There are openings, and then there are statements. RH London, The Gallery in Mayfair, belongs emphatically to the latter. Positioned between the fashion houses of New Bond Street and the bespoke tailors of Savile Row, this arrival goes well beyond a retail debut.
It is an encounter with architecture, history, craftsmanship, and culinary artistry, housed within one of the most storied buildings in the capital.
Spanning five levels and uniting three distinguished historic properties beneath a single vision, RH London is the brand’s most ambitious gallery to date, and quite possibly one of the most compelling luxury destinations to open in London in years.
A Building With Three Centuries Of History
To understand RH London is to first understand the building it inhabits. The property was designed by Giacomo Leoni, the architect credited as a pioneer of English Palladianism, the classical style that shaped so much of Britain’s grand civic and domestic architecture during the eighteenth century. Built in 1723 as Queensberry House, the structure is one of the few surviving Palladian mansions of that era remaining in London. It is not merely a venue. It is a living piece of the city’s architectural heritage.
Over the centuries that followed, the building expanded. It was enlarged for the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, entering a new chapter as Uxbridge House, before eventually becoming home to the Bank of England. Each chapter left its mark in the bones of the building, in its proportions, its grandeur, and the quiet authority it commands simply by existing.
For the first time in the building’s three-hundred-year history, three of these properties have been unified into a single gallery. The man behind that vision is RH’s chief executive Gary Friedman, working in close collaboration with Foster + Partners. Together, they have produced something that honours the building’s formidable past while reimagining it entirely for the present.
The Architecture & Design Library: An Entrance Unlike Any Other
Visitors stepping through the limestone portico are greeted not by a conventional showroom floor, but by an Architecture & Design Library. It is a deliberate choice, and it sets the intellectual and aesthetic tone for everything that follows.
The collection draws from the foundational masters of Italian architecture, with rare volumes by Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci, and Andrea Palladio sitting alongside works by British luminaries Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren.
The centrepiece is a first Italian edition, dating to circa 1521, of De Architectura, The Ten Books on Architecture, by the first-century BC architect Marcus Vitruvius.
Its influence extends well beyond architecture: Vitruvius’s description of a man outstretched within a circle and a square directly inspired da Vinci’s celebrated drawing The Vitruvian Man, created some fifteen centuries after Vitruvius’s death.
That RH should choose to anchor its London flagship with such a collection tells you precisely where the brand places design: not as commerce, but as culture.
This commitment to presenting objects of genuine historical significance places RH London in the company of institutions more akin to the great auction houses rediscovering masterpieces than to conventional retail.
Five Levels Connected By Glass, Gold, And Vision
The gallery’s five levels are connected by a scenic glass lift conceived in collaboration with Foster + Partners.
The lift is an architectural gesture in its own right: a magnificent curved structure framed in champagne gold that rises through the building as both functional element and object worthy of attention.
Flanking the lift on the ground floor, a Tea Salon and Wine Bar clad in Bronze Amani Spanish marble offer a moment of considered pause.
Guests may enjoy classic specialty teas alongside exceptional Champagnes and wines sourced from across the globe, a fitting prelude to the experiences that await above.
The Dining Room: Grand As The Banking Hall That Preceded It
Perhaps no space within RH London captures the audacity of this project more completely than The Dining Room, set inside the historic banking hall. Reclaimed, restored, and reimagined for a new era, the room is theatrical grandeur executed with absolute precision.
Inspired by the tradition of London’s private members’ clubs, the restaurant is enveloped in high-gloss panelled oak. Tiered glass chandeliers cascade from mirrored skylights above.
Champagne-lacquered Roman columns soar eight metres overhead, lending the space a sense of vertical drama that is genuinely breathtaking. The ceiling, finished in gold leaf, completes the composition: luminous, warm, and entirely unforgettable.
The menu is equally considered. Caviar specialities, signature salads, and seafood towers are complemented by American and British classics, creating a culinary offering that is transatlantic in its sensibility while remaining grounded in the London dining tradition.
