Brown's Hotel

In 1837 James Brown, a former valet, and his wife Sarah, a former lady's maid, opened Brown's Hotel in Mayfair, the luxury hotel on Albemarle Street in London often described as the city's first. It occupies eleven Georgian townhouses between Albemarle Street and Dover Street and has belonged to Rocco Forte Hotels since 2003. Its name is attached to the first telephone call made in Britain, demonstrated here by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, to Rudyard Kipling, who wrote at the hotel over four decades, and to afternoon tea in the Drawing Room.

History

James Brown is said to have been valet to Lord Byron, and Sarah Brown lady's maid to Lady Byron. With their savings they opened a hotel at 23 Dover Street in 1837, the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, and expanded into the neighbouring houses over the following decades until the hotel ran through the block to Albemarle Street.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell, staying at the hotel, made the first successful telephone call in Britain from Brown's. Theodore Roosevelt stayed here in 1886 before marrying Edith Carow at St George's, Hanover Square, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt spent part of their honeymoon here in 1905. Rudyard Kipling was a guest from his honeymoon in 1892 and was staying at the hotel when he fell ill shortly before his death in 1936. Agatha Christie's novel At Bertram's Hotel is generally read as a portrait of Brown's.

Sir Rocco Forte bought the hotel in 2003 and reopened it in December 2005 after a refurbishment directed by his sister, the designer Olga Polizzi.

Architecture and design

Brown's is eleven townhouses joined over a century and a half, which gives it corridors that change level and rooms of different proportions rather than the regular plan of a purpose-built hotel. Olga Polizzi's refurbishment kept the panelling and fireplaces and added contemporary British art. The Donovan Bar is named after the photographer Terence Donovan and hangs his prints; the Drawing Room, where afternoon tea is served, keeps the character of a Mayfair house.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 115 rooms and suites, 33 of them suites. Because of the townhouse plan, no two rooms are the same shape; several suites on the upper floors are named after the hotel's guests and look over the rooftops of Mayfair.

Dining

Charlie's, the restaurant opened in 2019 under the chef Adam Byatt, serves British cooking with a carving trolley. The Drawing Room serves afternoon tea, a tradition that goes back to the hotel's first decades, and the Donovan Bar serves cocktails. These three make up the hotel's restaurants and bars.

Wellness

A small spa on the lower floor offers treatment rooms and a fitness room; there is no pool.

Weddings and events

Brown's has six event rooms on the first floor, named for the hotel's history: the Clarendon Room, the Roosevelt Room, the Kipling Room, the Niagara Room, the Hellenic Suite and the Lord Byron Room. The Clarendon Room is the largest and is used for wedding receptions and dinners; the others suit boards, private lunches and small ceremonies.

Location

Albemarle Street runs north from Piccadilly, opposite the Royal Academy, to Grafton Street and Bond Street. Green Park station on the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines is a five-minute walk; the Burlington Arcade and the galleries of Cork Street are two minutes off. A car reaches London Heathrow in about 45 minutes.