Claridge's is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. 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 Maybourne Hotel Group is a Qatari-owned British luxury hotel operator, which owns and manages The Berkeley, Claridge's and The Connaught hotels in London. History and Background The Maybourne Hotel Group, formerly The Savoy Hotel Group has ...

History

Founding

Claridge's was founded in 1812 as Mivart's Hotel, in a conventional London

terraced house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

, 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 late 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 Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

at the hotel. In its first edition of 1878, Baedeker's London listed Claridge's as "The first hotel in London".

Acquisitions

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. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. The hotel has 203 rooms and suites and around 400 staff. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

it was the base of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

's government 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 Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

for a single day (17 July 1945) to allow their heir, Crown Prince Alexander, to be born on Yugoslav soil, although no documentary evidence now exists to support the story. 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. In December 1951,

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

chancellor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...

secretly met

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act a ...

president

Nahum Goldmann Nahum Goldmann ( he, נחום גולדמן) (July 10, 1895 – August 29, 1982) was a leading Zionist. He was a founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president from 1951 to 1978, and was also president of the World Zionist Organization from ...

at Claridge's to begin negotiations on German reparations to Jewish survivors of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

Clients

Well-known actors, directors, and entertainers who have used Claridge's include

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen ...

, regular visitor

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...

Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime ...

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

, U2 and

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Voice", she is Whitney Houston albums discography, one of the bestselling music artists ...

. In his memoir '' The Moon's a Balloon''

David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in '' Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other role ...

wrote that for film producer

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Stephen Poliakoff's BBC television drama '' Perfect Strangers''. Claridge's is known for hosting visiting royalty and guests of the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term p ...

. 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 A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...

famously stayed at the hotel having been delayed on Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge. 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 DigitalBridge Group, Inc. is a global digital infrastructure investment firm. The company owns, invests in and operates businesses such as cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Digita ...

.Dana Vachon (August 2014)
To Capture Claridge’s
'' Vanity Fair''. In 2004, they both retained

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

to sell 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

. 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. The

includes two other five-star luxury hotels in London,

The Berkeley The Berkeley is a five-star deluxe hotel, located in Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London. The hotel is owned and managed by Maybourne Hotel Group, which also owns Claridge's and The Connaught in Mayfair, London. History 1800s and early 1900s ...

and The Connaught.

Restaurants and other facilities

In 2014, Claridge's replaced Gordon Ramsay's restaurant (see below) with Fera at Claridge's which closed in 2018. Fera was run by Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan, who previously ran

L'Enclume L'Enclume (, French for "the anvil") is a restaurant opened in 2002 in Cartmel, Cumbria, England, run by chef Simon Rogan and his partner Penny Tapsell. L'Enclume received a rating of 10 out of 10 five times in the ''Good Food Guide'' and name ...

in Cumbria, England. In March 2015, Fera was named in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'' as one of its best places that month. Fera earned a Michelin star, one of 14 restaurants in the UK to do so in 2015. For twelve years, the

fine dining Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an off ...

main restaurant was run by

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a to ...

, 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 Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and ...

-starred Northern Irish chef Michael Deane started his career at the restaurant. Claridge's offers

afternoon tea Tea (in reference to food, rather than the drink) has long been used as an umbrella term for several different meals. English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of v ...

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 New Nordic Cuisine ( da, Det nye nordiske køkken, sv, Det nya nordiska köket, no, Det nye nordiske kjøkken, fi, Uusi pohjoismainen keittiö) is a culinary movement which has been developed in the Nordic countries, and Scandinavia in partic ...

Noma Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to: Places * NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US ** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro * Noma, Florida, US * NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England * Noma Distric ...

, while the restaurant in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

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.

Christmas tree

Claridge's does a

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern G ...

display: usually by someone in the fashion industry such as John Galliano and Kally Ellis. 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.

References

External links

Hotel's website
* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Mayfair Hotels in the City of Westminster Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Art Deco architecture in London Hotel buildings completed in 1812 Hotels established in 1812 Yugoslavia in World War II 1812 establishments in England Buildings by C. W. Stephens