Scribd
Upload
120 views3 pages

The Ritz

The Ritz Hotel in London is a historic 5-star hotel known for its luxury and elegance. It was opened in 1906 by Swiss hotelier César Ritz and became popular among politicians, socialites, writers and actors in the early 20th century. The hotel has 111 rooms and 25 suites and is still considered one of the most prestigious hotels in the world today.

Uploaded by

gritchard4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
120 views3 pages

The Ritz

The Ritz Hotel in London is a historic 5-star hotel known for its luxury and elegance. It was opened in 1906 by Swiss hotelier César Ritz and became popular among politicians, socialites, writers and actors in the early 20th century. The hotel has 111 rooms and 25 suites and is still considered one of the most prestigious hotels in the world today.

Uploaded by

gritchard4
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

The Ritz Hotel, London

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

The Ritz London

Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

General information
Location 150 Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom

Opened 24 May 1906

Owner Abdulhadi Mana Al-Hajri[1]

Design and construction

Architect Charles Mewès

Arthur Davis

Developer César Ritz

Other information

Number of rooms 111

Number of suites 23

Number of restaurants 3

Website

www.theritzlondon.com

The Ritz London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel in Piccadilly, London, England. A


symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and
best known.[2] The Ritz has become so associated with luxury and elegance that the
word "ritzy" has entered the English language to denote something that is ostentatiously
stylish, fancy, or fashionable.[3][4][5][6]
The hotel was opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in 1906, eight years after he
established the Hôtel Ritz Paris. It began to gain popularity towards the end of World
War I, with politicians, socialites, writers and actors in particular. David Lloyd
George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz in the latter half of the war, and it
was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against
Turkey. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s.
Owned by the Bracewell Smith family until 1976, David and Frederick
Barclay purchased the hotel for £80 million in 1995. They spent eight years and £40
million restoring it to its former grandeur. In 2002, it became the first hotel to receive
a Royal warrant from the Prince of Wales for its banquet and catering services. In 2020,
it was sold to a Qatari investor.[1]
The exterior is structurally and visually Franco-American in style, with little trace of
English architecture, and heavily influenced by the architectural traditions of Paris. The
facade on the Piccadilly side is 231 feet (70 m), 115 feet (35 m) on the Arlington Street
side, and 87 feet (27 m) on the Green Park side. At the corners of the pavilion roofs of
the Ritz are large green copper lions, the emblem of the hotel. The Ritz has 111 rooms
and 25 suites.
The Ritz Club is a casino in the basement of the hotel, occupying the space which was
formerly the Ritz Bar and Grill. It offers roulette, black jack, baccarat, and poker, as well
as slot machines.
The interior was designed mainly by London and Paris based designers in the Louis XVI
style. Marcus Binney describes the great suite of ground-floor rooms as "one of the all-
time masterpieces of hotel architecture" and compares it to a royal palace with its
"grand vistas, lofty proportions and sparkling chandeliers".
The Ritz's most widely known facility is the Palm Court, which hosts the famous "Tea at
the Ritz". It is an opulently decorated cream-coloured Louis XVI setting, with panelled
mirrors in gilt bronze frames. The hotel has six private dining rooms, the Marie
Antoinette Suite, with its boiserie, and the rooms within the Grade II* listed William Kent
House. The Rivoli Bar, built in the Art Deco style, was designed in 2001 by interior
designer Tessa Kennedy to resemble the bar on the Orient Express.

You might also like