London: Conscious luxury calling

The sound of trickling water gets ever louder as I crane my neck at the silvery-green strands above. Spanish moss may be an air plant that thrives in the tropical forests of Central America, but I’m stood marvelling at its thread-like stems (all 50,000!) in the heart of Central London. Visible from the street, 1 Hotel Mayfair’s four-metre-wide ‘living chandelier’ sculpture is framed by a façade that’s already been hailed one of the city’s largest living green walls.

Mayfair’s Berkeley Street is American-founded 1 Hotel’s first foray into Europe. Better known for its flagship designer stores and supercar-lined streets, this traditionally ritzy enclave could seem at odds with a hotel brand that’s synonymous with sustainability. But change is afoot. Leafy Mayfair and its village-like neighbour of Marylebone are undergoing a ‘conscious luxury’ makeover, with homegrown produce, sustainable practices and mindful businesses taking root.

The embodiment of this trend is 1 Hotel Mayfair, whose wholesome credentials extend from the ground floor café’s marine plastic artwork to its solar-panelled roof. Located just a stone’s throw from world-famous Bond Street and Buckingham Palace, it’s a restful refuge from the hustle and bustle of London’s West End. After floating through the earth-toned lobby (home to some of the hotel’s 1,300 flora inventory), I find myself leaning against a 200-year-old naturally fallen oak-tree-turned-reception desk. Backdropping it is a Yorkshire drystone wall built by a stone-mason father-and-son duo. It’s all part and parcel of the hotel’s biophilic design concept, which brings guests quite literally nose-to-nose with nature.

A living moss wall surrounds the in-room filtered water dispenser of my L-shaped 82 sqm Piccadilly Greenhouse Suite. It’s one of 44 suites spread across the property’s seventh and eight floors, which afford sweeping views of London’s skyline as well as Green Park. Chunky woollen throws, woven weave coffee tables and raw concrete bedside table lamps make it a textural delight. I follow my nose into the geranium scented bathroom, which vaunts a walk-in rain-shower, Welsh Slate double vanities and refillable British-made Bamford toiletries.

Founded by Lady Carole Bamford – whose mantra is to “live more consciously” – the organic wellness brand’s London boutique keeps smart company on South Audley Street, where I make a (quiet) entrance in the hotel’s Audi e-tron. The zen hits me the moment I step foot inside Bamford’s skylit temple to holistic living. Customers can shop sustainably for cork yoga mats, non-toxic Oxfordshire-crafted ceramics and slow fashion garments featuring plantable seed tags.

Also selling cosy clothing that’s made to last is French fashion brand Les 100 Ciels, whose flagship U.K store is a fashionable hop and a skip away on South Molton Street. Lining its chic rails is its ethically-made, easy-to-wear collection featuring woollen ribbed skirts and cashmere joggers knitted from the downy undercoats of Les 100 Ciels’ own goats.

I continue my mindful meanderings at Grade 1-listed Mercato Mayfair: a deconsecrated 19th-century church reincarnated in 2019 as one of the city’s most sustainable food halls. Satisfyingly, not a smidgen of single-use plastic is used across its four floors, which descend into a craft beer brewing crypt. Illuminated by the glow of a magnificent stained-glass window, I tuck into Taiwanese bao buns, saving room for some English-made burrata at 1 Hotel Mayfair’s Dovetale Restaurant. Double Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers’ latest venture, its menu proudly flies the British flag. Mainstays include English Wagyu carpaccio, roasted Herdwick Lamb (a breed native to the North West England’s Lake District) and Cornish crab.

How apt that I should spend the following drizzly morning under the cover of England’s oldest shopping arcade (Burlington), which happens to be home to the Rolls-Royce of umbrella makers. Granted a royal warrant from Queen Victoria in 1893, Swaine’s Brigg brollies are handcrafted in their Cambridgeshire workshop. Famously durable, it’s often said that they outlive their owners!

There are no grey clouds hanging over the next stop on my sustainable shopping trawl. Tucked down an alley in St. Christopher’s Place (just off Oxford Street), Ingle & Rhode’s bijoux frontage belies its grand ambitions to green Londoners jewellery boxes. “Lab grown is the same thing at an anatomic level. It’s not inferior to natural or mined diamonds,” co-founder Tim Ingle tells me from the store’s upstairs showroom-slash-office. As my eyes scan a towering glass cabinet, I struggle to differentiate between conflict-free Canadian diamonds and the lab grown sparklers. Specialists in environmentally and socially conscious jewellery, the brand was borne out of Ingle’s business partners’ frustration at trying to find an engagement ring (for his now wife) that could be traced back to source. Custom-made for each client by their in-house designer, the ethical jeweller’s eternity, engagement and wedding bands are fashioned from fair-trade precious metals, traceable gemstones and mercury-free platinum.

Swapping diamonds for dapper Duke Street, I find myself back in the beating heart of Mayfair for a lunch date with one of London’s newest Green Michelin starred haunts. Owned by New Zealand-born chef and cookbook author Chantelle Nicholson, Apricity is a love letter to low-waste. The team’s commitment to a circular economy informs everything from their Elephant and Castle-grown greens (delivered by e-vehicle from South London) to their leftover bread-made lager and upcycled Cola bottle chairs. Diners can mix and match plant-based and meat-fish courses as part of the lunchtime tasting menu, which champions seasonal British ingredients like Isle of Wight aubergine and hand-dived Scottish scallops. The bare concrete walls and neutral decor lets the restaurant’s imaginative dishes like sauerkraut tempura do the talking. I can’t resist sinking my spoon one final time into their signature dessert: a deliciously indulgent deep-fried chouxnut made from surplus choux pastry.

