14 minute read
CLARIDGE’S: A NEW ERA
Claridge’s Elegant Evolution
London’s most historic hotel enters a new era with the biggest renovations of its two centuries. But, fi nds Nick Foulkes, its service, style and discreet magic remain timeless
Damien Hirst’s new stained-glass window, accompanied by guests from the worlds of celebrity and society, such as Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand and Marlene Dietrich
From the moment that William and Marianne Claridge opened their home to guests in 1812, the hotel has woven itself into the colourful tapestry of Mayfair life. In the ensuing two centuries, it has survived wars and pandemics. And it has welcomed world leaders, Hollywood royalty, actual royalty and, very occasionally, me – drawn moth-like to this enduring ame of glamour.
Whatever the occasion or challenge, you can be sure that
Claridge’s will rise to it majestically. When lockdown closed
London for three months, the hotel fed 500 NHS hospital sta every day and welcomed NHS frontline workers to stay in rooms usually inhabited by fashion leaders, lm stars and billionaires.
Even the display of hydrangeas and delphiniums in the lobby was rendered in NHS colours by McQueens Flowers. e syncopated rattle of cocktail shakers, the chiming of clinking champagne utes and the susurrus of conversation remain the sweetest background music. e hotel’s feeling of friendly grandeur remains intact. e chequered marble oor of the lobby gives every arrival a sense of occasion and, no matter how long the absence, the concierge team greets guests with appropriate words of welcome and a smile.
Claridge’s is a living entity and, like the most exotic of living entities, it renews itself over time. Now an elegant evolution is afoot.
Over the past seven years, Claridge’s has undertaken one of the most audacious building works ever seen in
Mayfair, under the direction of hotelier
Paddy McKillen. Digging down ve oors and going up two oors, the works have actually doubled the hotel’s footprint, without moving any walls. is has perfectly positioned the venerable grande dame of Mayfair to o er the nest guest experiences and hospitality for the next 200 years of her life.
For those concerned that the hotel they know and love will be changed beyond all recognition, rest easy. e Claridge’s that we know today has very little in common with the Claridge’s that I rst encountered 40 years ago, and next to nothing in common with the modest hotel that rst opened in the 19th century. Even within my years, the hotel has moved with the times. I am old enough to recall the days when what is now Claridge’s Bar was the Causerie, where Battenberg cake was served for tea to the sound of a string quartet in the lobby, and when Gordon Ramsay dished out rum baba and foie gras in the restaurant.
One of the things that makes this hotel so special is how it embraces modern life yet maintains the traditional xtures that make it unique. is is a hotel that has a working lift installed in 1896, yet also has Claridge’s ArtSpace, a gallery that occasionally accepts cryptocurrency. Old favourites, such as the chicken pie, are still served in e Foyer & Reading Room but there’s also
L’Epicerie: a private dining space akin to a gastronomic ringside seat or royal box, from which to observe the theatre of a worldclass kitchen, directed by the peerless Martyn Nail.
is is an institution that feels equally at home hosting the Queen’s reception for the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 as it does a 2020 music video for e Rolling Stones, which features racy dance moves from actor Paul Mescal. e Normal People pin-up shimmies his way around the hotel, sometimes in a dinner jacket, sometimes in a gure- tting vest. On a recent visit to one of the new rooms, my corner suite had been refurbished by Pierre-Yves Rochon, yet was in complete harmony with its historic counterparts. is happy meeting of past and present is evident in the way that an 18th century chinoiserie cabinet, repurposed from another part of the hotel, can sit alongside contemporary modern art and a Bluetooth speaker, in case you’re seized by the urge to ‘do a Mescal’ and dance through the suite. It is high praise to call a hotel a home from home, and this is a suite into which I would happily move from home. It has everything from a terrace overlooking Mayfair’s rooftops to a bathroom stocked with Anatomē unguents, stored like artists’ supplies in screwtop metal tubes. at painterly packaging is a timely reminder of the role that Claridge’s continues to play in the artistic life of the capital. Paddy McKillen understands perfectly the transformative power of art - and there can be few patrons and collectors who understand hotels as profoundly as he does. One anecdote is particularly telling: McKillen paused one day and directed his gaze upwards through the central staircase. It needed, he felt, something to reward the eye. With Damascene immediacy, McKillen reached for his telephone,
‘Like the scrolled through the contacts, and called Damien Hirst. ‘Damien, do you make stained-glass windows?’ he enquired. ‘No,’ most exotic of replied the artist. ‘But I do now.’ e result is the rst foray into this living identities, centuries-old medium by Britain’s most emblematic artist of the past half-century.
