The Hotel of Royalty and the Rich | Worlds Greatest Hotels S2 E2 | Our Stories

Mayfair, one of the most expensive areas of London and the world. Amongst the boutiques and five-star restaurants stand a wealth of luxury hotels. But those who choose to be center stage, who've got it all and want everyone to know, check in here. Claridge's is for showing off. It's for the people who want to be noticed. You don't go there to be a wallflower. Everyone's looking at who's going in and out of Claridge's. British through and through, it attracts the regal and the racy. Kate Moss had her 30th birthday party there and the Queen had her Ruby wedding anniversary there and you cannot get two more extreme examples of people who love Claridge's. It has been a hotel for the fast livers. It was rock and roll before rock and roll was even invented. The 203 rooms and suites cost up to £8,000 a night and with a price tag like that, no one should cramp your style. You kind of don't want a hotel to be too goody-goody, do you? You want a hotel that's going to twiddle its moustache when you stay there and Claridge's definitely does that. With five-star status, 24-hour butler service, complimentary champagne and a Burberry trench coat in case you get caught in the rain, it's been the go-to hotel for royalty and film stars alike. Spencer Tracy said, When I die, I don't want to go to heaven. I want to go to Claridge's and I think I'd agree with him. Protected by its Victorian conservative shell, the biggest secret lies within. I always think it looks a bit like an incredibly large red brick wardrobe but when you go through the wardrobe and you end up into this sort of, you know, rather art deco narnia, it's kind of breathtaking. Take the rug out from underneath your feet. You just expect a rather glamorous Mr. Tumnus to be skipping past. You walk through and your jaw just slowly drops. You're transported to the 1920s. It has this great art deco foyer, this black and white chessboard floor that's polished so highly that you can fix your lipstick in the floor. To your right, you've got this staircase that's on a turn. It's like something from a Broadway show. You'd expect Ziegfeld girls to walk down on it. This wow factor lobby is partly the work of top British interior designer Guy Oliver. Seamlessly reworking the hotel's heritage by updating colour palettes and meeting modern needs. Guy's revamps include an award-winning restaurant design. One of the most important projects at Claridge's recently was Farrah, which is the hotel's main restaurant. I had to pull in every favour I possibly could to get this restaurant to work and I was working 24 hours a day. Everything that you see there was made especially for the hotel by British artisans and I wanted to bring all of that together so that it celebrated the cultural identity of London and Mayfair. The fickle world of restauranteering means Farrah no longer exists today, but that doesn't deter Guy, whose firm's forte is designing traditional British spaces from grand country houses to the state rooms at number 10 Downing Street. And heading up refits at this particular royal favourite means Guy has seen more than most. The British Royal Family are regular guests here. The Queen recently was here at an event where she was presenting an award to the hotel industry and it was quite funny because Matt Damon walked into the lobby of the hotel and there was a crowd of people and he was acting like he didn't want anyone to see him and then the Queen walked straight past him and he did a sort of double take and it was like oh they're not here to look at me they were here for the head of state. Witnessing moments like that are inevitable when Guy's bread and butter is posh makeovers. So I redecorated this for an event to do with the wedding of Prince William and Princess Catherine. It had to be ready within a month. We had three teams working 24 hours, eight hours each doing all the redecoration so it would be ready. They literally finished the carpet and then there was a dinner table set up there for the evening's reception so quite a bit of theatre. And theatre is the hotel's middle name. Flamboyantly popping 44,000 bottles of champagne a year for numerous parties and weddings. Florist Nikki Tibbles has been festooning these events for nearly 20 years. Oh no we're not, we're not putting that in Claridges. No protea in Claridges. These beautiful garden roses actually will work beautifully. Gosh I'm just trying to think how many events and weddings and parties we've actually worked on in Claridges over the years. I mean it literally must be hundreds. Which means Nikki knows what works best. But this is one of my favourite flowers, this Cafe Olo Delia which is the most beautiful colour and we've used this so often. It's a very grand, extraordinarily beautiful hotel and the flowers really have to live up to the surroundings. It's a quintessentially English hotel and so using quintessentially English flowers for me works absolutely like a dream. We've done some incredible events covering ceilings, flower drops on walls. We create walkways with flowers. The beauty of Claridges is that you already have an amazing environment. We're not working in a blank canvas. When people