on seasonal British produce and European classics: lobster and prawn brioche rolls, braised beef short rib croquettes, citrus-cured trout, a beef Wellington pithivier.
There's also a "Puddings by the Glass" series that changes weekly, starting with a strawberry and Champagne trifle. The room itself nods to the old May Fair gatherings, with dark timber, deep berry tones, and wall coverings by artist Adam Ellis that lean theatrical.
The Lounge is the more casual option, an all-day café and bar with 46 covers and an outdoor terrace, plus a hatch on the street for takeaway coffee. Teddy's, on the lower ground floor, is where things get later and darker, a cocktail bar reached through a hidden staircase or an arched passage off the lobby. The list draws on 1930s classics, and the back bar stretches to whisky, tequila and a Champagne selection that includes Louis Roederer Cristal.
A specific opening date is expected soon, with October pencilled in. For anyone already planning a London trip this autumn, it's one to keep on the radar, especially given how close it sits to Mayfair's shops and both airports.
