The Gore Hotel is your author’s most treasured London lodging -- if only for the memory of chatting up a louche Alison Goldfrapp slung provocatively over a baroque armchair. More importantly, this Victorian rockstar fave (it also makes a Gallagher brothers related appearance in the brilliant Britpop film Live Forever) has always boasted one of the hippest watering holes in the capital. And newly opened this May is the clubby Bar 190’s eccentrically fabulous Cinderella’s Carriage.

Behind dramatic red-velvet curtains, the equally romantic and decidedly rock & roll private space (though guests are kindly asked to refrain from sex and drugs) recalls a flamboyant Elizabethan carriage, complete with extravagant gold brocade and ostrich plumes. Note that Cinderella's must be booked in advance with a minimum tippling expenditure. It’s the perfect position from which to enjoy the bar’s frequent burlesque shows. Mad, innit?