Top floor, terracotta clouds painted across the ceiling, and a freestanding bath standing in the window light.

3A is the room people book for the ceiling. Clouds are painted across it in terracotta and rose, and they carry down one wall behind the bed as a panel of blossom. The bed itself is red with a scalloped headboard; the sofa opposite is mustard corduroy, deep enough to lose an afternoon in.

The bath is not hidden in the bathroom. It stands on a tiled plinth beside a tall window, screened by sheer curtains, with the television on a wheeled stand you can turn to face it. There is a separate bathroom with a shower for the mornings you are in a hurry.

It is the third floor, up stairs, and worth it: the street noise stops somewhere around the first landing. The balcony is where the smokers go, and where the light is best around six.