Last year New Yorkers bid adieu to Philippe Starck’s Royalton presence, the former enfant terrible’s glass sconces shaped like ram’s horns, glitzy champagne bar that evoked the inside of a genie bottle, and three-legged chairs. And with that, flash was eclipsed by comfort, fantasy replaced with substance. But while New York only just stopped and smelled the classic design flowers — having allowed Philippe Starck to single-handedly razzle and dazzle the city for nearly 20 years — the British and Irish have always been weary of modernism, newfangled ‘starchitects’, and pop-star designers, and generally agree on the value of timeless, well-designed spaces.
     Case in point, my admiration and appreciation for this level of British (and Irish) design was only accentuated when on a recent visit to the newest refurb (as of April) of the Doyle Collection hotel group (formerly the Jurys Doyle Group) in London, The Kensington Hotel. Designed by Denis Looby from Dublin-based Sheehan & Barry Architects, its understated elegance — an eclectic mix of eastern antiques and vintage and repro Victorian furniture, vintage chandeliers and console tables, gorgeous Farrow & Ball wallpaper paints and Murano glass wall fittings — that makes you feel as if you’re a guest at a relative’s old Georgian home (i.e. a posh, long lost British uncle you just found).