Savoy Hotel

Front elevation
Hotel facts and statistics
Location	London, United Kingdom
Opening date	6 August 1889
Developer	Richard D'Oyly Carte
Architect	Thomas Edward Collcutt
Management	Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Owner	Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal
No. of rooms	263
Website	www.fairmont.com/Savoy

The Savoy Hotel is a five-star hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London that opened on 6 August 1889. The hotel, called "London's most famous hotel",^[1] remains one of London's most prestigious and opulent hotels, with 263 rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Victoria Embankment, part of the Thames Embankment.^[2]

The hotel has been closed since December 2007 for extensive renovations and is expected to reopen in the spring of 2010. The owners expect to spend more than £100 million on the renovations.^[3]

History

The site

The House of Savoy was the ruling family of Savoy, descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne"), who became count in 1032. The name Sabaudia evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie"). Count Peter (or Piers or Piero) of Savoy (d. 1268) was the maternal uncle of Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of Henry III of England, and came with her to London.

The Savoy Palace

King Henry made Peter Earl of Richmond and, in 1246, gave him the land between The Strand and the Thames where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263. On Peter's death, the Savoy was given to Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, by his mother, Queen Eleanor. Edmund's great-granddaughter, Blanche, inherited the site. Her husband, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, built a magnificent palace that was burned down by Wat Tyler's followers in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. King Richard II was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne and so a main target of the rebels.

In about 1505, Henry VII planned a great hospital for "pouer, nedie people", leaving money and instructions for it in his will. The hospital was built in the palace ruins and licensed in 1512. Drawings show that it was a magnificent building, with a dormitory, dining hall and three chapels. Henry VII's hospital lasted for two centuries but suffered from poor management. The sixteenth-century historian Stow noted that the hospital was being misused by "loiterers, vagabonds and strumpets". In 1702, the hospital was dissolved, and the hospital buildings were used for other purposes. Part of the old palace was used for a military prison in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the old hospital buildings were demolished and new buildings erected.^[4]

In 1864, a fire burned everything except the stone walls and the Savoy Chapel, and the property sat empty until Richard D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880 to build the Savoy Theatre specifically for the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, of which he was the producer.^[5]

The hotel

Opened in 1889, the hotel was designed by architect Thomas Edward Collcutt, who also designed the Wigmore Hall. Carte chose the name "Savoy" to memorialize the history of the property.

Savoy Hotel, Strand entrance, 1911

The hotel was built on a plot of land, next to the Savoy Theatre, that Carte originally purchased to house an electrical generator for the theatre (built in 1881), which was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The construction of the hotel took five years and was financed by the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, particularly from producing The Mikado.^[6] It was the first hotel lit by electric lights and the first with electric elevators.^[5] Carte's friend Sir Arthur Sullivan sat on the Board of Directors.

In 1890, Carte hired the hotel's first famous manager, César Ritz, who later became the founder of The Ritz Hotel. Ritz brought in his partners, chef Auguste Escoffier, and maître d'hôtel Louis Echenard.^[7] Ritz put together what he described as "a little army of hotel men for the conquest of London", and Escoffier recruited French cooks and reorganised the kitchens. The Savoy under Ritz and his partners was an immediate success, attracting a distinguished and moneyed clientèle, headed by the Prince of Wales. Aristocratic women, hitherto unaccustomed to dine in public, were now "seen in full regalia in the Savoy dining and supper rooms".^[7] The hotel was such a financial success that Richard D'Oyly Carte bought other hotels.

In 1897, Ritz and his partners were dismissed from the Savoy. Ritz and Echenard were implicated in the disappearance of over £3400 of wine and spirits, and Escoffier had been receiving gifts from the Savoy's suppliers.^[8] The Savoy group purchased Simpson's-in-the-Strand in 1898. The Carte family employed George Reeves-Smith as the managing director of the Savoy hotel group in 1900. He served in this capacity until 1941.^[9] The Cartes expanded the hotel in 1903–04, building new east and west wings, and Richard's son, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, became chairman of the company in 1903 and the controlling stockholder after the death of his stepmother, Helen Carte, in 1913.^[5]

Planter in the embankment gardens between the hotel and the river

In 1938 Hugh Wontner joined the Savoy hotel group as Reeves-Smith's assistant, and he became managing director in 1941.^[10] During World War II, Wontner and his staff had to cope with bomb damage, food rationing, manpower shortage, and a serious decline in the number of foreign visitors. After the U.S. entered the war, business picked up as the Savoy Hotel became a favourite of American officers, diplomats, journalists and others.^[9] The hotel became a meeting place for war leaders: Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel, Lord Mountbatten, Charles de Gaulle, Jan Masaryk and General Wavell were among the regular Grill Room diners, and the hotel's air-raid shelters were "the smartest in London".^[10] Wontner co-operated fully with the government's wartime restrictions, helping to draw up an order imposing a five shilling limit on the price of a restaurant meal.^[9][11]

After WWII, the Savoy Group experienced a strike of its employees in support of a waiter dismissed from the hotel. The matter was judged so serious that the government set up a court of inquiry.^[12] Nevertheless, the hotel also continued to attract celebrities. Princess Elizabeth was first seen in public with Prince Philip at a Savoy reception.^[5] When Carte died in 1948, his daughter Bridget did not wish to become chairman,^[13] and the Savoy board elected Wontner, the first person to combine the roles of chairman and managing director since the Savoy's founder, Richard D'Oyly Carte.^[10] Wontner remained managing director until 1979, chairman until 1984 and was president thereafter until 1992.^[9] Bridget D'Oyly Carte died childless in 1985, bringing an end to her family line. Giles Shepard succeeded Wontner as manager of the hotel.^[14]

