Beautiful Hotels in London
London built its hotels on purpose. Six of these seven went up to be hotels and nothing else, four of them in the seventeen years between 1889 and 1906, and only the Old War Office came to it late, after a century of government use. No two were drawn by the same architect, so the thread is an owner instead: Richard D'Oyly Carte opened the Savoy in 1889 beside his own theatre, hired César Ritz to manage it and Auguste Escoffier to cook in it, bought Claridge's in 1893 and had it rebuilt, then dismissed both men in March 1898, after investigators hired by the board found missing wine and spirits and kickbacks from the hotel's suppliers. Ritz put his name on Piccadilly eight years later. The kitchens are the other measure: three Michelin stars at Hélène Darroze, two at the Ritz, two at Brooklands, and one each at Pavyllon, the OWO and the Savoy, where the starred room is called 1890 after the year Escoffier arrived. These are the seven stays worth planning the trip around.
Free · travel · LONDON
