HOSPITALITY can work in mysterious ways. Take one upmarket hotel of my acquaintance, converted from a grim Victorian gaol, that plays loop tapes of the sitcom Porridge in the foyer and, for breakfast, serves the oaten paste itself in an appropriately punitive metal dish. Hand me my get out of jail card now.

The flambadou’s molten fat drips straight onto a freshly shucked raw oyster to instantly sear and smoke it. Dressed with butter sauce, Swedish vinegar and spinach oil, it makes a sensational Ekstedt appetiser

So it was with a degree of unnecessary trepidation that I approached one of London’s most acclaimed new five-star lodgings, the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, which trades on its legacy as the legendary HQ of the Metropolitan Police. Think the address the Ripper posted his infamous letters to, base for a team of inspectors much disparaged by one Sherlock Holmes and, of course, strawy barracks for the constabulary’s working steeds.

Scot Rhino — **Not sure how the rhino seat fits into the concept** Confidentials

En route for the hotel, there was a steaming pile of evidence on the pavement. The force may have moved out of 3-5 Scotland Yard in 1890, but the mounted branch lives on next door. Handy for policing the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey’s precincts, which are (turn left) just down Whitehall.

The name Scotland Yard dates back to medieval times when this enclave housed an embassy for the Scottish court. The back of the hotel is dated to 997 and the last Scottish monarch to occupy the house was Queen Margaret, sister to Henry VIII, in 1541. After which Great Scotland Yard housed prominent civil servants, notably Sir Christopher Wren, Inigo Jones and John Milton, before the police took over.

Today’s main site later played host to the likes of Sherlock creator Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens, who would accompany constables on their nightly rounds, as was his hyper wont. The first Met Police presence came in 1829; the plainclothes detective branch followed 13 years later. When the cops eventually relocated to New Scotland Yard they left behind its glorious facade, which remains.

Scot King — **Art veering on the kitsch? King Charles formed out of pearly buttons** Confidentials

Scot Parlour — **Exotic design in the all-day dining venue The Parlour** GSY

Designers have done the re-born Yard justice

We entered through the arched main entrance’s iconic green doors set in an Edwardian frontage of Imperial red brick and Portland stone. It is behind this that the Galliard Group have spent most of their £110 million budget creating from the shell an entirely new interior, including two extra storeys at roof level on top of the original five and digging deep to enlarge the basement. That level offers a meeting space and gym but also, typical of GSY’s exuberant quirkiness, a table football. Alas, no time for a penalty shoot-out; the hotel offers a medley of other treats, notably in its food and beverage opportunities. Its flagship restaurant, Ekstedt at the Yard, has just been named as one of OpenTable’s Top 50 UK Hotel Restaurants.

Scot Foyer — **The Service is a tribute to figures linked across its history** GSY

Scot Memorabilia — **Memorabilia mark the Yard's serious previous existence** Confidentials

Upstairs in the lobby is where the real fun begins. What to turn your attention to first? Immediately eye-catching is ‘The Service’, a phalanx of 30 portraits, each on a blood red background, of associated judges, coppers, criminals, and literary figures (Dickens included). Other walls are lined with glass cases featuring police memorabilia (including a vintage judge’s wig fashioned from real human hair) and 19th century poison bottles. Plus, in support of the Koestler Trust, the UK’s leading prison arts charity, an exhibition of current inmates’ artwork for sale.

Scot 40 Elephants — **The 40 Elephants bar pays homage to an all-female criminal gang** GSY

Scot Sibin — **Sibin Speakeasy – Irish-influenced 'secret den'** GSY

Cocktail offerings it would be criminal not to try

Step into the main bar, the 40 Elephants, to find further evidence of the design team’s ‘criminal intent’. It’s named after a late 19th century all-female gang based around the Elephant and Castle. Symbolising their iconoclastic shoplifting exploits is a striking chandelier crafted from broken glass shards. Named after the thieves’ leaders Alice, Kitty and Lily, the cocktails are cutting edge, too.