Claridge’s Realised by Hirst using the skill of Reyntiens Glass Studio, the e ect is staggeringly beautiful, with light ltering renews itself through insect wings of every hue. ‘I love Claridge’s and I love light and I love over time’ butter ies,’ Hirst tells me. ‘I wanted to create an optimistic kaleidoscope of hope and light and butter ies, and I think the result speaks for itself. I love how it’s turned out.’ Impressive as the installation is, it’s far from the only artistic intervention in the building. McKillen routinely unites the hotelier’s gift for hospitality with the aesthete’s eye for beauty. e result is jewels such as e Painter’s Room. For generations, it languished as a cloakroom and a banqueting preparation area, but during the 1930s it was a bar – and now, thanks to McKillen’s friendship with London artist Annie Morris, it is again. Morris’s whimsical murals transform a space no bigger than a railway carriage into a venue that is a contemporary London riposte to New York’s Bemelmans Bar. If you prefer a bottle of ne wine rather than a cocktail, you can now head underground to the cellar: a temperature-controlled, 21st-century temple to Bacchus, designed to showcase an extraordinary collection of more than 1,000 wines and champagnes. Head of Wine Sébastien Morice has composed an epic that takes the oenophile from 19thcentury Madeira to the rarest of unicorn wines from the world’s great vineyards. Claridge’s now extends 37 metres below ground. ere were many challenges in excavating 100,000m³ of material while remaining fully operational - not least that the only building
plans that could be found existed in a one-page article from e Builder in 1931. To avoid disrupting or damaging the lobby, all the materials going onto site had to rst pass through an opening no bigger than two metres by two metres, then down alongside 61 steel columns that hold up the Art Deco section of the building, before being installed beneath the 90-year-old concrete foundations. Fifteen specialist miners from Donegal used handheld pneumatic spades to clear the ground while upstairs afternoon tea continued to be served as if nothing unusual was occurring.
Claridge’s has started to extend in the opposite direction, now rising nine oors above London W1, making it one of Mayfair’s tallest buildings. At its summit will be e Garden Pavilion, e Penthouse at Claridge’s, set to open in late 2022 – which, with its own private entrance from which guests are whisked skywards, is an experience unlike anything in London. How many Mayfair hotel rooms do you know that have their own rooftop pool, garden, gym and that sine qua non of civilised living, a glasswalled music pavilion complete with bespoke concert-hall Steinway – all set against a captivating vista that embraces London’s famous landmarks?
But arguably the most important underground o ering is a restaurant that you are unlikely ever to visit. Muse is the ‘sta restaurant’, though this phrase scarcely does justice to a venue that would be packed with guests were it not restricted to those who work at the hotel. With exposed brick walls, dark oak refectory furniture and marble-topped tables around an ancient olive tree, an espresso bar and even library alcoves, it is truly extraordinary.
Little wonder, then, that when I spoke to head concierge Martin Ballard MBE, he spoke of his pride at working at Claridge’s for over two decades, ‘‘Each generation discovers Claridge’s for itself. I’m really excited by all of the new developments, because it keeps that spark alive for the next generation of guests. You’ll see them breezing through the famous revolving doors and talking to their own children about how things have changed since they were young. It’s a constantly evolving story – one we are all so proud to be a small part of.’ M
Above: Revellers at the Cygnets Ball, an annual nishing-school dance, in 1955. Clockwise from right: L’Epicerie, the new culinary space in the heart of the Claridge’s kitchen; a ve-storey basement has been excavated below the hotel; glass panels in the ballroom entrance show former guests
DESIGN FOR LIVING: INSIDE CLARIDGE’S The world’s most acclaimed designers co-exist under one roof, discovers Fiona McCarthy
Left: Bryan O’Sullivan’s Mayfair Terrace Suite, with its Deco-inspired scallop details. From top: The Octagon, designed by PierreYves Rochon; most of the new suites have a balcony overlooking Mayfair W hile many of Claridge’s public spaces are steeped in Art Deco glory, it is in the hotel’s 269 bedrooms and suites where the past, present and future most harmoniously collide. Under the watchful eye of hotelier Paddy McKillen, who considers the building as significant to London as Buckingham Palace, two new floors of contemporary bedrooms and a breathtaking penthouse have been added to the hotel’s existing accommodation. In the biggest renovation since 1929, the Victorian section of the building has grown to eight floors and the Art Deco section to nine.
The result, as you travel upwards from floor-to-floor, is uplifting, inspiring and cosseting. Here, tactile textures – from soft leathers and cosy wool bouclés to shimmering silks and grainy woods – are teamed with a gently unifying colour palette of pale blues and aquas, pinks, oyster grey, cream and white. Spanish architect Gaudí provided the inspiration for the room’s smooth, hand-moulded curves – akin to the Moroccan tradition of tadelakt plaster – and floor-to-ceiling dormer windows allow natural light to flood each room. ‘People need to feel calm in a bedroom’ says Michelle Wu, Head Of Interior Design for Maybourne Hotel Group. ‘Hotels are like transitional homes for guests, even if for one night.’ Where possible, spaces have been reimagined to feature grand entrances, to provide a moment of arrival within your suite, and dressing rooms to allow for pampering. Many of the new rooms also feature pretty terraces, where guests can sit with a morning coffee or an evening aperitif while soaking up the sights and sounds of being completely immersed in the heart of Mayfair’s red-bricked beauty. Shelves and console tops are laden with objects and books, and walls hung with vibrant art, sourced from Maybourne’s pool of works by over 160 artists.
