The Stafford London

A five-star St James's hotel across three historic buildings, with a 17th-century wine cellar, a Michelin-starred Michael Caines restaurant and one of London's longest-surviving American bars.

Walk to the far end of the wine cellars under The Stafford and you reach a small museum. Its objects were left by American and Canadian officers who sheltered here during the Second World War, when the hotel was their club. Around them, more than 8,000 bottles of wine, cognac and whisky rest in cellars almost 400 years old.

Lord Francis Godolphin built the cellars in the 17th century, when numbers 16 to 18 St James’s Place were private houses. They became The Stafford Hotel in 1912. Today the hotel is a five-minute walk from Green Park station, with Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly close by.

The rooms are split across three buildings. The Main House holds the classic rooms, all with marble bathrooms and some with four-poster beds. The Mews House suites face a courtyard behind it, with their own entrance and a more contemporary look.

The Carriage House is a 380-year-old Grade II listed building that once served as the stables, and its rooms and suites had a multi-million pound redesign in 2017. Select Main House bedrooms followed in 2022.

Families get interconnecting rooms and family suites, and the Family Escape offer takes 50% off a second room for the children. The hotel lists a fitness suite but no spa.

Michael Caines MBE opened his first London restaurant here in September 2025, and MICHAEL CAINES at The Stafford has since won the hotel its first Michelin star. The menu leans on British produce, with signatures such as Stafford Beef Wellington and Brixham Dover Sole.

Afternoon tea comes from pastry chefs who were runners-up on Bake Off: The Professionals, and children get their own Mini Royals version.

Save one evening for the American Bar, one of the longest-surviving American bars in London and filled with memorabilia. Guests aged 17 and under are not allowed in after 6pm, so families should go at lunch. In winter its courtyard becomes Aspen Village, private igloos and all. Book The Stafford for a tucked-away St James’s base, and ask the Head Sommelier about a tasting down in the cellar.

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