HotelChatter

The bold colors and patterns you can see in the gallery, mixed with the texture of fabrics, wallpaper, and curtains, as well as the art throughout the hotel, create an interesting visual and sensory environment. We liked the denim-y wallpaper in one of the rooms and the French wallpaper in the public spaces of flowerless plants.

Rooms start from Single and Superior and go up via Luxury and Deluxe to Dorset Square and Marylebone rooms. Rates start from £150 ($233) for a Single room to £330 ($513) for a Marylebone room, excluding VAT. Each room is unique, but based on what we saw we'd say that a Superior room is fine for a single traveller or a couple if you're planning to spend most of your time out and about in London. For a longer stay or a little bit more space, you're probably better off in a Luxury room or larger.

We mentioned cricket as a recurring theme in the hotel; these cricket paintings you'll find in the Potting Shed, the hotel's restaurant offering "English brasserie style cuisine". Open all day, it serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Focusing on locally sourced and seasonal produce, you might find dishes such as Cumberland sausage and mash with balsamic onion gravy and beer battered pollock on the menu.

With Firmdale's return to Dorset Square now unveiled, we'll have to be patient until the end of 2013 to see what their flagship London hotel, featuring 100 rooms and suites, theatre & cinema, bowling alley, restaurant, bar, rooftop garden, and event space, apartments, and retail stores, will bring.

[Photos: Firmdale Hotels]