Half the hotel is given over to a shopping arcade. Virtually every visitor to Singapore tramps through its public spaces to take a photo of its façade or sample a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar. These are hardly the required ingredients of a hot hotel experience. Nevertheless, a recent stay at the hotel managed to convince me otherwise. There is something undeniably romantic about pulling up on the elliptical gravel drive (preferably in a taxi from one of the hotel’s fl eet of burgundy-colored London cabs) and being welcomed by an imposing Sikh doorman. Then, when you are ushered into the Carrara marble atrium lobby where antiques gleam under light thrown down from a central glass clerestory, dignifi ed members of staff stand to attention.