Dukes London, the hotel on St James’s Place, will reopen in the second quarter of 2027. Minor Hotels announced on Thursday 1 October that it has signed a management agreement to run it as the first British address of Minor Reserve Collection, its luxury brand for independent hotels, with 85 rooms and suites redesigned by Russell Sage Studio and a new restaurant with The Wolseley Hospitality Group. In the meantime the bar is open, and the martinis are still poured at the table, in the room where, the hotel says, Ian Fleming was a regular. The exact date, the restaurant’s name and the rates have not been published. But a St James’s address that has welcomed guests since 1908 now has a plan and a year.
85 rooms behind a 1908 address
The release is precise about the hotel and silent about the details still to come. Dukes is “currently undergoing an extensive multi-year transformation led by Russell Sage Studio”, and the 85-key property will reopen “as Dukes London, Minor Reserve Collection”, with signature suites inspired, in Minor’s words, “by the notable characters and rich heritage of St James’s”. The hotel itself has been closed during the works. Russell Sage Studio, founded in 2005, is a team of about 40 designers, restorers and antiques specialists; in Scotland it redesigned the 46 bedrooms and suites of The Fife Arms in Braemar. Dukes, the release says, “has welcomed statesmen and cultural icons since opening in 1908”.
The martini, the frozen glass and Ian Fleming
The bar is the reason many people know the name. Dukes’ own page describes the ritual: “every drink is served with frozen glasses, even colder spirits and, famously, no ice”. The martinis are made at the table, and the hotel’s homepage says that “Alessandro and his team continue to welcome guests for the martinis and classic cocktails for which the bar is known”. The Bond connection is a matter of legend, and Dukes and Minor word it carefully. The release says that “legend has it that Dukes Bar famously inspired author Ian Fleming’s vision of James Bond’s martini”. The bar welcomes guests from the afternoon, without booking.
“Frequently visited by James Bond author Ian Fleming, the legendary DUKES Bar is said to be the inspiration for the classic line ‘shaken, not stirred’.” Dukes London, on the history of its bar.
A Wolseley table and Mrs Delany’s drawing room
When the hotel reopens, it will introduce a new restaurant in partnership with The Wolseley Hospitality Group, the company behind The Wolseley on Piccadilly, Brasserie Zédel, The Delaunay and Colbert, which belongs to the same group as Minor Hotels. One new room is already open. The Delany Drawing Room, a whisky lounge designed by Russell Sage Studio, serves a list of 160 whiskies, as well as Champagnes and cocktails, and after the relaunch it will serve afternoon tea, with a conservatory and a secluded garden for private events. It is named after Mary Delany, who lived on St James’s Place. The British Museum, which holds her work, records that in her seventies she invented a form of paper-cutting she called “paper mosaiks”, and made 985 of these botanical pictures.
Minor Reserve Collection, three hotels so far
Minor Hotels launched Minor Reserve Collection in 2025 as its luxury soft brand for “exceptional independent hotels defined by character, heritage and a strong sense of place”. The collection is still young. It counts Hotel Palace Portorož in Slovenia, a 183-key resort relaunching in the first quarter of 2027, Aventora Resort Baía Formosa in Brazil, due in 2028, and Dukes London. The idea, in Minor’s words, is to work with hotels “that seek to preserve their independence while benefiting from the group’s international sales, marketing and distribution platform”.
St James’s in 2027
The release calls St James’s “London’s historic royal district”, and Dukes will not be the only hotel news nearby in 2027. A few streets away, Cambridge House, the Palladian mansion at 94 Piccadilly, opens as a hotel in February 2027, as set out in our report on Auberge’s London debut, and the wider calendar is in our guide to European openings. Dukes brings something different: more than a century in the district, and a bar that is still pouring its martinis while the rooms are rebuilt. The task for Minor and Russell Sage Studio is to rebuild the rooms around it without losing that.
The Luxury.it perspective
Hotels are usually remembered for their rooms. Dukes is remembered for a drink. That makes this one of the more delicate renovations in London: the bedrooms can be rebuilt and the restaurant reinvented, but the martini made at the table, the frozen glass and the bartender’s hand are the hotel’s real heritage. Minor seems to understand it: the bar is open, and the new drawing room has opened before the rooms. For visitors in London this autumn, the advice is simple. Go to Dukes Bar now, any afternoon from Monday to Saturday, and order the martini. The rooms will follow in 2027, and the legend, as the hotel is careful to say, will stay a legend.
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