The Dorchester
Luxury hotel | |
Town or city | Mayfair, London |
---|---|
Country | England |
Opened | 18 April 1931 |
Owner | Brunei Investment Agency |
Management | Dorchester Collection |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Owen Williams & William Curtis Green |
Main contractor | Sir Robert McAlpine & Sir Frances Towle |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 250 |
Number of suites | 49 |
Website | |
Official website |
The Dorchester is a five-star hotel located on
Throughout its history, the hotel has been closely associated with the rich and famous. During the 1930s, it became known as a haunt of numerous writers and artists such as poet
In the 1950s, the stage set designer Oliver Messel made a number of changes to the interior of the hotel. Between 1988 and 1990, the hotel was completely renovated at a cost of US$100 million by Bob Lush of the Richmond Design Group.
Today The Dorchester has five restaurants: The Grill,
History
Background
The site was originally part of the Manor of Hyde, which was given to
The background to the development of the Dorchester Hotel is complicated.
Construction
Sir Owen Williams was commissioned to design the new hotel, using reinforced concrete to allow the creation of large internal spaces without support pillars, but he abandoned the project in February 1930 and was replaced with William Curtis Green.[9][10] James Maude Richards, hired by Williams, served as an architectural assistant within the all-engineer staff. Percy Richard Morley Horder, consulting architect to Gordon's Hotels, had not been consulted during the design process and, after seeing the plan, resigned from the project, remarking to The Observer that the design was ill-suited for the location, assuming the concrete was to be left unpainted and that the insulation would be minimal. Some 40,000 tonnes of earth were excavated to make room for the hotel's extensive basement which is one-third of the size of the hotel above the surface.[10] The upper eight floors were erected in just 10 weeks, supported on a massive 3 feet (0.91 m) thick reinforced concrete deck that forms the roof of the first floor.[10] With the development of the Dorchester, concerns were raised that Park Lane would soon become New York City's Fifth Avenue.[8]
1931–1945
The new Dorchester Hotel was feted with a grand opening on 18 April (21 April also cited) 1931 by Lady
During the
General
Post-war
In 1949, the 150th anniversary of
When
In 1985, the hotel was purchased by the Sultan of Brunei.[36] The hotel is currently owned by the Dorchester Collection, which in turn is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. The Dorchester Collection owns luxury hotels in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Switzerland and Italy. In 1988, the hotel closed for two years for a major refurbishment.
In June 1998 the brother of the Sultan of Brunei,
From about 1985 to 2018, the hotel hosted the annual Presidents Club charity dinner, a "mainstay of London's social calendar".[42] The charity disbanded in 2018 after reports that hired hostesses had been sexually harassed and assaulted by the all-male guests.[43]
Architecture
Exterior
The architectural style adopted by William Curtis Green, largely based on Owen William's design, was a departure from the
Interior
The interior displays a "subtle amalgam of styles", testament to the number of different designers involved over the years, including
Gold leaf and marble remain distinct features of the public rooms of the hotel, including the restaurants, with features more reminiscent of an English country house than a hotel.[50] Considerable efforts to make the rooms soundproof at the Dorchester were made from the outset; the exterior walls were faced with cork, and the floors and ceilings of the bedrooms and suites were lined with compressed seaweed.[13] Following renovation, the hotel was fitted with double glazing, and triple glazing on the Park Lane side to further improve soundproofing.[13]
In the 1950s, stage set designer Oliver Messel made significant changes to the interior of the hotel. He incorporated aspects of stage design into the hotel interior, and designed the lavish apartments on the 7th and 8th floors.[13] As Country Life documented, Messel's rooms at the hotel "represents a rare glimpse into the world of mid-20th-century interior design", in which he drew upon his skills as a theatre designer to fill his rooms with "tricks of space and light, colour and period reference".[51] Today one of the suites is named after him, the Oliver Messel Suite,[13] designed in the Georgian country house style. Messel made the changes on the Deanery Side of the building in 1952–3.[6] Oliver Frederick Ford served as consultant designer from 1962, decorating both the Stanhope Suite and the Orchid Room, a corner of which was completely re-built and decorated in the English rococo style.[52] He also remodelled the white, gold, and green entrance hall. The current dark green staff uniform of The Dorchester was designed in 1980 and is also attributed to Ford.[53]
