The Goring

Beeston Place is a quiet street in Belgravia, a few minutes on foot from Buckingham Palace, and at number 15 stands The Goring, a luxury hotel in London opened in 1910 by Otto Richard Goring and still owned and run by his family, now in its fourth generation, which makes it the last family-owned grand hotel in the capital. It is known for a Royal Warrant granted in 2013, for the night the Middleton family spent here before the royal wedding of April 2011, and for a private garden, a rarity for a hotel in central London.

History

Otto Richard Goring built his hotel on Beeston Place in 1910 and claimed it as the first hotel in the world with a private bathroom and central heating in every bedroom. Its position behind Buckingham Palace fixed its clientele early: guests of the Palace, foreign delegations and families attending court occasions have lodged at the Goring for a century, including royal guests at the coronation of 1953.

In April 2011 Catherine Middleton, her parents and her brother and sister stayed at the hotel on the night before her wedding to Prince William, and she left from the Goring for Westminster Abbey on the morning of 29 April. In 2013 Queen Elizabeth II granted the hotel a Royal Warrant for hospitality services, the only hotel to hold one. The Dining Room received a Michelin star in the 2016 guide, a first for the house.

Jeremy Goring, great-grandson of the founder, runs the hotel today, and the family's continuity is written into its habits, from the staff who stay for decades to the sheep-shaped footstools that have become its unofficial emblem.

Architecture and design

The hotel is an Edwardian building of red brick and stone on a quiet street between Victoria and the Palace gardens. Its interiors were refurbished room by room in the 2000s and 2010s: the front hall and bar were redesigned by Russell Sage, and the bedrooms and the Royal Suite are hung with Gainsborough silk woven in England. The garden behind the hotel, with a lawn and a terrace, is the largest private garden of any London hotel and gives the back rooms a view no other hotel in the district can offer.

Rooms and suites

The Goring has 69 rooms and suites, which keeps it at the scale of a large private house. The Royal Suite, on the first floor, looks over the garden; other rooms face Beeston Place or the garden. Each room is furnished individually, with silk walls, antiques and marble bathrooms.

Dining

The Dining Room, with a Michelin star since the 2016 guide, serves British cooking; its Eggs Drumkilbo, a dish associated with the Queen Mother, has been on the menu for decades. Afternoon tea is served on the Veranda overlooking the garden, and the Bar serves cocktails and a short menu through the day.

Weddings and events

The Goring hosts weddings, receptions and meetings in its private rooms and uses the garden for ceremonies and drinks in summer. The hotel is licensed for civil ceremonies, and the whole house can be taken for a wedding, which is how the Middleton family used it in 2011. Meetings and private dinners take the smaller rooms.

Location

Beeston Place lies between Buckingham Palace Road and Grosvenor Gardens, five minutes on foot from London Victoria station, with its Underground lines and the Gatwick Express. Buckingham Palace is three minutes away on foot and the Royal Mews two, and Belgravia's squares begin across Grosvenor Gardens. Allow about 45 minutes by car to London Heathrow, or 30 minutes by train from Victoria to Gatwick.