The racy Coral Room is the latest, inspired addition to the 1920s Lutyens-designed Bloomsbury Hotel. This seductively lit, soigné salon (the hotel’s former lobby) is set around a shimmering art deco bar, its exuberant Jazz Age decor inviting you to linger over cocktails. The welcome is genuinely warm, service focused and standards high. Big Smoke – typical of a competent range of modern and retro Slings, Sours, Martinis and Manhattans – is a Tequila, chipotle and mescal Mule with a subtle kick. Alternatively, head for the Garden of England, an elegant alt’ Aperol Spritz that adds sherry, lavender, lemon and grapefruit juices to the original recipe. Post-breakfast, order from an all-day menu of small plates and ‘treats’ such as devils on horseback; lobster and crayfish mac & cheese; or chicory, pear, walnut and Stilton salad – perhaps with a glass of English wine. Cream teas are also served at The Coral: a classic-in-the-making.