Between 1988 and 1990, the hotel was completely renovated by Bob Lush of the Richmond Design Group at a cost of $100 million.[citation needed] Liberace's piano sits in the lobby.[54]
As of 2012, the Dorchester has 250 rooms and 49 suites.[44] In the rooms, specially made Irish linen sheets cover the four poster beds, with cherry wood furnishings.[44] The bath tubs, cited as "probably the deepest in London",[49] are made of Italian marble in the Art Deco style. All rooms in the hotel either provide views of Hyde Park or of its landscaped terraces.[55] During the major renovation of 2002, all rooms and suites were fitted with modern telecommunication systems.[56] The hotel has its own floristry team who are responsible for regularly updating the flowers on display in the hotel and providing their services for weddings and special occasions.[57]
Restaurants
The Dorchester has five restaurants: The Grill, Alain Ducasse, The Spatisserie, The Promenade, and China Tang, and three bars, two of which are in the last two restaurants.[44] Employing 90 full-time chefs,[54] the hotel has long had a reputation for its cuisine, and chefs such as Jean Baptiste Virlogeux, Eugene Kaufeler, Willi Elsener and Anton Mosimann have all run restaurants there.[13] Mosimann ran the Maitre Chef des Cuisines at the Dorchester for 13 years. Virlogeux, head chef during the Second World War, had to succumb to rationing and a national maximum-price restriction of five shillings for a three-course meal.[13]
The Grill restaurant, which serves British cuisine, is decorated in a
The Promenade was refurbished in 1990 by Leslie Wright with a gilded ceiling and reliefs and brass lanterns, and was altered again in 2005 by
The choice of tea offered to the guests is diverse, and includes the hotel's own Dorchester Blend. The service includes a first course consisting of finger sandwiches with sliced
China Tang is owned by the businessman David Tang and was opened in 2005. The restaurant is luxuriously designed, with an art deco lounge bar reminiscent of 1930s Shanghai.[64] The Spatisserie is an informal restaurant, which specialises in light snacks and afternoon tea, serving cakes, biscuits and pastries.[65]
The Dorchester Bar was initially rebuilt in 1938 and was run by
Grounds
A plane tree, with its monumental root system, stands at the edge of the hotel in the well-tended front garden. The branches of the tree are fitted with numerous bulbs which makes the night scene of the hotel evocative.[68] Named one of the "Great Trees of London" by the London Tree Forum and Countryside Commission in 1997,[69] it featured in a BBC programme Meetings with Remarkable Trees in 2000.[13]
Entertainment
The hotel has continued to be associated with actors, rock stars and people in entertainment. Numerous film actors and people have auditioned, been interviewed or have stayed at the Dorchester over the years, and it is strongly associated with cinema, particularly American film. From the 1940s onwards the Dorchester was a common rendezvous for film producers, actors and casting agents. In 1940, Gabriel Pascal and David Lean used Pascal's hotel suite as the casting location for the movie Major Barbara; Deborah Kerr, who auditioned for the film, said of it: "How bizarre it was. This room full of chaps smoking enormous cigars and drinking martinis and this young girl reciting the Lords' Prayer."[70]
In the 1940s, producer Earl St. John was found drunk at the hotel; writer and co-producer Eric Ambler promptly sent him back to John Davis in a taxi with a board around his neck with the words "Return to John Davis with compliments".[71] Ray Bradbury stayed at the hotel during the filming of Moby Dick (1956).[72] In 1964, John Lennon was invited to attend one of the Foyle Literary Luncheons after he received acclaim for his book In His Own Write. John and Cynthia were unaware of the high profile of the event and attended with a hangover, with Lennon disappointing the crowd which had gathered at the Dorchester who were expecting a speech, simply muttering "Thank you very much, it's been a pleasure".[73] Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were regulars at the hotel throughout the 1960s and 1970s and spent their honeymoon in the Oliver Messel suite in March 1964.[74]
The hotel has also hosted many footballers attending the
Boycotts
