The Savoy, London
Britain's first electric luxury hotel. The Savoy opened on the Strand in 1889 with electric lights and lifts, the first in Britain. Its founder, César Ritz, the American Bar and Kaspar the cat.
The Savoy's entrance court: Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0
Built from a theatre fortune
The Savoy was built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas he produced at the Savoy Theatre next door. The theatre was the first public building in the world lit entirely by electricity, and Carte brought the same technology to his hotel.
Designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt, the hotel opened on the Strand on 6 August 1889. It was the first hotel in Britain lit throughout by electric light and the first with electric lifts.
Bathrooms and brilliant staff
Most rooms had their own marble bathroom with constant hot and cold running water, which was very unusual at the time. The building had glazed brick to resist London's sooty air and even its own artesian well.
Carte hired César Ritz as manager and Auguste Escoffier as head chef. They ran the hotel from 1889 until 1897 and made its dining room the most fashionable in London, before leaving and opening the Ritz in Paris.
The hotel faces the river on one side and the Strand on the other. Its entrance court, Savoy Court, is known as the only road in Britain where traffic drives on the right, a rule said to help taxis drop guests at the door. The stainless steel Savoy sign above the entrance is one of London's best-known landmarks.
The American Bar and Kaspar
The Savoy's American Bar is one of London's oldest cocktail bars and has been home to famous bartenders such as Ada Coleman and Harry Craddock, whose Savoy Cocktail Book appeared in 1930. The bar survived the hotel's restoration almost unchanged.
Another tradition is Kaspar, a sculpted black cat made in 1926 by the designer Basil Ionides. When a party of 13 sits down to dinner, Kaspar takes the fourteenth seat, complete with napkin and place setting, so that no table seats an unlucky 13.
A £220 million restoration
In December 2007 the Savoy closed for a full renovation originally budgeted at £100 million. Structural problems, including the need to stabilise the facade, pushed the cost to around £220 million and delayed the reopening to October 2010.
The restored hotel has 267 rooms and suites, many overlooking the River Thames, and a small museum of archive treasures next to the American Bar. The building is Grade II listed.
- The Savoy's entrance court: Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0
- The Savoy foyer: Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0
Text written by Greatest Prestige.
