The rooms have distinct touches, from celebrity portraits by photographer Andy Gotts to the honesty gin bars in suites designed by Distilled authors Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley.

London could teach a master class on breathing new life into historic spaces. In the shell of 13 Georgian townhouses on London’s West End, the 1851 Flemings Mayfair Hotel recently unveiled a refurb of its 129 rooms by local design firm Tully Filmer. The contemporary English aesthetic recalls 1930s glamour with wool carpets, lacquer furnishings, and vintage textured wallpaper. A bronze and grey color scheme is enlivened by bright pops of teal and indigo; silver-stained fiddleback Sycamore lines the walls. The rooms have distinct touches, from black-and-white celebrity portraits by photographer Andy Gotts to tufted Mattison beds and detailed Chiswick linen to the honesty gin bars in suites designed by Distilled authors Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley. All guests have access to the new Indian-inspired Drawing Room, a tea lounge and champagne bar adorned in hand-painted walls by London-based de Gournay and art book-stocked shelves. Chef Shaun Rankin, who earned a Michelin star at Bohemia in the U.K.’s Channel Islands, has taken the reins at the street-level restaurant, where he serves a seafood-centric menu with foraged herbs inside a room done up in classic forest green and gold-studded leather armchairs.