In 2014, numerous celebrities started boycotting the hotel due to its links, via the sultanate, to the introduction of Sharia law in Brunei, which includes the death penalty for various forms of immorality.[78][79]
In March 2019, George Clooney renewed calls for the Dorchester and other hotels owned by the sultanate to be boycotted, after the sultanate adopted a policy of death by stoning as punishment for gay sex.[80] In April 2019, Clooney's call was echoed by Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John.[81] The same month, Deutsche Bank banned its staff from staying at Brunei-owned hotels; the Financial Times and the TV Choice awards said they would cancel events that had been planned at the Dorchester; and the English National Ballet, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Tempus Magazine said they would review their associations with the Dorchester.[82] Protesters demonstrated outside the Dorchester against the sultanate's policies.[83] The Police Federation of England and Wales cancelled plans to host its awards ceremony at the venue.[84]
See also
References
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- ^ Porter & Prince 2003, p. 102.
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- ^ a b Charlton & Powers 2007, p. 83.
- ^ Lord Morley has sold Dorchester House, Park Lane, The Times, 16 July 1929
- ^ a b c d e Weinreb & Keay 2011, p. 244.
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- ^ a b Weightman & Humphries 2007, p. 113.
- ^ Richards 2013, p. 29.
- ^ Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
- ^ Rijks 2011, p. 72.
- ^ a b Richardson 1997, pp. 41–42.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "History of The Dorchester". The Dorchester. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
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- ^ "Dorchester Hotel Calirls and the 'Playboy Prince'". Birmingham Post. 20 February 1998.[dead link]
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- ^ "Profligate Prince Jefri". Newsweek. 10 April 2000. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
- ^ Simpson 2007, p. 116.
- ^ "Two steal jewels from London's Dorchester Hotel". Associated Press Worldstream. 22 March 2002. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
- ^ "Dorchester Turns 80". The Handbook. 19 July 2011.
- ^ Marriage, Madison (23 January 2018). "Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ "Presidents Club to close after shocking details of sexist behaviour emerge". The Independent. 24 January 2018. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d Strachan 2012, p. 350.
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- ^ a b Editors of Time Out 2010, p. 69.
- ^ "Rooms and Suits". The Dorchester. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ Byfield 2001, p. 54.
- ^ "Florist at The Dorchester". The Dorchester Collection. Archived from the original on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
- ^ "Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester". Time Out. 18 October 2011. Archived from the original on 22 April 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
- ^ Rayner, Jay (28 December 2014). "Dorchester Grill: restaurant review". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ a b "The Promenade". The Dorchester. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
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- ^ "Trees and the Public Realm" (PDF). City of Westminster. December 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
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- ^ "Boycott of Sultan's hotels pits Anna Wintour v Kate Middleton". The Week. 17 June 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
- ^ "Stephen Fry boycotts Brunei-owned hotel chain The Dorchester Collection after country passes 'stone the gays' law". The Independent. 28 April 2014. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
- ^ Wintour, Patrick (29 March 2019). "George Clooney calls for hotels boycott over Brunei's LGBT laws". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
- ^ "Ellen DeGeneres joins George Clooney in boycott of Brunei-owned hotels over anti-LGBT+ law". The Independent. 3 April 2019. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
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- ^ Doward, Jamie (6 April 2019). "RAF and Royal Navy urged to cut ties to sultan of Brunei over anti-gay law". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ^ Murphy, Simon (10 April 2019). "Police cancel event at Brunei-owned hotel over anti-LGBT laws". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
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51°30′26″N 0°9′9″W / 51.50722°N 0.15250°W