In 1998, American private equity house Blackstone Group purchased the Savoy hotel group. They sold it in 2004 to Quinlan Private, who sold the Savoy Hotel and Simpson's-in-the-Strand eight months later, for an estimated £250 million, to Al-Waleed bin Talal to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Canada.^[1] Quinlan's group retained the rest of the hotels under the name Maybourne Hotel Group.^[15] In December 2007, the hotel was closed to undergo a refit to a design by Pierre Yves Rochon, Reardon Smith and Buro Happold, the cost of which will be in excess of £100 million.^[16] The projected reopening date has been extended to the spring of 2010.^[17]

Famous guests

Numerous famous guests have stayed at the hotel. Claude Monet^[18] and James Whistler both stayed at the hotel and painted views from their rooms of the River Thames. Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas both frequented the Savoy, which featured prominently in Wilde's subsequent trial for 'gross indecency'. Bob Dylan stayed in the hotel in 1965, and filmed the video clip Subterranean Homesick Blues in an adjacent alley. He was also allegedly confronted by hotel security guards over a wine glass being thrown out of the hotel room window, onto the street below. The Beatles, U2, Led Zeppelin, Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso, Lillie Langtry, Charlie Chaplin, Ivor Novello, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, The Who, Richard Harris, Julie Andrews, Shirley Bassey, Jimi Hendrix, and Marilyn Monroe stayed there. Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen prefers the hotel when staying in London.

Restaurant

New Year's Eve dinner at the Savoy, 1907

The Savoy Restaurant (sometimes referred to as the Savoy Grill) has long been famous for its inventive chefs, beginning in 1890 with celebrity chef Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier created many famous dishes at the Savoy. In 1893 he invented the pêche Melba in honour of the Australian singer Nellie Melba, and in 1897, Melba toast. Other Escoffier creations were bombe Néro (a flaming ice), fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt (strawberries with pineapple and Curaçao sorbet), baisers de Vierge (meringue with vanilla cream and crystallised white rose and violet petals) and suprêmes de volailles Jeannette (jellied chicken breasts with foie gras).^[19][20]

Elegant dining at the Savoy includes formal afternoon tea with choral performances at Christmas time including soloists. Soprano Donna Bruce gave a mesmerising performance of Madonna and Child in 2006 which was well received by everyone. The Savoy has a Sunday brunch including free-flow champagne, and special events, such as New Year's Eve dinner.

Kaspar, a 3-foot high black alabaster cat sculpted by Basil Ionides, is used as an extra guest when thirteen dine, to stave off bad luck. He is given a full place setting.^[21]

American Bar

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel opened in 1898 when cocktails were first introduced to London. The term American Bar comes from the 1930s. Bar owners in Europe renamed their bars "The American Bar" to designate the sale of American cocktails. The complete list of Head Barmen in chronological order starting with Ada Coleman in 1898 to the current Head Barman Salim Khoury:

• Ada Coleman, see also Hanky-Panky cocktail
• Harry Craddock
• Eddie Clark
• Johnny Johnson
• Joe Gilmore
• Harry Viccars
• Victor Gower
• Peter Dorelli
• Salim Khoury

The Savoy cocktail book

Cover of the Savoy cocktail book (1999 ed.)

In 1930, the Savoy Hotel published a cocktail book, 'The Savoy Cocktail Book' with the recipes compiled by Harry Craddock of the American Bar and 'decorations' by Gilbert Rumbold. The book was then subsequently republished several times; 1952, 1965, 1985, 1996 and most recently in 1999 with some new text and a number of new cocktails added by Peter Dorelli.^[22]

Savoy Court

Savoy Court is the only street in the United Kingdom where vehicles are required to drive on the right.^{[citation needed]} This is said to date from the days of the hackney carriage when a cab driver would reach his arm out of the driver's door window to open the passenger's door (which opened backwards and had the handle at the front), without having to get out of the cab himself. Additionally, the hotel entrance's small roundabout meant that vehicles needed a turning circle of 25 ft (8 m) in order to navigate it. This is still the legally required turning circle for all London cabs.^[23]

Savoy Pier

Savoy Pier is located near the river entrance to the hotel, but is not affiliated with the hotel. It is a stop on the Thames Clipper commuter service, connecting the Savoy with the City of London, Canary Wharf and Greenwich via a river boat service.

See also

• Hotels in London

Notes

References

• Augustin, Andreas and Andrew Williamson (2002). Photography by Rupert Tenison. The Savoy, London, The Most Famous Hotels in the World series. ISBN 3-902118-04-0
• Bennett, Arnold (1930). Imperial Palace (fictionalisation)
• Calman, Mel (1964). Savoy Sketchbook, Aztec Design. ISBN 095247820X
• Contarini, Paulo. The Savoy Was My Oyster
• Dorelli, Peter; Craddock, Harry (1999). The Savoy Cocktail Book. ISBN 1-86205-296-4
• Jackson, Stanley (1964) The Savoy: the Romance of a Great Hotel. New York: LCCN 63-8604
• MacKenzie, Compton (1953). The Savoy of London. London: George Harrap & Co.
• Nicol, Jean (1952) Meet me at the Savoy. London: Museum Press
• "Famous Hotels in the World - London: The Savoy". 4Hoteliers. 30 October 2006. http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1690. Retrieved 20 June 2009. 
• Savoy Hotel, London. "Art Deco at the Savoy". http://www.savoy2009.com/press/pdf/8-Art-Deco-at-the-Savoy.pdf.  - Describes many features of the hotel

External links

• The Savoy Hotel website
• Savoy 2009 website

Coordinates: 51°30′35″N 0°07′12″W / 51.50972°N 0.12°W / 51.50972; -0.12