The Polo Bar at The Westbury Hotel

Champagne afternoon teas, scrumptious deep-fill sandwiches, Pimm’s royale, mocktails & cocktails including black & white Russians fit for a tsar – or more likely a oligarch’s dolly girl – are reasons to hole up at this ‘luxurious, divine & stimulating’ art-deco lounge hidden behind Swarovski crystal blinds. The fact that ‘children are not permitted after 6pm’ may be another point in its favour. Tricked out like a set from a Douglas Sirk potboiler movie from the 50s, it’s great for people watching: fashion freaks, facelifts, Irish turf accountants, squiffy matrons in chintzy prints, & – according to the blurb – ‘busy executives lounging while playing back the conference call, lovers sharing a moment for a romantic cocktail, & media executives seeking sanctuary from the celebrity spotlight’.