go to stay in a hotel they don't just want to stay in a hotel, they want to have a show, they want entertainment and that sort of feeling has infiltrated down to today. They know how to put on a show. That's one of the main reasons that people always love going to Claridges. It makes you feel special. Coming up, the hotel tops the tables for the royals. I think what makes the hotel so good at hosting such lavish events is that they've been there, done that and got the tiara. But it wasn't always so glamorous. It was a space where all the ne'er-do-wells and rascals of London used to Nothing says London like a black cab, a red bus and a very expensive hotel, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace. Claridges is quite frankly a big deal. It's London how you want London to be. Without Claridges it just would not be London. Being practically in Her Majesty's backyard means the hotel is top of the places to stay list for any bejewelled dignitaries stopping by. The hotel does like to think of itself as, I suppose, about tenth in line to the throne in the context of its relationship with Buckingham Palace, which is a brisk 10-minute walk away. When royalty visit, they visit Claridges. When heads of state visit, they stay at Claridges. It seems to have been a favourite haunt of the royals for a very long time, in more than a hundred years. This historic link between the royal residence and the hotel began with the Empress of France. The Empress Eugénie moves in for the winter of 1860, the wife of Napoleon III. She's visited there by Queen Victoria. It's sort of Queen Victoria's last winter of gadding about because Prince Albert is going to die the following December. But she visits the hotel, and that is quite significant. The relationship between Claridges and royalty is official and it's cemented, and it's from this point that it really begins to gain its nickname, the Annex to Buckingham Palace. But it's much more than just somewhere to lay your regal head when coming to London to visit the Queen. There's a tradition that when a head of state visits this country and is entertained at Buckingham Palace, they invite the Queen back to their place, and their place is often Claridges. At Claridges that evening, there was the chance for King Paul and Queen Frederica to be the hosts when they entertained the Queen and Prince Philip at a dinner. It's had a long history of these events, return banquets they're called. I think what makes Claridges so good at hosting such lavish events is that they've been there, done that, and got the tiara. They've done it so many times. William Hanson is an etiquette expert who knows what's key to holding a successful state dinner. When you have royalty or titled guests, you really cannot check enough. There will be a member of staff to check the work of the member of staff who checked the member of staff's work. And if one of us should ever be lucky enough to find ourselves dining with a Duchess, what royal titbits can William throw our way so we don't drop our Ps or miss our Qs? So the good news is, of course, if you are confronted with a myriad of cutlery like this, you're obviously doing something right in life, so well done. However, it's not that easy because there are a whole host of ways that you could possibly trip yourself up and make a social faux pas, but we have some simple tricks and tips for you to remember. First of all, you don't just sit anywhere. There will be a seating plan. If you do not like the person you are seated next to, tough. If you see your name, that is where you're sitting for the entire duration. There isn't an awful lot of space, and so we do not want to be elbowing the guests either side as we cut in to whatever food we are eating. And a really nice way that you can use to practice at home, please don't do this at marriages, is to place a piece of paper under each of your arms and eat your meal keeping the paper there. And if the paper drops, you have failed and your arm has come out too far. It is perfectly possible to eat an entire seven-course banquet keeping your elbows tucked under and your wrists low as well. We're not a dinosaur, so we're not going to eat like this. Keep the wrists fairly low as well. And if you can navigate those etiquette pitfalls, there's one final social hurdle to overcome. Polite conversation. Depending on the size of the table, you wouldn't actually speak across the table, so don't start shouting to the person that's across from you, because obviously shouting is bad manners. So we do conventionally just speak to the people either side of us, and there are five topics that are taboo that we want to avoid. Sex, money, politics, health, and religion. Now for a lot of people that rules out a majority of their conversation, but there are many other things that you can talk about. If we had to pick one that was the worst to talk about, probably money. And then the thing related to money. We're not going to sit there saying, oh they're nice candlesticks, how much do you think they were? Oh that's a nice suit, where's that from? Nothing related to money. It's such a divisive subject and to discuss it in any form is vulgar. What is discussed at these formal banquets? I guess we'll never