19 FEBRUARY 1994, Page 23

Paper patterns

THERE IS something familiar about the Essex House, my hotel here. It reminds me of the partners' dining room at Hambros Bank. That room's chief glory is its painted wallpaper — French, 18th century, I believe — depicting a broad river that flows past baroque palaces. When Hambros moved from Bishopsgate to Tower Hill, experts were called in to unpeel the paper, ferry it across the City, and reinstate it with love, and expense. Now I find that there was an alter- native. The identical river and palaces adorn the lift-lobbies of my hotel. Funny — I never thought of Hambros as an Essex House.