The Emory

The Emory opened in October 2023 on the corner of Old Barrack Yard and William Mews — a Richard Rogers building in Knightsbridge that brings to the area something it had not previously had: a hotel with genuine architectural ambition at the contemporary end of the conversation. Rogers' late-career signature is present: structural legibility, external expression of the building's systems, high-tech architecture applied to a residential scale. 61 rooms and 22 residences across a building that looks at home near Hyde Park in the way that a genuinely good building looks at home anywhere.

Per Se London is Thomas Keller's first restaurant outside the United States. The reservation waitlist requires attention months in advance. It is worth the planning.

The food-and-drink proposition is the most significant thing about The Emory: Per Se London, Thomas Keller's first restaurant outside the United States, operates in the hotel and represents the most anticipated restaurant opening in London in years.

The approach is through William Mews — a private-feeling passage between Knightsbridge and Hyde Park Corner that insulates the hotel from its surrounding streets. The Richard Rogers building resolves itself as you approach: glass, structural steel, the building's mechanicals expressed externally in the Rogers manner.

The immediate sense upon arrival is that the hotel is smaller and quieter than you expect from a building with this much design ambition. That balance is the correct one.

61 rooms across 12 floors, with the better views on the upper floors overlooking Hyde Park. Request a park-facing room — at the Hyde Park Corner end, the views are excellent and the Wellington Arch is visible below. The rooms are fitted with the technology that a 2023 build should provide: proper blackout, climate control that works, connectivity at the bedside.

The scale is residential rather than hotel-large — the residences on the upper floors have influenced the room proportions throughout the building. The result is rooms that feel like a well-planned apartment rather than a hotel room.

Per Se London is the reason. Thomas Keller's tasting menu — the same philosophy as the New York original, executed with British and European produce — is a multi-hour event. The room is small and deliberately so; dinner here is an occasion rather than a meal. This is one of the hardest restaurant reservations in London.

The hotel bar is a well-executed secondary option — the cocktail program reflects the care applied to Per Se, at a more accessible price point. The wine list is among the strongest in the Knightsbridge area.

The Emory sits at the junction of Belgravia and Knightsbridge. Harvey Nichols is a ten-minute walk. Harrods is twelve minutes. Belgrave Square and its gardens are five minutes south. Hyde Park is immediately accessible — there is a gate at the corner that opens onto the park's southern end.

Hyde Park Corner tube (Piccadilly line) is a three-minute walk. The mews location means pedestrian access is from William Mews, not directly from Knightsbridge — set GPS to Old Barrack Yard.