Of all London's boutique inns, this Chelsea hotel succeeds the best at leaving behind the aura of impersonal hotel to create instead a cozy private home feel—with discreet hotel comforts—in a building from the 1800s
The Leonard links four 18C Marlyebone townhouses for a British atmosphere with an Imperial touch
A cozy, moderate hotel in the Little Venice area of Maida Vale
Harrods of London installed a novelty in 1898: the world's first true escalator (to be fair, an inclined moving belt with metal bars for traction did make its debut two years earlier on Coney Island). The oddness of a moving staircase so unnerved many shoppers that employees were stationed near it with smelling salts and cognac to help revive those overcome with fear.