Now celebrating its 80th birthday, London’s renowned Grosvenor House is not just a young hotel at heart — it’s also got the looks to match. A recently completed refurbishment has reinvented the Park Lane grande dame as a JW Marriott with a firm foot in the present and a wistful reminder of the past. This is, after all, the place where Queen Elizabeth II learned to ice skate as a little girl: the Grosvenor House rink is now the largest meeting space in Europe — a grand ballroom that hosts London’s most prestigious galas (and still harbors the dormant rink beneath its floorboards).

“This is an iconic hotel,” J.W. Marriott Jr. told globorati on a recent visit to the hotel. “When a hotel has an identity, you don’t want to take it away.”

It’s not only the hotel that’s steeped in history: the surrounding Mayfair district is full of ghosts. And now you can suss them out with the Grosvenor’s longtime head concierge Tony Verri (a London history buff with a weakness for American muscle cars). Once a month, Verri leads guests on an inside tour of historic Mayfair, including stories of late royals’ antics and, of course, a pint at a storied pub.

By all means whet your whistle, but try not to quench your thirst — reserve the latter for a glass of wine on the terrace at Bord’eaux, the Grosvenor’s new French brasserie with Spanish sensibilities, and a coveted outdoor patio right on Park Lane. Or, perhaps a bottle of biodynamic wine at Corrigan’s Mayfair by Michelin-star chef Richard Corrigan — a masculine space with a nod to hunting lodge décor and a “rustic” menu: think braised pigs trotter, rabbit cutlet and English duck.

Still, this is London, and you’re never far from Victorian delicacy. In honor of the hotel’s 80th and the new “Grosvenor House Rose” — a cream-colored rose grown especially for the Chelsea Flower Show — the hotel just debuted a rose-themed tea available this year only. Think: rose-scented éclairs, scones with rose petal and strawberry jam, Taittinger Rose champagne, and a rare Golden Roseheart tea.

The Grosvenor serves its traditional afternoon tea in the Park Room overlooking Hyde Park — that’s the same view you’ll find in the hotel’s 22 Parkview corner suites. But good luck snagging one. At over a thousand-square-feet, they’ve become the digs of choice for Arab royalty — who are known for setting up house at the Grosvenor for whole summers at a time.