know. If only the walls could talk at cleriges, they would tell us the most amazing tales. For now we'll have to stick to more traditional ways to get the gossip. I did once manage to approach the King Constantine of Greece, the exile king. And he's a lovely man actually, and he agreed to have lunch with me. Now I've never had lunch with a king, and he suggested cleriges. It turned out that he had a table there reserved permanently for As part of my job I try to cultivate really high-end contacts, and I tell you it's not easily done as royal correspondent. But he had all the time in the world, and we were still there at four o'clock I think, and the waiters sort of looked at their watches. But he probably told me absolutely nothing. Today this bastion of Britishness rubs shoulders with glamorous boutiques and world-class art galleries in London's most exclusive enclave. But this grand building and its posh neighbours aren't here by chance. The nobility had a master plan to take an unwanted muddy field and transform it into one of the most desirable districts in London. In the 17th century it was a space of open fields leading up to the river Tyburn, and it was particularly famous for its May Fair, a two-week summer fair where all the ne'er-do-wells and rascals of London used to congregate. Named after that debauched springtime event, May Fair had humble beginnings, but that was all to change dramatically. It only became a fashionable address in the early 18th century as the aristocracy wanted to move away from the streets of the city which had suffered from the plague and the fire in search of fresher air, better health and more fun. May Fair was laid out as a series of squares and great streets surrounded by grand terraced houses which in themselves were like mansion houses. It was the first time that such a large area of London had been laid out specifically with an aristocratic district in mind. So Marshland became May Fair, a rags-to-riches transformation. So this 1889 poverty map of London by Charles Booth shows yellow being the colour that signified the richest inhabitants, red being well-to-do and the dark areas being the poor inhabitants of London. Just shows you how May Fair is this glowing gold block of wealth. Benefiting from this great concentration of wealth and glamour, here in the heart of May Fair, Claridge's Hotel, associated from the very start with high society and royalty. And these red-bricked routes run royally deep. The hotel has always catered to the dreams and the fantasies of monarchs. That's sort of the idea it was founded upon. In 1812, hotelier James Maivart converted a townhouse on Brook Street into posh lodgings. Maivart's a friend of the future George IV and he opens a kind of posh, discreet boarding house for the well-connected and for that royal world. And it prides itself on its discretion. Having royal patronage and all the dignitary trimmings that came with it meant that on Maivart's retirement his hotel was quickly snapped up by the neighbours. They are William and Marianne Claridge, a name that will be familiar to us all. William and Mary expanded the hotel's reputation as a place for the aristocracy and royalty to stay and enjoy the sights of London. But it was their successor who really put the theatre into the hotel. Richard D'Oyly Carte was the Simon Cowell of his age. He was the man who discovered Gilbert and Sullivan. He was a man of the theatre. He wanted the hotel to be a stage for his guests to show themselves off, but it wasn't quite ready for the limelight. In the 1890s the building is a chaotic embarrassment. By this stage people expect hot and cold running water. They expect to have a lift to take them to the upper stories. So he knocks the place down. The D'Oyly Carte tore down the townhouses and what was built in their place was revered then as it is today. The architect was Charles Stevens, better known as the architect of Harrods, and is a perfect example of that sort of Anglo-Dutch red brick style. And the front of the hotel has all the things you'd expect. The decorated windows, the rubbed brick detail, and the joyous balconies. This is the architecture of fun. Coming up, the hotel secures itself a unique wartime role. It became a kind of high class refugee centre for the crowned heads of Europe. And hushes up its hedonism. Everybody rocked up in the most elaborate sequins and stars and they partied outrageously, but Claridges never said anything about it. Risen from the marshlands of Mayfair, Claridges, a grand dame hotel with a saucy side. There's something about Claridges that kind of makes you want to have fun. Claridge is a bit more kind of, all right, you know, nice to see you, you know, hello, can I get you a dry martini? It encourages people to be naughty. They almost thrive on it. You just get the sense that this is an old girl who would have been smoking behind the bike sheds. It's got a naughtiness to it. There's something deliciously, very, very elegantly carry on film about Claridges, which I absolutely love. Marlene Dietrich had a string of lovers who would sometimes pass on the staircase on the way to and back from her bedroom. But obviously nothing was ever said. It's this kind of naughtiness and revolutionary