Equally decadent is The Parlour, with tropical palm tree and elephant scene murals based on the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, while you reach the Síbín Speakeasy via a false bookcase (to the left of that judge’s wig). If it’s a Thursday or Friday evening they’ll serve up jazz alongside their alternative raft of innovative cocktails and a comprehensive whisky collection. Look upwards here and the ceiling of this homage to illicit Irish drinking dens is covered with 1,903 suspended opaque bottles. As your night of tipples extends their soft glow becomes ever more diffuse.

Scot Flaming Oyster — **Heating up the flambadou is flamboyant stuff** Confidentials

Scot Oyster Finished — **The resulting oyster dish is a stand-out** GSY

Ekstedt at the Yard – no smoke without fire

Diffuse is NOT the word to describe the fierce flambadou that brings theatricality to the hotel’s prime restaurant, exclusively employing Nordic wood-fired cooking techniques. Positively medieval. Expect to be ushered into the realm of flame behind the pass to watch this cast-iron cone on its long handle being heated up in embers, then filled with beef or reindeer tallow. The flambadou’s molten fat drips straight onto a freshly shucked raw oyster to instantly sear and smoke it. Dressed with butter sauce, Swedish vinegar and spinach oil, it makes a sensational Ekstedt appetiser.

Niklas Ekstedt may run his eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant over a !,000 miles away in Stockholm but his Scandinavian fingerprints (sic) are all over this, his first venture in the UK. Starters include hay smoked sweetbreads and birch-fried trout, while among the mains mangalitza pork also gets the smouldering hay treatment and lamb is smoked with juniper.

Scot Hay Smoked Sweetbread — **Scandi style – sweetbreads smoked in hay**

Scot Mushroom Souffle — **Ekstedt's cep souffle is a leftfield triumph**

Never fancied a mushroom-centric dessert? Ekstedt’s will win you over. Woodruff ice cream and wild blueberries accompanied a memorable wood oven baked cep souffle; preserved sea buckthorn with saffron and oat ice cream was another first that didn’t disappoint. Some of these à la carte dishes also feature in a £120 a head ‘Immersive Experience’.

The wine list is a delight. Our Tuscan sommelier did pour me a Chianti for my rare breed mangalitza but also an Assyrtiko and a Xinomavro, from great Greek wine producers.

Ekstedt and the rest of the hotel dining is overseen by head chef Rukh Gupta, whose impressive cv includes a stint with 3 Michelin star Sketch in Mayfair.

Scot Afternoon Tea — **The Yard's afternoon tea is enhanced by a glass of Champagne** GSY

Scot Tennis Cakes — **The tennis specials are a creative smash hit** GSY

Game, set and match to an afternoon tea that outlasted Wimbledon

The Ritz, Gordon Ramsay at Petrus and starry Spanish Michelin venues have formed part of the learning curve of head pastry chef Veronica Garrido Martinez. Her skills are evident in The Parlour’s Tennis Afternoon Tea they kept on after Wimbledon. It’s a perfect mix of savoury and sweet and even includes a palate cleansing strawberries and cream popsicle, emerging from dry ice. The standard Afternoon Tea is by London standards terrific value at £60 a head. With it I’d recommend the Jing organic first flush Darjeeling, and for a Veuve Cliquot-fuelled treat upgrade to the Champagne Tea at £80.

Scot Sherlock Suite — **The Sherlock Suite offers premium space** GSY

Sherlock gets a suite named after him – elementary it isn’t

For central London the rooms here are a hush hush affair. The soundproofing in ours was extraordinarily good. I expect the same applies to the much grander Sherlock Suite with its four poster bed and a real set of crime fiction on its shelves. We had to make do with wardrobe doors illustrated to look like book collections – recurring theme across the hotel. Ditto bespoke cushions featuring Dachshunds, which also make an appearance as door handles in the lifts. Our coat hooks were shaped like bent keys. You get the drift.

