Shangri-La The Shard, London

Shangri-La The Shard is on 31 St Thomas St. It rises high above the street, occupying the mid-section of the building to provide a perspective of the city that is impossible to replicate from the pavement below.

The rooms at this address are for those who prefer the scale of a skyline to the intimacy of a townhouse hotel. While a ten-minute walk gets you to the stalls of Borough Market, the primary reason to check in is to look down on the city rather than walk through it. It provides a sterile, controlled remove from the bustle of the riverbank, functioning as a vertical retreat that ignores the messy charm of the streets surrounding Shakespeare's Globe. Choosing this over a local boutique hotel is a deliberate trade: you forfeit the grit of the riverfront for an immense, glass-walled vantage point.