As a Clapham resident you expect to have to hotfoot it over the river to at least Chelsea and Knightsbridge, if not the West End, for a trendy five star or boutique hotel experience. That could all change now that Hotel Rafayel has opened. This sexy new player on the scene is located next to Battersea Heliport, five minutes from Clapham Junction.

Hotel Rafayel is the first and only five 'low emission' star hotel south of the river, in an area which is rebranding as the 'Left Bank’. It’s all done in an uber luxurious way, and as I arrived in the lobby it was the gorgeous florist boutique and a cupcake shop which caught my eye rather than the hotel’s green credentials. 

They are taking the ecological impact of the hotel seriously though, with rainwater being harvested from the roof, electronic rather than paper newspapers, recycled leather furnishings and a strict no plastic policy packaging their gorgeously scented Neom  room products in glass bottles.
The hotel’s restaurant, ‘Banyan on the River’ and cocktail bar ‘Crystal’, has one of the best river views you'll get along that stretch of the Thames. The Long Bar at the Sanderson will always be one of my favourites, but this has a similar feel, and the drinks were affordable and well mixed.
The Spa, Gym and ‘Jetlag recovery’ rooms, the first of their kind, will be launching soon too – no doubt also showcasing the hotel’s signature creative design and flair.

Hotel Rafayel’s appeal is bound to spread through the Yummy Mummies of Northcote Road and beyond; it feels as established as a global brand but the special little touches give it a boutique feel. I was lucky enough to meet the exuberant owner Iqbal Latif while I was there. You can feel the blood and sweat of this high flying business tycoon’s hard work to make the hotel what it is, underlined further still when I was told that the hotel is named after his grandson. I told him that Crystal bar could become the Long Bar of the South. He replied: “I had the bar built like this so that I could watch the best sunset in London”. I couldn’t put it better myself.