attitude that the hotel has created over the years. But in the 1920s, one thing that wasn't revolutionary was the drab dated interior. I think Claridges was facing a bit of a crisis because there were new hotels like the Dorchester opening up. Claridges, by that stage, looked very old-fashioned. It looked very meat and two veg. The hotel needed to up its game, but it wasn't going to follow its European counterparts. Anywhere very, very kind of design focused like France or Italy, they pull everything down if that style goes out of fashion. But Claridges didn't really do the entire hotel at all. Just the ballroom and various areas around there and hit them so hard with the art deco stick, they've become some of the most famous art deco interiors in London. It is a marvellous moment of complete screw you architecture. The hotel had gone out on a limb, but the art deco risk had paid off. I believe that it was this period in history that Claridges became the icon that it is today. After the horrors of World War One, art deco began to symbolise the future, partly through design, the straight lines and geometric patterns, but crucially, the opulent materials. Well, Claridges during that period, their success with this style and design was a catalyst for other designers to emulate. The hotel was the trendsetter and restaurants like this in London's Piccadilly quickly followed suit, lapping up the futuristic interior style. We have these beautiful brass lamps all along the bar. This stainless steel grate with a geometrical design and then we have the marble fascia. So together it's the use of materials that make it very warm, it makes it luxurious. What art deco did, it represented to the world joy, fun, life, living, future, modernity. Art deco allowed people to buy into some wealth, some wonderful opulence and glamour. I mean here we have this very tactile, wonderful feeling marble fascia and at the top we have this riot of gold leaf because it really is a riot of gold leaf. Claridges in particular allowed people this escapism. It's Claridges that today still holds that same mystique and you know you are in a very important place. To ensure the hotel's refit was as on trend and glamorous as possible, the owners didn't call in any old tradesmen. They brought in the finest craftsmen and they transformed the hotel. And Basil Ionides, he's the real kind of art deco master who's involved in this process. He's the black and white man, he's the marble and steel man. Basil Ionides, he's this sort of absolute go-to icon of art deco. Creates picture-perfect, glossy magazine, A-list art deco. This is so the latest thing and it's a clever thing to do because that instantly starts putting it on the map. Joining Ionides on the project was the French jewellery and glass designer René Lalique. René Lalique is a master craftsman. You were getting the best with Lalique. You can find extraordinary examples of Lalique which just about every other swanky hotel will be faking or they will be modern Lalique, but actually Claridge's is absolutely the real deal. It's exquisite, nothing compares to René Lalique's work. With its fresh en vogue sparkle and pizzazz unveiled, a new type of clientele charged through the hotel's art deco doors. Thrill-seeking hedonists of the 1920s and 30s who were labelled the bright young things. They were the offspring of the titles and the wealthy. Stephen Tennant, the Sitwells, Settle Beaton, Nancy Mitford, they partied outrageously. They lived like there was no tomorrow. For them sleep was anathema. They charged around London looking for places where they could live life to the full. Hollywood was in its infancy so the people who would have been you know a pat if you like were younger members of the English aristocracy. Landed gentry like William Sitwell's grandparents Sir Chavarro and Georgia Sitwell. I remember sitting on the floor in the drawing room at Weston leafing through these large albums and seeing these incredible pictures of my grandmother flirting with Cecil Beaton and her various friends. Young people like Stephen Tennant who was a budding writer posing like Pierrot. Bringing with them glitz, glamour and attention, the hotel welcomed the bright young things with open arms. Carriages were quite astute. They saw that if they could create this stage where these characters could perform one in London, that they could attract business. They provided the bars and the drawing rooms and put itself in the centre of society by attracting the glittering celebrities of the day. And these prototype celebrities included women for the first time. After the first world war women found new freedom. They smoked in public, they drank in public, they wore makeup in public. This is the beginning of emancipation so the hem lines of skirts have gone up. You're seeing ladies in silk stockings for the very first time. We have the flapper emerge. Women were unrecognisable from the decade previous. They're doing things that women of previous generations just hadn't done. They are partying. What these women love is a good party and the place, the epicentre for their partying is Carriages. Carriages has become one of those places where the 20s began to roar. When the bright young things gathered