Claridge's

Claridge's[1] is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London. It has long-standing connections with royalty that have led to it sometimes being referred to as an "annexe to Buckingham Palace". Claridge's Hotel is owned and managed by Maybourne Hotel Group.

Claridge's London
Claridge's in 2002
Location within Central London
General information
LocationMayfair, London, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates51°30′45″N 0°08′51.36″W
Opened1812
OwnerMaybourne Hotels
Design and construction
ArchitectEdward James Fererl
Other information
Number of rooms197
Number of suites11
Website
claridges.co.uk

History

Founding

Claridge's was founded in 1812 as Mivart's Hotel,[2] in a conventional London terraced house, and it grew by expanding into neighbouring houses. In 1854, the founder (the father of biologist St. George Jackson Mivart) sold the hotel to a Mr and Mrs Claridge, who owned a smaller hotel next door. They combined the two operations, and after trading for a time as "Mivart's at Claridge's", they settled on the current name. The reputation of the hotel was confirmed in 1860 when Empress Eugenie made an extended visit and entertained Queen Victoria at the hotel.

In its first edition of 1878, Baedeker's London listed Claridge's as "The first hotel in London".[3]

Acquisitions
Drawing of the current version of Claridge's was published in 1897, the year before the reopening.

Richard D'Oyly Carte, the theatrical impresario and founder of the rival Savoy Hotel, purchased Claridge's in 1894, as part of The Savoy Group, and shortly afterwards demolished the old buildings and replaced them with the present ones. This was prompted by the need to install modern facilities such as lifts and en suite bathrooms. From 1894 to 1901, Édouard Nignon was the hotel chef.

Restructure

The new Claridge's, built by George Trollope & Sons, opened in 1897.[4] It is a Grade II listed building.[5] The hotel has 203 rooms and suites and around 400 staff.

After the First World War, Claridge's flourished due to demand from aristocrats who no longer maintained a London house, and under the leadership of Carte's son, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, an extension was built in the 1920s. During the Second World War it was the base of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's forces in exile and home of Peter II of Yugoslavia. He and his wife spent much of the Second World War in exile at Claridge's, and suite 212 was supposedly ceded by the United Kingdom to Yugoslavia for a single day (17 July 1945) to allow their heir, Crown Prince Alexander, to be born on Yugoslav soil,[6] although no documentary evidence now exists to support the story.[7] The prince and his family are regular return guests.

At the end of the Second World War, when unexpectedly defeated in the General election of 1945, Winston Churchill was temporarily without a London home and took a suite at Claridge's.[8]

In December 1951, West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer secretly met World Jewish Congress president Nahum Goldmann at Claridge's to begin negotiations on German reparations to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.[9]

Clients

Well-known actors, directors, and entertainers who have used Claridge's include Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, regular visitor Alfred Hitchcock, Brad Pitt, Joan Collins, Mick Jagger, U2 and Whitney Houston. In his memoir The Moon's a Balloon David Niven wrote that for film producer Alexander Korda, "Home was the penthouse at Claridge's". The hotel lobby and several guestrooms appear in the 2001 Stephen Poliakoff BBC television drama Perfect Strangers. Claridge's is known for hosting visiting royalty and guests of the Royal Family. The late King Hassan of Morocco was known to travel with his own mattress, but at the hotel he used a Savoy Mattress. Impressed by the quality, he ordered 24 identical mattresses from the Savoy for his palace.[10]

In 1998, the group of hotels—along with the later-added Connaught—was sold for $867 million to two American private-equity funds, Blackstone and Colony Capital.[11] In 2004, they both retained Deutsche Bank to sell[11] The Savoy Group, including Claridge's, to a group of Irish investors, which eventually sold the Savoy Hotel and Savoy Theatre and renamed the group Maybourne Hotel Group.[12]

In 2007, Claridge's gained worldwide media coverage by introducing a Water Menu containing bottled waters sourced globally and from the United Kingdom, such as Malmberg and Iskilde.[13]

The Maybourne Hotel Group includes two other five-star luxury hotels in London, The Berkeley and The Connaught.

