Bed & bath: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths
Top-notch amenities Elevator, washing machines
Neighborhood: Trafalgar Square
Who lives in Trafalgar Square, anyway? Of course, the guy on the column. There are also pigeons. This is a grand Monopoly board London. A land of giants and embassies. museums. Anyone? Live here? It turns out that they do. This OneFineStay is located five floors above Canada House in the old Norway House. It’s a great place to explore central London at your leisure. Pick up provisions from Fortnum & Mason; take a morning stroll past Buckingham Palace You can also be the first to see the Monets by getting in line at the Monets exhibition. National Gallery.
The apartment has two spacious bedrooms, cooled by ceiling fans and set off a Georgian-blue-and-white hallway that feels like it belongs to a larger house, with two bathrooms on the other side, lined with swirling marble. The apartment has a well-equipped small kitchen and a cozy sitting room, which is lined with reclaimed wood panels and beams from the building. It’s a little like sitting inside a walnut, or a Jeeves and Wooster–era bachelor pad, with a vintage Harrow XI cricket bat in one corner, a deer-antler lamp in another, and a herringbone-print sofa and pneumatic armchairs to sprawl decadently in before mixing an afternoon Old Fashioned on the Calligaris teak dining table. The Japanese flower art in the bedroom and the eclectic book shelves that include ceramics, Sarah Perry and British folk traditions as well as Norwegian geography may give a hint to the owners. Easy enough to dawdle here for a day but just outside the windows is all the thrill—even for staycationing Londoners like myself—of the city beat. Weekend mornings can be more quiet than in some suburbs. The only sound you hear is the horses. Hyde Park, the Post Office Tower greeting us with ‘Good Morning London’ on its digital display.
We downloaded a Treasure Trail map for our son and followed clues around Trafalgar Square, through back streets to unnoticed plaques and footnotes of history—the pub of two halves by Charing Cross, the map of the Trafalgar Way by Canada House. There’s some hidden history in this building too—above the door stands a statue of St Olav, sword in hand; during the war, with Norway Norway House was occupied by the exiled government, and King Haakon VII was a frequent visitor. Had he visited during our stay we might have taken him—via the OneFineStay concierge team—for pavement-side drinks at the Sofitel St James round the corner, or the bar at Da Henrietta in Covent Garden. This is a small pocket of warmth and character in a part that can sometimes feel impersonal and imposing. —Rick Jordan
