How the other half lives

It's not easy to visit Mayfair without wondering whether the people who live behind its massive front doors are every bit as grand as as the imposing Georgian façades. This apartment, the London pied-a-terre of globe-trotting sinophiles with a passion for horses, is your chance to find out.

What Park Lane longs to be

In Mayfair even the riff-raff dresses for dinner. The most expensive property on the UK's Monopoly board, its been a synonym for old money since the stuff wasn't. To this day, its elegant streets echo to the well-heeled footsteps of financiers, presidents, celebrities and playboys, often at the same time, and sometimes getting into the same limo.

Red lights and bright lights

Fortunately even Mayfair has a humble human side. Shepherd Market -- notorious in former times as the discreet alternative to Soho for the discerning gentleman with an impetuous palette -- is now a bustling nightspot. It has pubs, reasonably-priced cafes and what is probably the world's only Polish-Mexican restaurant.

Just round the corner the cinema on Curzon Street with its wood-carved panelling and insanely comfy seats whisks you back to an opulent 70s idyll. And you're never more than a stone's throw from Green Park--or, for that matter, a stroll down to Buckingham Palace for tea with the Queen.

Fit for a prince

As for the apartment, it goes without saying that the ceilings are dauntingly high, the wood shutters original, the plaster mouldings immaculate, the furniture antique and the fireplace imposing.

Perhaps equally unsurprising, given this is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, is that the property literally overlooks the London residence of a Prince.

And because this is onefinestay, the service is every bit as attentive, with fluffy towels, White Company toiletries, crisp bed linen, and modern amenities, as standard.