There it is, on the Knightsbridge horizon, its exposed steel trusses reaching skyward from a rigorously geometric glass framework, futuristic sail-like panels suspended between them: London’s newest and most buzzed-about luxury hotel.

Such words – geometric, futuristic – are rarely deployed when it comes to five-star hostelry here in the British capital, famous for having practically invented chintz, the club chair and all manner of sumptuous, convention-embracing signifiers of hotel comfort.