The bed was oddly straightforward – and tremendously comfortable. A ubiquitous feature is the elegant marble bathrooms. Ours offered a state of the art Japanese toilet-come-bidet, whose light hum and lack of instruction booklet intimidated me. No, I never ‘investigated’ its potential further. Some cases you just can’t get to the bottom of.

Scot Lux Bedroom — **The standard rooms and suites are more compact but hugely comfortable** GSY

Scot B Og — **A lavishly designed facility (minus Japanese state of the art loo)** GSY

Great Scotland Yard is in the heart of the action

With so much to explore in the hotel itself and service as warm and informed as any in the capital, the temptation is to incarcerate yourself there, but it is also a brilliant base for London’s attractions. Charing Cross Tube is a five minute walk away, Trafalgar Square, hub of so many bus routes, is even closer. Here are a few distractions you might want to investigate…

Theatreland is on your doorstep

If musicals are your bag you can’t go wrong. A more cerebral delight is to be found up St Martin’s Lane – the Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia has transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre, which is destined to be renamed after the great playwright, who died last year. On until September 12.

Scot Folies — **Manet's Folies-Bergère at the Courtauld** Courtauld

Art, you can’t go wrong

In my recent piece Summertime London Calling I recommended five current art exhibitions, including Hepworth In Colour (until September 6) at the Courtauld Gallery along The Strand. From Great Scotland Yard I went back to check out their permanent collection. What a treasure trove. The likes of Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait With A Bandaged Ear and Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. The pleasantest walk there is via the Victoria Embankment Gardens. Closer to the hotel still are the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery (and general entry is free).

Scot Romanos — **Romano's as reimagined by Jeremy King of The Ivy and The Wolseley fame** Simpson's In The Strand

Scot Pink Un Copy — **Pink perfection – the signature bisque recipe is 150 years old** Confidentiials

Simpson’s In The Strand is gorgeous in its new guise

A Scandal In Bohemia, the first Sherlock Holmes short story, was also the first case dramatised in the great Granada series, starring Jeremy Brett as the sleuth. In it the incognito King of Bohemia hands Holmes a large retainer for his services, prompting an excited Dr Watson to exclaim: “We can dine at Romano’s”.

That was a famous 19th century bohemian haunt along the Strand that was bombed to oblivion during The Blitz. Now it’s the name given to the spectacular upstairs dining room of Simpson’s In The Strand (Holmes author Conan Doyle was a regular), brought back to life by legendary restaurateur Jeremy King. More casual than the main Grand Divan downstairs, the signature dish of its affordable menu is the Pink ‘Un, a crayfish bisque made to an 1870s recipe.

Scot Harp — **Behind the vintage facade is a beer lover's dream** The Harp

The Harp – best boozer in the West End

Just around the corner from the Yard is a pub called – you guessed it – The Sherlock Holmes. A much better bet is just five minutes away in Chandos Place. There has been a hostelry on the site of The Harp since the 16th century; the current building dates back to 1801, when it was The Welsh Harp. The ‘Welsh’ was dropped in 1995 when an Irish woman took it on. Despite the name, it’s not one of those ubiquitous Guinness joints, just a remarkable traditional survivor. Buy a pint of Harvey’s Sussex Best and sit upstairs away from the throng. If the grape is your preference, Gordon’s, London’s oldest wine bar (1890) is also in the vicinity. Walk it off in St James’s Park.

Salute a great American patriot and polymath

Tucked behind Charing Cross station is the Benjamin Franklin House museum, opened just this January in time for his 300th birthday and the 250th anniversary of American Independence, in the fight for which he played a significant diplomatic role. The Grade I listed house dates back to 1730 and contains many original features. He lived there for nearly 16 years on the eve of the American Revolution.

Fact file

Great Scotland Yard Hotel, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HN.

It has 153 rooms and suites (including the Sherlock Suite with a four-poster bed). Lead-in rates for August: From £370 per night for two adults. To discover more and book visit this link.

The hotel’s newest addition, the two-bedroom Great Scotland Yard Townhouse, is apparently accessed via a secret corridor within the hotel.

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