they got stuck into cocktails several hours before lunchtime. These are champagne fuelled events and it's a kind of endurance test. These people kept going and going for days sometimes. But despite the extravagance not all was as it seemed. I think if there's one characteristic of the bright young things it's that a lot of them were actually living way beyond their means. These people looked like they had pots of money but a lot of them I imagine were pretty broke. But it didn't stop them from partying. The fashionable dresses of the time wanted to have their clothes, their hats, their gloves adorning the bright young things. So yeah, they looked like they were spending money but I imagine a lot of it was actually free. If someone wants to throw free parties for you there's no downside. Carriages were very clever because they realised that it was all about the party scene and actually the big money to be made in a London hotel was by having the world's swankiest ballroom in which to have the world's wildest parties. So they hired the top architect of the day who built one. The architect Oswald Milne added 80 new bedrooms and a wonderful new Art Deco ballroom which completely transformed the offer of the hotel and it provided new rooms for entertainment where the bright young things could hold their own private parties. Staging parties for these people is a clever marketing move because the average punter who can afford to go to carriages but is wondering where to stay, well, what gets them over the line is the association with a bit of stardust. You might bump into them at the foyer, you might see them at the bar, you might spot them in the restaurant. It's a plan. They wanted these people there, they drew them in and they fed and watered them. The design foundations laid in the 1930s live on in the work of today's 21st century creatives like award-winning hotel designer Guy Oliver. This was a suite that was created in 2012 so there's definitely more than a reference to the 1930s but it's brought up to date. You've got to have mini bars and wi-fi and all the technology all of that's hidden within the space but the space also has to feel impactful and impressive when you walk in. A tricky brief even with a whopping budget. A big suite might cost a million pounds but what I quite like is it's a lot of original items so you don't have to spend that amount of money because you're reusing authentic elements. They've got this inventory of wonderful furniture and original art that you can mix into the interior and there were people who lived in the hotel and when I was working there I would have to go and not only present to the owners and the management team but there'd be these funny experiences where I would go and present an interior scheme to a guest who was a long-term guest in the hotel and they obviously want to have a say in the room that they're living in. The pedigree of the hotel's long-term guests reached new heights after the outbreak of World War II. Many of the royal families in Europe found themselves booted out of their home so if you're going to go into exile in London you might as well do it in style. King Harkon of Norway came reassured I'm sure by the causary which was a kind of Scandinavian smorgasbord available in the restaurant. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands came there. The King of Greece was there and it became a kind of high-class refugee centre for the crowned heads of Europe. And with it crawling with royalty things got a little confusing on reception. There's a famous story of someone phoning and saying may I speak to the king to which the switchboard operator said of course but which king? But there's one royal prince for whom the hotel remains not only home from home but his actual birthplace. King Peter of Yugoslavia set up at Claridge's during the war because the regent in Yugoslavia had been deposed. Yugoslavia was plunged into chaos. While he was there he fell in love with Princess Alexandra of Greece. These royal exiles are married in 1944 and Peter will never go back to his home country. The monarchy of course will be abolished by the post-war communist government and Alexandra and Peter are absorbing the news of that sitting in their suite in Claridge. So Brook Street became their home and a place to start a family and in suite 212 in the summer of 1945 an heir to their abolished kingdom came into the world. It is a kind of state occasion and under the bed is a box of earth from Yugoslavia. The king and queen of Yugoslavia wanted him to be born in Yugoslavia so apparently Winston Churchill granted some law that meant suite 212 became Yugoslavian soil for the duration of her labor but there's no documentation of that and that's one of the wonderful things about hotels like Claridge's is there's all sorts of amazing stories and nobody really knows if they're true. So out he comes eight and a half pounds of Slavic royalty born on Slavic soil in room 212 and for 55 years this was the only bit of Yugoslavia that crown prince Alexander had ever been to but once the monarchy was restored in Serbia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia a ceremony took place in suite 212 giving Alexander his citizenship back. I