Wallpaper 5

A richly crafted nod to London’s mercantile

past, a perfectly pitched camp in Botswana,

and colonial-inluenced cool in Mallorca

Better known for its string of upmarket

restaurants and cafés in Spain and the

Middle East, Grupo Cappuccino has pulled

out all the stops for its irst hotel property,

in Palma. Set within striking distance

of the city’s La Lonja and Paseo del Borne

promenades, in a handsome 19th-century

ive-storey corner block facing the lively

Plaza de Cort, the 32-room hotel has been

itted out by Paris-based interior designer

Jacques Grange. Inspired by Mallorca’s

eventful dalliances with a string of colonial

overlords, his interiors include stone

bathrooms, Moorish-inluenced bedroom

tiles, matt gold Roman columns, senatorial

wreaths embossed on high French doors,

and a sunlit courtyard festooned with

palm trees. Conspiring to keep guests

happily conined indoors is a varied menu

of in-house facilities, including a private

cinema, a spa (which is due to open later

this year), a rooftop pool and, of all things,

a Japanese restaurant. DW

Plaza de Cort, Palma de Mallorca, tel: 34.87103

7437, hotelmama.es. Rates: from €220

Famous for its endless grassy plains teeming

with wildlife, Botswana’s Okavango Delta

has become even more appealing thanks to

the overhaul of Wilderness Safaris’ lagship

property, Mombo Camp. Perched among a

mixed grove of wetland trees on the northern

tip of Chief ’s Island, within the Moremi

Game Reserve, the property’s nine tented

suites are elevated for prime views of the

loodplains and accessed by raised walkways

to allow large animals to roam freely beneath.

Designers Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens’

creation is a modern take on the colonial

safari theme, with mahogany writing desks,

leather benches and lampshades fashioned

from feathers and porcupine quills. After

a day spent spotting big game – the area,

dubbed the ‘Place of Plenty’, is one of the best

for wildlife in Africa – head back to the camp

for a dip in your private plunge pool, or

maybe a treatment at the spa, before dining

under the stars in the boma. Lauren Ho

Chief ’s Island, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana,

wilderness-safaris.com. Rates: from $1,892

London’s ancient guilds may no longer be

the powerful mercantile bodies they once

were, but their inluence continues to be

felt in the British capital in unexpected

ways. Set between the 14th-century Vintry

and Mercer guildhalls, the newly minted

Vintry & Mercer hotel efortlessly pits

a new eight-storey building against the

area’s old-world patina and the looming

bulk of the City’s skyscapers. Appropriately,

Dexter Moren Associates has dressed the

92 rooms and public spaces in ine silk,

textiles and leather, old trading maps and

ceramic tiles. Indoor plants and green

hues subtly reference the vast pastures that

once surrounded the area. Warmer days

will lure guests upstairs to the roof-terrace

restaurant, with its charcoal oven,

farm-to-plate menu and views of St Paul’s

Cathedral and the Southbank. As evening

falls, retreat to Do Not Disturb, a

subterranean speakeasy that takes its visual

cues from 1920s New York. Daven Wu

20 Garlick Hill, London EC4, tel: 44.20 3908

8088, vintryandmercer.com. Rates: from £192

Wild side

MOMBO CAMP, OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA

Trading places

VINTRY & MERCER, LONDON

Island life

HOTEL MAMÁ, PALMA, MALLORCA

3,450: Square metres

of fabric used to roof the

camp’s tented suites

380 : Hours it took

to hand-embroider

the hotel bar’s four

bespoke images of

the Ziegfeld Follies

showgirls with 15,000

Swarovski crystals,

50,000 glass

beads and 5,000

Swarovski pearls

1689 : Year the

engraver Gerard van

Schagen created his

map of the world,

a copy of which now

features on the

ceiling of the hotel’s

reading room

1,500: Length in metres

of the Designers

Guild’s Varese

velvet fabric used

for guest room

curtains, headboards

and valances

12 : Handcrafted

wood chandeliers

throughout

the property

5 : Height in

metres of the

boardwalk,

to allow the free

movement of

elephants through

the camp

8,000: Flowers

hand-cut into

the wooden lattices

of the bar and

reception furniture

454 : Size in square

metres of the

fresco paintings

throughout the

hotel, which also

include the columns

in the Marella and

Celadon suites

25 : Height in metres

of the palm trees in

the hotel courtyard

160 ∑ ILLUSTRATOR: EOIN RYAN

Travel

ARTFUL LODGE R