English architecture and Italian comforts collide at London’s latest hotel opening.

Anouska Hempel has a knack for drama. The New Zealand-born interior designer, also known as Lady Weinberg among the London upper crust, is a former actress (she famously played one of James Bond’s muses) and the proprietor of Blakes, the seductive South Kensington hotel that’s served as a pied-à-terre for passing-through rock and film stars since it opened in 1978. At the new Franklin Hotel in Knightsbridge, Hempel revisits the intimate, coquettish style that made her a household name over three decades ago. Tucked in the pear tree-studded Egerton Gardens, a set of red-brick Victorian townhouses have been refitted with Venetian stone floors and embroidered furnishings, a nod to its Florentine ownership, Starhotels Collezione. Mirrored furniture and oak floors mix with wrought-iron embellishments and chalk hand stencils in the 35 airy rooms. Luxurious materials are deployed throughout the space: 400-thread-count Frette linens, sea-gray silk blankets, and dark velvet curtains. The interplay of time-honored British elegance and a frisk of Italian grandeur extends to the social spaces, including the Italian restaurant led by chef Alfredo Russo, who earned a Michelin star at Turin’s heralded Dolce Stil Novo, and the fireplace-lit library, where guests take post-dinner martinis. Or there’s always the mirror-clad Franklin Bar, the place for Champagne sabering ceremonies. Proof that while Hempel’s latest project may be a little more grown up than Blakes, it carries a piece of its uninhibited soul. The Franklin is currently offering a special introductory rate of £400 per night. – Radhika Rajkumar