Now there has been a lot of press about the Savoy: why it has cost so much, why it took so long, how similar it looks now to the old Savoy…need I say more? Well my personal experience is that, as with so many things, the more one learns, the more one appreciates the subject in question. So why have I chosen the Savoy? Well, this blog is about interesting things I have seen and done and my tour of the Savoy last week is one of them.
Justin White from ReardonSmith Architects, has lived with this project since the beginning and remains truly passionate about the Savoy. Not only has it been a long and sometimes tortuous journey, it has involved engineering and design innovations that are rarely celebrated. Access has been vastly improved, more rooms have been added within the existing building and it now works once more as a 5 star hotel should. It has also been the largest “green” fit out to an existing building in the UK. Read the Ecologist magazine online for details on how the hotel has reduced waste by 90% and how it aims to improve further. www.theecologist.org and search Savoy Hotel. I tried to put the link in but it was too long to enter here.
Old favourites such as the American Bar and the Pinafore Room with its 41,000 hand applied rivets have been restored so, although they don’t look any different, you can rest assured that they now include all the health and safety measures required for a top class international hotel. Pierre-Yves Rochon, the interior designer, has excelled himself in the incredibly glamorous Beaufort Bar, the new champagne bar. More figures for you: £40,000 worth of gold leaf and the same again for the curtains. It reminds me of one of Oscar Wilde’s many aphorisms: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best”. Churchill apparently felt the same way. He practically lived in the Savoy during World War II holding cabinet meetings in the Pinafore room.
The classic afternoon tea, a staple of so many London hotels, is now available in the Thames Foyer from 2.30 till 6.30pm.
There is now a Savoy museum, just outside the American bar giving some historical information. Charlie Chaplin used to use an outside staircase to practise on the roof; Monet painted his views of the Thames from his room in the hotel. Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were introduced here…so many stories. The success of this project will have been to ensure that more stories will continue to be created and recounted about this grand lady of London.
Lastly I’m delighted that there is a dress code for all public areas. Definitely not a place to come to wearing jeans and trainers.
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