am convinced that never again our country is very emotional. So in a way you know the story has a kind of rather lovely circularity about it. Anyhow I'm going home. Coming up the hotel hits the headlines. They had an orgy which is very naughty. What happens at stays at Claridge's. And the 70s hails an old school charm. As a young six or seven year old well it felt like home. Old television sets, rather rickety furniture, frayed curtains. Sitting proudly in the heart of London's most exclusive enclave surrounded by designer boutiques from coveted fashion houses is a truly British hotel with a glint in its eye. Oh to be a fly on the wall you would see amazing events and some incidents which you really wish you hadn't. It's a kind of space where where history happens. It's in every brick of the building. There really is a sense of it through the decor, through the atmosphere. It is tangible and it's obviously been a deliberate policy to almost create history you know for the future. You can't fake that history being layered on top of itself like it's a big cake and they know that and that is why they charge you so much. Even the most renowned of all British icons Winston Churchill made the hotel home. Just two months after celebrating the allied victory Churchill was ousted from Downing Street in the 1945 election. Suddenly homeless in London Churchill's wife Clementine took a shine to the hotel and they moved in that night. It was while staying there that he received the news that Japan had surrendered and thus World War II had come to an end. So he was there on VJ night with some of his old cabinet colleagues listening to that news with tears in their eyes. It was a wet night and Churchill went out onto the street and there were these three women standing under an umbrella in the rain. They were the only people on the street they gave him a kind of little cheer as he walked down the road but that was the end of Churchill's war there on the steps of Claridge's in the drizzle. As the world moved on so did fashion and the hotel found itself shunned by the trendsetters. After the war it really kind of languishes. It missed out on Beatlemania, it missed out on the 60s, it missed out on Twiggy, it missed out on Jean Shrimpton, David Bailey, it missed out on the 70s, it missed out on the Rolling Stones. The hotel may not have drawn these headline-hitting household names but old-timers like veteran bright young things for Chavarro and Georgia Sitwell helped to keep it afloat. Claridge's has a warming feeling for me because it's about family and memories of growing up. It reminds me of my grandparents because all I knew at that time was that they had a room there. So Claridge's was their London home. So as a young six or seven-year-old it was extremely exciting and I remember it vividly. The shabby chic hotel decor was right up their street. When I first went there in the 1970s I was surprised. Well it felt like home. Old television sets, rather rickety furniture, frayed curtains and I think that generation of people who haven't spruced up their homes felt at home at Claridge's because it hadn't spruced itself up either. It wasn't until the late 90s when the hotel was sold that a large injection of cash meant it could finally call in the decorators on a grand scale. A Michelin-starred celebrity chef was also approached and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's opened to rave reviews. Finally the in-crowd returned. Kate Moss hosted her 30th birthday party and the title of her party was The Beautiful and the Damned. So everybody rocked up in the most elaborate, wonderful kind of art deco, sequins and stars. The party went off like an absolute bang. Everybody loved it. The paps were waiting outside and then afterwards there's something of a bit of a legend that a little off shot of people from the party hired out two of the suites and had an orgy which is very naughty but Claridge's never said anything about it and it's still a bit of a mystery. I think that you could definitely say what happens at Claridge's stays at Claridge's. That puts it right back on the front pages and it's that kind of edgy, naughty, cool that makes people really want to go there. From its beginnings as a posh boarding house in Mayfair's early days to reinventing itself as an art deco icon and a royal refuge, the hotel has proved that beneath its British stiff upper lip lies a roguish grin and a penchant for fun. The hotel is truly special. There is only one Claridge's. It is a landmark of grandeur that will be there forever. To ensure its future, huge investment is being pumped into the hotel to create a five-story mega basement under the original art deco ballroom. While it continues to operate upstairs, downstairs spas, swimming pools and much more are being constructed, once again creating hotel history in spades. They will just do these crazy things so I think Claridge's will be in rude health for a long time to come. I think if they tried to close down Claridge's there would be riots. It's so much a part of the city, it's so much a part of the DNA of Londoners. I think what it does really well is it keeps reinventing cool and I fully imagine that it will continue to do this for future generations.