Restaurants and other facilities

Claridge's replaced Gordon Ramsay's restaurant (see below) with Fera at Claridge's in 2014.[14][15] Fera is run by Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan, who previously ran L'Enclume in Cumbria, England. In March 2015, Fera was named in The Observer as one of its best places that month.[16] Fera earned a Michelin star,[17] one of 14 restaurants in the UK to do so in 2015.[18]

For twelve years, the fine dining main restaurant was run by Gordon Ramsay, with head chef Steve Allen who replaced Mark Sargeant. Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's lost its Michelin status in January 2010 and closed in 2013 following Ramsay's withdrawal from renewal negotiations with the hotel. Michelin-starred Northern Irish chef Michael Deane started his career at the restaurant.

Claridge's offers afternoon tea and has been endorsed by the Tea Guild. Claridge's has two ground floor bars: a main bar and a former cigar bar known as The Fumoir. The smoking ban in England has caused The Fumoir to stop selling cigars.

From 28 July to 6 August 2012, the hotel hosted a ten-day pop-up restaurant by two-Michelin-starred New Nordic Cuisine Noma, while the restaurant in Copenhagen was closed from 22 July to 13 August for refurbishment. Owner and founder René Redzepi with head chef Matt Orlanda and staff from the restaurant served a £195-per-head nine-course menu that included their take on scones and clotted cream, Lancashire hotpot with British ingredients, and live ants foraged in Denmark and flown to London.[19][20][21]

Christmas tree

Claridge's does a Christmas tree display: usually by someone in the fashion industry such as John Galliano and Kally Ellis.[22]

In 2015 the tree was designed by Christopher Bailey, made up of around 100 umbrellas, with 77,000 individual lights that were triggered by people walking past.[23]

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See also

References
  1. Google
  2. "Claridges: An opulent hotel where every polished corner tells a story". independent.co.uk. The Independent. 9 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  3. Louis Gerber (1 September 2004). "Claridge's". Cosmopolis.ch. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  4. "Trollope & Colls". National Archives. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  5. Historic England. "Grade II (1219905)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  6. Christopher Long (25 October 1991). "A Regal Bid Too Far?". Retrieved 15 December 2006. I was born on Yugoslav territory at Claridge's Hotel in London, 1945, on 17 June, and this was done in agreement with the British Government.
  7. Amos, Owen. "Did a London hotel room become part of Yugoslavia?". BBC News. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  8. Louis Gerber (1 September 2004). "Claridge's". Cosmopolis.ch. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  9. Shinnar, Felix Eliezer (1967). Bericht eines Beauftragnten: die deutsch-israelische Beziehungen 1951–1966. Tübingen : R. Wunderlich. p. 25.
  10. Jones, Ronald F (1997). Inside the Best Hotels: Grand Hotelier. Jones & Jones. p. 248. ISBN 0953273709.
  11. Dana Vachon (August 2014), To Capture Claridge’s Vanity Fair.
  12. Walsh, Dominic. "Savoy Group changes name after deal", The Times, 25 January 2005.
  13. Telegraph online news, 15 October 2007.
  14. Armstrong, Hilary (9 May 2014). "New Openings: Fera, Claridge's". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  15. Henderson, Paul (14 April 2014). "Simon Rogan on the most significant London restaurant opening of the year". GQ. Archived from the original on 20 November 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  16. Granleese, Bob; et al. (15 March 2015). "The OFM 50: the 50 hottest places, people and trends in food". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  17. "Fera at Claridges".
  18. Ryden, Bethan (25 September 2014). "The OFM 50: the 50 hottest places, people and trends in food". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  19. O' Ceallaigh, John (24 April 2012). "The 'world's best restaurant' comes to London: Copenhagen's Noma restaurant will decamp to Claridge's hotel this summer". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  20. Lisa, Markwell (1 August 2012). "World's best restaurant comes to town... and it's serving ants". The Independent. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  21. Bazalgette, Peter (13 July 2012). "A nomadic Noma: The Copenhagen restaurant is hosting a 10-day London pop-up at Claridge's. Its crew will bring their own red seaweed oil, but many ingredients will be British". Financial Times. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  22. "Claridge's unveil their Christmas Tree". thehandbook.com. 3 December 2011. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  23. Ferrier, Morwenna (16 November 2015). "Claridge's Burberry tree: what it says about Christmas 2015". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
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