The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by Carte's family for over a century. The Savoy was the first hotel in Britain to introduce electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the lavishly furnished rooms, constant hot and cold running water and many other innovations.
Carte hired César Ritz as its manager and Auguste Escoffier as its chef de cuisine. Together they established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel service, entertainment and elegant dining that attracted royalty and other distinguished guests and diners.
The hotel became Carte's most successful venture. Its bands, Savoy Orpheans and the Savoy Havana Band, became famous, and other entertainers (who were also often guests) included George Gershwin, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Noël Coward. Other famous guests have included Edward VII, Oscar Wilde, Enrico Caruso, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, Harry Truman, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Laurence Olivier, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, the Beatles and many others. Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel.
The hotel is managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. It has been called "London's most famous hotel".Prynn, Jonathan. "Savoy 'up for sale' as Saudi owner's billions dwindle" , 16 April 2009 It has 267 guest rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Thames Embankment. The hotel is a Grade II listed building.
History
Site
The House of Savoy was the ruling family of Savoy, descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne"), who became count in 1032. The name Sabaudia evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie"). Peter (or Piers or Piero) Count of Savoy (d. 1268) was the maternal uncle of Eleanor of Provence, queen-consort of Henry III of England, and came with her to London.
King Henry III made Peter Earl of Richmond and, in 1246, gave him the land between the Strand and the River Thames, where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263. Peter gave the palace and the manor of the Savoy to the Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard, and the palace became the "Great Hospital of St Bernard de Monte Jovis in Savoy". The manor was subsequently purchased by Queen Eleanor, who gave the site to her second son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster.Thornbury, Walter. "The Savoy", Old and New London, Vol. 3 (1878), British History Online, University of London, accessed 6 October 2015 Edmund's great-granddaughter, Blanche, inherited the site. Her husband, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, built a magnificent palace that was burned down by Wat Tyler's followers in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.Peck, Tom. "Savoy refurb: rather fine, guests agree", The Independent, 11 October 2010, accessed 6 October 2015 King Richard II was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne, and so a main target of the rebels.
About 1505, Henry VII planned a great hospital for "pouer, nedie people", leaving money and instructions for it in his will. The hospital was built in the palace ruins and licensed in 1512. Drawings show that it was a magnificent building, with a dormitory, dining hall and three chapels. Henry VII's hospital lasted for two centuries, but suffered from poor management. The sixteenth-century historian Stow noted that the hospital was being misused by "loiterers, vagabonds and strumpets". In 1702, the hospital was dissolved, and the hospital buildings were used for other purposes. Part of the old palace was used as a military prison in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the old hospital buildings were demolished, and new buildings were erected.Somerville (1960), p. 89
In 1864, a fire burned everything except the stone walls and the Savoy Chapel. The property sat empty until the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880, to build the Savoy Theatre specifically for the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, of which he was the producer."Savoy: Hotel History", Fairmont.com, accessed 15 December 2018
Early years Having seen the opulence of American hotels during his many visits to the United States, Carte decided to build a luxury hotel in Britain, to attract a foreign clientele as well as British visitors to London. Opened in 1889, the hotel was designed by architect Thomas Edward Collcutt, who also designed the Wigmore Hall. Carte chose the name "Savoy" to commemorate the history of the property. His investors in the venture were, in addition to his relatives, Carl Rosa, George Grossmith, François Cellier, George Edwardes, Augustus Harris and Fanny Ronalds. His friend, the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, was a shareholder and sat on the board of directors.Ainger, p. 281
The hotel was built on a plot of land, next to the Savoy Theatre, that Carte originally purchased to house an electrical generator for the theatre (built in 1881), which was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The construction of the hotel took five years and was financed by the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, particularly from The Mikado."The Savoy", InsideGuide to London, accessed 5 October 2015 It was the first hotel in Britain lit by electric lights and the first with electric lifts."The Savoy London", Historic Hotels Worldwide, accessed 7 October 2015; "The Savoy – One Hundred Firsts", Hospitality.net, 10 August 2009, accessed 30 April 2023 Other innovations included en-suite marble bathrooms with hot and cold running water in most of its 268 rooms; glazed brickwork designed to prevent London's smoke-laden air from spoiling the external walls; and its own artesian well.Richardson, Tim. "Out of Time", The Telegraph, 26 January 2002, accessed 7 October 2015
