The Milestone Hotel

An old milestone is set into the garden wall of 1 Kensington Court, and it gave the house its name when it opened as The Milestone Hotel. The building is Victorian, part of the Kensington Court development of the 1880s that replaced an older mansion with red-brick houses in the Queen Anne manner, and it stands at the corner where Kensington Court meets Kensington High Street, directly opposite the gates of Kensington Palace. Red Carnation Hotels, the group founded by Beatrice and Stanley Tollman, bought it in the 1990s and has run it since as the smallest of its London houses.

History

Kensington Court was laid out from 1883 on the site of Colby House, and its houses were taken by well-off families drawn by the palace and the park. Number 1, with its turret and its corner position, was a private residence before it became a hotel. Red Carnation acquired the Grade II listed building and restored it room by room under the direction of Bea Tollman, whose taste for pattern, antiques and fresh flowers runs through every Red Carnation hotel. The Milestone has stayed in the family's hands and is still run as a family business, with the hotel's dogs and children's programme as much a part of it as the afternoon tea.

Architecture and design

The exterior is red brick with stone dressings, gables, tall chimneys and a corner turret, the Queen Anne revival style of the Kensington Court estate. Inside, no two rooms are the same. The public rooms on the ground floor keep panelling and open fireplaces: the Park Lounge, which faces the palace, the Conservatory behind it, and the Stables Bar with its horse-racing prints and leather. Upstairs the suites follow themes chosen by Mrs Tollman, among them the Safari Suite with its tented ceiling and the Mistinguett Suite named after the Parisian music-hall star.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 43 rooms and 13 suites, plus six apartments in the adjoining building for longer stays. Rooms at the front look across Kensington High Street to the palace and gardens; those at the back and on the turret side are quieter. Every room is decorated differently, with antiques, printed fabrics and marble bathrooms, and the suites run to separate sitting rooms. Families are given rooms with connecting doors, and dogs are welcomed with a bed and a bowl.

Dining

Cheneston's is the hotel's restaurant, named after the Domesday Book spelling of Kensington, and serves British cooking in a panelled room with leaded windows. Afternoon tea is served in the Park Lounge, with the palace railings in view, and in the Conservatory. The Stables Bar, lined with racing memorabilia, is open through the evening and is the room that regulars return to.

Wellness

The spa in the basement is small and private: a gym, a sauna, treatment rooms and a resistance pool for swimming against a current rather than lengths. Treatments can be booked by non-residents but the pool is for guests.

Weddings and events

The Milestone hosts small weddings and private dinners in its ground-floor rooms and private dining rooms, with the Conservatory and the Park Lounge used for receptions. The scale is that of a town house rather than a ballroom, and the hotel suits wedding parties that take over most of the house. Meetings are held in the private dining rooms.

Location

The hotel faces Kensington Palace, the London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the home of Diana, Princess of Wales until 1997. Kensington Gardens begins across the road, with the Round Pond and the Serpentine beyond, and the Royal Albert Hall and the South Kensington museums are a short walk east. High Street Kensington station, on the Circle and District lines, is two minutes away. The hotel is the luxury hotel in London for anyone whose business is with the palace or the park.