Claridge's

James Mivart opened a hotel at 51 Brook Street in 1812 and bought up the neighbouring houses as his aristocratic clientele grew. In 1854 he sold to William and Marianne Claridge, who ran a smaller hotel next door and gave the merged house their name. Six years later Queen Victoria called on the Empress Eugénie there, and Claridge's, in Mayfair, London, had the royal association it has traded on ever since.

History

Richard D'Oyly Carte, the impresario who built the Savoy, bought Claridge's in 1893, demolished the old houses and rebuilt the hotel in red brick to the designs of C. W. Stephens, the architect of Harrods; the new building opened in 1898. In the 1920s and 1930s the interiors were remade in the Art Deco style by Basil Ionides and Oswald Milne, whose mirrored foyer and engraved glass survive.

The Second World War filled the hotel with exiled royalty: the kings of Greece, Norway and Yugoslavia lived here with their governments. On 17 July 1945 Winston Churchill had Suite 212 declared Yugoslav territory for a day so that Crown Prince Alexander could be born on his country's soil. Churchill himself moved into the hotel after losing the general election that same month. The Savoy Group sold Claridge's with its sister hotels in 1998, and the hotel has belonged since 2005 to the Maybourne Hotel Group, owned by Qatari interests. A BBC documentary series, The Hotel, filmed the staff at work in 2012.

Architecture and design

Stephens's building is seven storeys of red brick and Portland stone with a corner entrance onto Brook Street and Davies Street. The ground floor is the showpiece: the black-and-white chequered lobby, the Art Deco foyer with its Dale Chihuly chandelier of 2007, and the mirrored Fumoir. The Ballroom, with its own entrance, kept its 1930s decoration. Between 2014 and 2021 the hotel excavated five storeys beneath itself while remaining open, a project that added a spa, a pool and plant rooms without closing a single floor above.

Rooms and suites

The rooms and suites mix the Art Deco of the 1930s with Victorian rooms on the upper floors, many redecorated by David Linley, Diane von Fürstenberg and other designers over the years. The grandest are the signature suites on the top floors, including the Royal Suite and the Brook Penthouse with its terrace over Mayfair.

Dining

Claridge's Restaurant is the main dining room, and the Foyer and Reading Room serve the afternoon tea for which the hotel is best known, to the music of a string quartet. Davies and Brook, Daniel Humm's London restaurant, occupied the restaurant space between 2019 and 2021. Claridge's Bar, the Fumoir and the Painter's Room, a small bar opened in 2021, complete the ground floor.

Wellness

Claridge's Spa opened in 2021 in the excavated basement, designed by André Fu, with a swimming pool, treatment rooms, steam rooms and a gym. It was the first spa in the hotel's history.

Weddings and events

The Ballroom is the principal space, used for weddings, balls and dinners, with the Drawing Room as its foyer. The French Salon and the Mirror Room are smaller function rooms for dinners and meetings, and the Fumoir and private rooms off the restaurant take the smallest parties. The hotel has hosted society weddings and state receptions for more than a century.

Location

Brook Street runs between Grosvenor Square and New Bond Street in Mayfair. Bond Street station, on the Central, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines, is about five minutes on foot, and the Elizabeth line reaches Heathrow in about 35 minutes. Paddington is the nearest mainline station. Among the luxury hotels in London, Claridge's is the one with the longest continuous run of royal and diplomatic custom at a single address.