The Savoy

Richard D'Oyly Carte built the place beside his own Savoy Theatre, for the transatlantic crowd who crossed to see Gilbert and Sullivan. Thomas Collcutt faced the blocks in Doulton's Carrara ware under green pantile roofs. The extension of 1903 to 1904 moved the front door round to Savoy Court, where coupled Doric columns in polished black and buff stone carry a latticework awning of bolted steel and glass, five frosted lanterns hanging inside it. Traffic turning in off the Strand keeps to the right.

Two schemes run alongside each other upstairs. Of 263 rooms and suites, 162 are Edwardian, grey and tangerine carried through as far as the Nespresso machines, and some of those look over the water to the railway bridge into Charing Cross. The Art Deco rooms take the Strand side in gold and caramel, marble bathrooms as standard. A butler comes with the River View suites.

The American Bar has had a named head bartender since 1893. Ada Coleman took the job in 1903 and made the Hanky-Panky for the actor Charles Hawtrey, Harry Craddock gathered 750 recipes into The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, and Joe Gilmore built the Moonwalk for Neil Armstrong. Framed black and white photographs of past visitors cover the dark panelling. The Beaufort, black and gold, went up on the floor of the hotel's old cabaret stage. The Grill's wine room seats eight.