My next conscious luxury check-in sits at the intersection of Mayfair and Marylebone, a mere five-minute stroll from Selfridge’s. Scaling the full height of the 199-room, eight-storied BoTree (which opened in September) is a dramatic plant-strewn latticework… a hint of what’s to come. Blooms by London’s all-female florist Sage Flowers’ adorn the hotel’s lobby-cum-art-gallery, where I enjoy a desk-free check-in from its circular stand-up bar. After quaffing some midday bubbles I’m ushered to the elevator where a striking sculpture gives me reason to pause. Called ‘The Bo Roots’, it’s inspired by the sacred Bodhi Tree (from where the hotel derives its name) and under which Buddha attained enlightenment. As well as being 3D-printed, the sculpture’s made from 4,000 recycled London coffee cups explains one of the hotel’s dedicated floor hosts, who escorts me to my fifth-floor suite.

Triple-glazed ‘Lane’ is one of 30 suites named after nearby neighbourhood streets, which you can survey from the adjoining lounge’s pop-out bay window. Though unconventional, the open-plan layout can be customised with a series of sliding panels that separate the suite’s underfloor-heated bathroom (where I promptly warm my tootsies!) from the living-sleeping area. A pistachio velvet loveseat there and patterned cushion there echo the lobby’s joyously punchy palette, whilst the floral-inspired statement wall panels honour The BoTree’s purpose-driven philosophy. Designed with vegan leather, it’s one of many sustainable amenities, which include eco-friendly eucalyptus bed linen, recycled fabric bathrobes and toxic-free bathroom toiletries created by ‘English scent maverick’ Jo Malone.

Trading botanical prints for the real thing, I head down later that evening to the hotel’s bi-floored eatery, where the gnarled branches of an olive tree reach for a central lightwell. The buzzy restaurant – LA-born Lavo’s British debut – turns out Italian coastal cuisine spliced with NYC flavours. Cosied up in one of its crescent-shaped banquettes, I opt for their signature plate: a formidable pyramid of Wagyu meatballs topped with freshly whipped ricotta. The following morning takes a surprising literary turn when the British racing green signage of Daunt Books stops me in my tracks on Marylebone High Street. The lively thoroughfare is the lifeblood of this personable neighbourhood, characterised by elegant Georgian-Victorian architecture and independent stores like Daunt. Believed to be the world’s first custom-built bookshop, its tomes are arranged by destination no matter what the genre, in tribute to its travel bookstore beginnings. The best browsing happens in the galleried level of its rear room: a vision of herringbone floors, oak balconies and stained glass.

Later I swap Daunt Books’ storied shelves for the scented ones of a modern apothecary that’s drawing on the healing power of nature. The passion project of award-winning serial entrepreneur Brendan Murdock, Anatome is “Helping London Sleep,” or at least that’s what the blackboard outside their Chiltern Street (of Chiltern Firehouse fame) premises, claims. As of only recently the aroma atelier is offering bespoke sleep consultations that are rooted in aromachology (the science of our psychological response to scent). Half an hour later and I’m sent home with sleep analyst Winder Ton’s prescription for my overactive mind: a Somali Frankincense aromatherapeutic oil, blended from 22 essential oils and packaged in recyclable glass. Scented and booted, I stop in for lunch at just-opened Kima, which brings a sunny slice of the Med to Marylebone on this grey winter’s day. Headed up by two-Michelin starred chef Nikos Roussos, the Hellenic-hued 30-cover restaurant serves up fin-to-gill dining that leaves nothing (not even fish spines!) to waste. No sooner have I stepped through the door, and I find myself sandwiched between a dry aging fish cabinet and a raw bar of langoustines, lobster and other fresh catch. The ultimate customisable meal, they can be prepared raw, grilled, stewed… the list goes on! My own Mediterranean feast begins with a family-style Greek salad that’s liberally doused with olive oil from a huge wine decanter and wraps with a seaweed twist on a Greek baklava.

I resolve to walk off my midday indulgence with a brisk ten-minute walk to number 25 Duke Street, which connects Wigmore Street to London’s famed Grosvenor Square. No ordinary liquor store, Drink with Sasha’s blonde wooden shelves are filled with sustainable spirits including a net-zero malt whiskey and Brazil’s first craft gin, produced entirely by women. For every bottle purchased in-store a tree is planted – in countries like Nepal, Madagascar and Haiti – by the Eden Project’s reforestation non-profit programme. Thirsty, I hail an (electric) black cab for one of Marylebone’s loftiest drinking dens, which crowns London’s Treehouse Hotel. The 16th-floor rooftop bar may call for woollies, but inside it may as well be summer! Festooned with potted plants and foliage hanging from wooden rafters, The Nest’s nature-inspired aesthetic is the perfect pairing for its forest-to-glass cocktail menu. Featuring British herbs and botanicals as well as homemade syrups and bitters, the real sustainable star is its zero waste drinks list. I sup a ‘High as a Kite’ (made with discarded grape skin vodka) from the bar’s wraparound terrace, where telescopes bring London’s superlative sights, such as the Shard, that bit closer. I’m happy just drinking in views of Marylebone and Mayfair: the doughty double act that’s not only embracing positive luxury, but inspiring connections between people and place as well…