IN AN almost comparable way, The Londoner, Singh’s latest flagship London hotel, in Leicester Square, will herald a new era – in the same manner that his other great glamourous London hotel, The May Fair, ushered in the 1920s.

Then too, this newly built hotel captured the spirit of the Roaring Twenties in London after a similar global health crisis (in the Spanish Flu) and a country and society gallantly and energetically trying to renew itself, following a bloody and drawn-out world war (1914-1918). At the time of going to press who knows where President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions truly lie…

The newest £500m hotel in Singh’s empire opened in September 2021 and made a statement – it is his love letter to the capital city – which arguably has made him a billionaire and one of the richest men in Britain today. (He is 10th in our sister publication, The Asian Rich List 2021).

The glittering Eastern Eye Asian Business Awards in November 2021, hosted at The Londoner, was part of the capital roaring back to life as some 400 fully vaccinated and tested guests mingled and enjoyed the occasion.

There can be little doubt that The Londoner is at a stroke a vision of Global Britain writ large – and metaphorically, the lights coming back on after a terrible pandemic which has claimed more than 160,000 British lives (and still sadly counting).

Singh’s Edwardian Hotels London, which has developed the old Odeon Cinema site, comprises several leading establishments in the capital and one in Manchester. Singh, now the billionaire owner of the group, started out as a qualified accountant, investing in a rather run-down property in Kensington, west London and began to build a portfolio of hotel properties that developed into Edwardian.

He had first come to the UK