Over thirty years, Mr William Wolfe has spent a little over five million pounds on a generous expense account. He has eaten the oysters, slept in the four-posters, tipped the doormen and, on more than one occasion, tested the unofficial two-martini limit at Dukes.
This site is his attempt to repay the debt: everything he has learnt about living excellently, shared freely, and not one hotel paid to be here. Somebody had to do it. It might as well have been him.
Morning, Noon and Night
Every review from the Guide to Excellent Living in London, arranged as Mr Wolfe arranges his day.
Morning
In London, leisure ranks alongside space as the greatest of luxuries. An unhurried breakfast remains one of the foundation stones of a civilised existence.
Noon
Lunch in London can be as brisk or indulgent as one likes. Given the choice and the right company, I’d sooner linger.
Night
When the clock chimes five, the curtain rises on the wealth of possibilities afforded by the London night.
The Fife Arms
A Victorian coaching inn in the Cairngorms, transformed by art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth into one of the most extraordinary hotels in the world. There is a Picasso in the drawing room and a Lucian Freud in the hall.
Chewton Glen, and other places that welcome the whippet
Dogs are welcome, though, rather like luggage on a helicopter, they are subject to a weight limit: the hounds of the Baskerville persuasion should telephone ahead. Small dogs are adored, large ones are discussed, and nobody minds a muddy paw on the croquet lawn.
Gone, but kept in the desk drawer
The great London rooms that have closed their doors, remembered one matchbox at a time: old Annabel’s, Le Caprice, Chiltern, Boujis, Kabaret’s Prophecy, The Cuckoo Club and The Blue Bar at The Berkeley.
Made to measure, with Oliver Brown
Four very beautiful shirts, a throw-in-bag blazer, the Count of Teba jacket, slacker slacks and the mother of all raincoats. The whole caboodle, with two years of Ozempic-busting alterations, is £6,500.
@mrwilliamwolfe
Daily dispatches, hotel reviews and the occasional matchbox, posted from wherever the expense account has taken him.
Guide to Excellent Living in London
Pocket-sized, bound in red leather and published in 2021, the Guide follows Sir Francis Chichester’s Guide to Good Living in London for a new generation of gentlemen. Every review is now on this site, arranged by Morning, Noon and Night.