The Leoni Stairs: Where Craftsmanship Meets History
Giacomo Leoni‘s original grand staircase remains one of the building’s most spectacular features, connecting the levels in a manner that demands to be experienced rather than merely described.
Ornate ironwork and cantilevered limestone steps ascend beneath a gold leaf dome, hand-gilded by master artisans, that rises nearly thirteen metres overhead. It is the kind of architectural detail that stops visitors in their tracks, a reminder that this building was conceived from the outset to inspire awe.
London’s Mayfair continues to attract such extraordinarily crafted interior installations, reinforcing the neighbourhood’s status as the capital’s preeminent destination for design and culture.
The Perch By Anouska Hempel: A Rooftop Fantasy Above Savile Row
Ascending to the upper reaches of the gallery, guests arrive at The Perch, a dining experience conceived by Anouska Hempel, the designer widely recognised as the godmother of the boutique hotel movement and the founder of Blakes Hotel, the world’s first luxury boutique hotel.
Stepping off the scenic lift, visitors enter what can only be described as a jewel box: blackened églomisé walls, an intimate bar set beneath a smoked glass canopy, and grand glass birdcages overhead. From there, the experience unfolds into a rooftop garden of extraordinary invention.
A canopy of pleated Tucci umbrellas, towering arched mirrors, and sparkling water channels compose a scene of fantasy and sophisticated splendour, elevated above the storied streets of Savile Row below.
The collaboration between Hempel and Gary Friedman was, by all accounts, born of genuine mutual admiration. What began as a shared aesthetic sensibility became a friendship and ultimately a studied design collaboration, producing one of the most distinctive rooftop dining destinations in London.
The World Of RH Bar & Lounge: Where Physical And Digital Meet
Also bearing Hempel’s creative imprint is the World of RH Bar & Lounge, a space that blurs the boundaries between physical environment and digital experience.
The interior is defined by Italian Merino wool velvet seating and a bronze sunburst ceiling illuminated by floating brass pendants and bronze wall panels.
At its centre, a 360° holographic display presents the places and spaces that define the RH brand, a striking integration of technology within a setting of deeply artisanal craft.
RH Estates Makes Its UK Debut
RH London also marks the United Kingdom debut of RH Estates, the brand’s highest expression of residential design.
The collection draws on the work of some of the world’s most respected designers and ateliers: the masterfully tailored upholstery of Dmitriy & Co, the classical grandeur of Dennis & Leen, the reproductions of Formations, and the iconic designs of Michael Taylor.
RH Estates presents classic design reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, offering what the brand describes as unprecedented quality, unrivalled craftsmanship, and the highest expression of human artistry. For London’s design community, the arrival of this collection at a single address in Mayfair is significant.
Artistic Installations And Interior Design Services
Throughout the gallery’s five levels, artistic installations of furniture, antiques, artefacts, and art are presented in a true gallery setting rather than a conventional retail context. Each level features exhibits by global artists and pieces selected not simply as objects to purchase, but as works capable of defining the character of a home.
Complementing this offering, RH Interior Design brings to London a professional design service that has grown to become one of the largest residential design firms in the world, with projects spanning every major continent.
For clients seeking not merely individual pieces but a fully realised vision for their living spaces, RH London offers access to that expertise in person.
A New Chapter For London’s Luxury Scene
In a city that has seen its share of significant retail and hospitality openings, RH London, The Gallery in Mayfair, occupies a category entirely its own.
It is simultaneously a museum of architectural heritage, a fine dining destination, a design gallery, and a brand experience, and it succeeds in being all of these things without any sense of contradiction.
Positioned at the global epicentre of luxury and design, this is a gallery that invites the visitor not simply to shop, but to slow down, to look more carefully, and to consider, in the company of Vitruvius, Leoni, Foster, and Hempel, what it truly means to live beautifully.
RH London, The Gallery in Mayfair, is open now on Savile Row.
