Historic institutions: the heritage of London’s grand hotels

About Historic institutions: the heritage of London’s grand hotels

By the ULTIMATE London Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Many of London’s great hotels are historic institutions, older than most of the shops and restaurants around them. Their buildings and traditions tell the story of how London learned to welcome the world.

The Victorian pioneers

The Langham opened at the top of Regent Street in 1865, and the Midland Grand Hotel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, opened at St Pancras in 1873. Brown’s Hotel, founded by James Brown in 1837, is older still. The Savoy, built by the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte with profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, opened on 6 August 1889 and was the first hotel in Britain with electric light throughout and electric lifts.

Ritz and Escoffier

D’Oyly Carte hired the Swiss hotelier César Ritz as manager of The Savoy and Auguste Escoffier as its chef, and together they raised the standard of hotel dining in London. Ritz went on to open the Hôtel Ritz in Paris and then, in 1906, The Ritz London on Piccadilly.

At The Savoy in 1889, electric light in every room was a novelty that drew London society.

Edwardian and interwar grandeur

Claridge’s took its present form at the end of the 1890s and gained its Art Deco interiors between the wars; The Goring opened beside Buckingham Palace in 1910 and is still run by the Goring family; The Dorchester opened on Park Lane on 18 April 1931.

Hotels in historic buildings

Several hotels occupy buildings first built for other purposes: The Lanesborough is the former St George’s Hospital at Hyde Park Corner; the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park opened in 1889 as apartments before becoming a hotel in 1902; Raffles London is in the Edwardian Old War Office on Whitehall; and the Midland Grand at St Pancras, closed in 1935, reopened as a hotel in 2011.

Traditions that survive

Afternoon tea in the Palm Court at The Ritz and the Foyer at Claridge’s, cocktails at The Savoy’s American Bar and Martinis at Dukes and The Connaught keep these traditions alive, and most are open to visitors who are not staying.

Our advice: choose one historic hotel and experience it properly, with afternoon tea, a cocktail or dinner, and take a moment to look at the building around you.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Historic institutions: the heritage of London’s grand hotels before you go.