A remarkable collection of internationally regarded designers have been called on to help reinterpret this new Claridge’s vision. Alexandra Champalimaud wanted to keep the hotel’s ‘ritual of things past’, creating a bespoke bar cabinet for the sitting room from exotic eucalyptus wood inset with glass, harking back to the tradition of cocktail hour. Linley drew on the influences of ‘classic, restrained and elegant old-world
Thoughtful design touches, such as bar carts, pay homage to the golden era of cocktail hour luxury and a whimsical nod towards the Roaring Twenties, using Arabescato marble in the bathrooms and hand-cut silk carpets. For legendary designer Nicky Haslam, the hotel’s Edwardian era served as visual inspiration. Working with Studio Quinn and Green Wolf Studio, Haslam has used Colefax & Fowler fabrics such as ‘Lavinia’ for curtains, the Japonesque floral ‘Ashbury’ for upholstering chairs, and covered the walls in a hand-woven sisal and cotton ‘Seagrass’ to lend a stylish Forties feel. Haslam also knows better than most what guests desire: including bright lights embedded in the headboard. “Good lighting is the most important thing in the whole world, but only English hotels know that you want to read in bed.”
Other designers have enjoyed the interplay between eras. Bryan O’Sullivan has teamed Deco-inspired scalloped headboards and chic little cocktail chairs, along with cabinetry finished in swirling veined burr walnut, a hand-painted screen by Alison Chan and contemporary rugs by Alfombras Peña. ‘It’s an eclectic contrast that hopefully feels soft, uplifting and pleasing to the eye,’ he explains. The elaborate gilding of Leo A Daly’s Corner Suite is teamed with custom furniture by Ben Whistler and hand-crafted rugs by Colbourns. ‘It reflects the mix of historical and modern, traditional and international influences that makes London – and Claridge’s – so special,’ says the architecture firm’s senior interior designer Rie Ohnuki. Rigby & Rigby have brought ‘serenity, sustainability and wellness,’ says senior designer Lena Cottray, to the studio’s room designs through a mix of natural materials, including speckled Birds Eye Maple, travertine, and hand blown glass. On the fifth and sixth floors, Pierre-Yves Rochon’s team has hoped to ‘capture perfectly the Claridge’s style: grace and beauty, Art Deco with a
modern touch,’ explains Claire Mabon, the firm’s Senior Design Director. Pearlescent shades, white-tinted sycamore, along with custom designed asymmetrical scalloped chairs and the curved tops of doors, mirrors and archways are key. In The Octagon – complete with its own glass-walled turret, private wraparound terrace, fireplace and grand piano – the team have added a corner sofa and dining table to provide ample room for entertaining and the two generously-proportioned bedrooms have been swathed in Champagne tones. “Our idea was that Claridge’s is elegant, gracious and feminine,” says Mabon, “but we would like to introduce her to a younger generation too, while staying true to Claridge’s existing design culture, authenticity and beauty.”
Set to be unveiled later this year, The Garden Pavilion, The Penthouse At Claridge’s is designed by Remi Tessier. Found on the ninth floor, it boasts 360° views of London and will undoubtedly prove to be the hotel’s pièce de résistance. There will be four bedrooms, a six-metre-tall green wall, a wood-clad private gym-meets-meditation-studio, a reflecting pool and piano pavilion.There’s even a blackout system that closes over the penthouse like the aperture of a camera lens.
What’s clear is that what unites all the designers in their approach to Claridge’s is that no fine detail is too small. ‘It’s those subliminal things, like the handles in the rooms which have been inspired by the texture of the hotel’s revolving doors, that provide the subtle thread running throughout the hotel,’ Wu explains. ‘From the first thing you touch, entering the hotel, to finding it echoed in some way by the bedside table, it’s those coherent layers of history mixed with an always-evolving modernity that make Claridge’s so special.’ M Explore Claridge’s rooms and suites further at claridges.co.uk
Claridge’s now has nine floors - with The Garden Pavilion boasting views across all of London
ART&CULTURE
London /Côte d’Azur/Beverly Hills
Inside: The Black Chapel, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, a polyester hippo, a £20m Rolls Royce
THE RESNICK PAVILION AT LACMA
PROFILE
Meet the CEO of the Serpentine fresh from Frieze in Los Angeles
How the limited edition automobile became the drive of choice for the one per cent.
p.38
ONE OF ONE
p.46
