With history, comfort, luxury, service and fine dining, the Langham London is not just a pretty face: It provides a peaceful oasis to get away from the crowds of London.
While still glamorous, The Langham strives to maintain its contemporary reputation as it was in 1865, when it started life as Europe's grandest hotel. Back then it was famed for new-fangled innovations such as hydraulic lifts. Its roll-call of guests have included the writer Mark Twain, an exiled Napoleon III, the playwright Oscar Wilde and prime minister Winston Churchill.
LTD had the opportunity to sit down with manager Susann Gruenberg and head concierge, Rashid Ali to discuss how The Langham Hotel would meet our goals of inspiring meaningful and healthy travel. What we learned allowed us to understand the history of this Grand Dame of Hotels, the local area, and how the staff impressed us as having a great relationship. Managers and colleagues speak to each other in a respectful, positive style that makes guest feel welcome. Service is unstuffy and staff take pride in the hotel.
Susann was clearly proud of the emphasis placed on sustainability at the hotel. We learned later that The Langham London was awarded the 2019 Cateys Award for Sustainable Hotel of the Year, awarded to recognize the hotel that has taken the most innovative steps to neutralize its impact on the environment. The hotel is monitored by EarthCheck.org, an accreditation body that monitors and reports on its sustainability performance. We discussed some of the specifics of the sustainability with the manager and an amazing example is the use of the "ORCA" to reduce volume of waste from the hotel. ORCA designs, manufactures and installs the leading technology in the food waste recycling industry. ORCA uses mostly air, along with water and microbiology to turn food waste into an environmentally safe liquid that goes down the drain and is disposed of using the existing sanitary sewer infrastructure.
She was also proud of the charity work emphasized by The Langham London. Their annual community program enables employees to get involved in various volunteering and fundraising activities within the local community, with the main focus on supporting Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and KIDS charity for disabled and disadvantaged children and young people. Employees are required to donate at least 1 hour per year to charity work of their choice or as supported by the hotel.
We spoke at length with Rashid about fitness opportunities in the area. Of course as a luxury hotel, patrons are able to arrange specific outings as needed before arrival. Examples of what might be asked for include, golf outings, tennis lessons or fly fishing, but many travelers are hoping to simply continue their fitness routines or training schedules even while traveling - running, yoga, cycling, swimming etc. The concierge team was outstanding in providing us with information about fitness opportunities near the hotel such which we will detail in the Fitness section below. The concierge team was amazing during our stay and we were delighted to spend time with Rashid!
1. Location
For visiting the London, there can't be a better location. Of course getting to London from Heathrow is one of the easier places to navigate, and you have many options depending on what is important to you: comfort, ease, security, price or peace of mind. We chose car service with Simply Airports which was easy and economical. The immediate neighborhood, although only two blocks from Oxford and Regent Streets, is peaceful and calm, and it is hard to believe you are still in Central London!
The Langham is located in the West End, meaning that you are ideally situated to catch a show while in London. You’ll also be close to some of the best shops in the country, as well as some of the best restaurants in the country. If you’re a culture lover, you can visit nearby museums and art galleries like the British Museum or the Wallace Collection, and if you fancy exploring some tourist destinations, Madame Tussauds and Buckingham Palace are within easy reach. The Victoria & Albert museum is a couple of miles away but allows for a healthy walk through Hyde Park to get there.