At first the Savoy did well, but within six months of opening, the hotel was losing money. The board of directors instructed Carte to replace the management team, headed by W. Hardwicke as manager and M. Charpentier as chef de cuisine.Barr, p. 40 As manager he engaged César Ritz, later the founder of the Ritz Hotel; Ritz brought in the chef Auguste Escoffier and the maître d'hôtel Louis EchenardBarr, pp. 41–43 and put together what he described as "a little army of hotel men for the conquest of London"; Escoffier recruited French cooks and reorganised the kitchens. The Savoy under Ritz and his partners soon attracted distinguished and wealthy clientele, headed by the Prince of Wales. Aristocratic women, hitherto unaccustomed to dining in public, were now "seen in full regalia in the Savoy dining and supper rooms".Ashburner, F. "Escoffier, Georges Auguste (1846–1935)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2006, accessed 7 October 2015 The hotel became such a financial success that Carte bought other luxury hotels."Richard D'Oyly Carte and the Dynasty He Founded", Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, Boise State University, 30 August 2011, accessed 7 October 2015; see also The Times, 21 July 1896, p. 4; and 20 December 1919, p. 18
At the same time, Ritz continued to manage his own hotels and businesses in Europe. Nellie Melba, among others, noted that Ritz was less focused on the Savoy.Augustin, Andreas. "César Ritz: The Savoy – 1889–1900", The Most Famous Hotels in the World, accessed 4 September 2013 In 1897, Ritz and his partners were dismissed from the Savoy. Ritz and Echenard were implicated in the disappearance of over £3,400 (equivalent to £ at ), of wine and spirits, and Escoffier had been receiving gifts from the Savoy's suppliers.Brigid, Allen. "Ritz, César Jean (1850–1918)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, May 2006, accessed 13 October 2015 In a 1938 biography of her husband, Ritz's widow maintained that he resigned and that Escoffier, Echenard, and other senior employees resigned with him.Ritz, p. 228 This fiction was perpetuated for many years, with the consent of the Savoy company. In fact, however, after a damning report by the company's auditors and the advice of the prominent lawyer, Sir Edward Carson, that it was the board's "imperative duty to dismiss the manager and the chef", Carte handed Ritz, Escoffier and Echenard letters of dismissal:
Ritz threatened to sue the hotel company for wrongful dismissal, but was evidently dissuaded by Escoffier, who felt that their interests would be better served by keeping the scandal quiet.James, pp. 170 and 212 It was not until 1985 that the facts became public knowledge.James, p. 170 and 212–213"Savoy's epic scandal", The Observer, 19 May 1985, p. 2
The Savoy group purchased Simpson's-in-the-Strand in 1898. The next year, Carte engaged M. Joseph, proprietor of the Marivaux Restaurant in Paris, as his new maître d'hôtelThe Daily Mirror, 10 June 1904, p. 16 and in 1900, appointed George Reeves-Smith as the next managing director of the Savoy hotel group. Reeves-Smith served in this capacity until 1941.Jaine, Tom. "Smith, Sir George Reeves- (1863–1941)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 September 2009
After Richard D'Oyly Carte died in 1901, his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte became chairman of the Savoy hotel group in 1903 and supervised the expansion of the hotel and the modernisation of the other hotels in the group's ownership, such as Claridge's.When Claridge's needed a new chef in 1904, Carte secured the services of François Bonnaure, formerly chef at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The press speculated on how much Carte must have paid to persuade Bonnaure to join him, and compared the younger Carte's audacity with his father's coup in securing Paris's most famous maître d'hôtel, M. Joseph, a few years earlier. Daily Mirror, 10 June 1904, p. 16. The expansion of the hotel in 1903–04 included new east and west wings, and moving the main entrance to Savoy Court off the Strand. The additions pioneered the use of steel frame construction in London.Jackson, Alastair A. "The Development of Steel Framed Buildings in Britain 1880–1905", Construction History, Vol. 14. (1998), pp. 34 and 37 At that time, the hotel added Britain's first serviced apartments, with access to all the hotel's amenities. Many famous figures became residents, such as Sarah Bernhardt and Sir Thomas Dewar, some of whom lived there for decades.Mather, Victoria. "The Savoy hotel, London, reopens after £220 million restoration". The Telegraph, 8 October 2010"The Savoy – One Hundred Firsts", Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, accessed 8 October 2015 Spectacular parties were held at the hotel. For example, in 1905 the American millionaire George A. Kessler hosted a "Gondola Party" where the central courtyard was flooded to a depth of four feet, and scenery was erected around the walls. Costumed staff and guests re-created Venice. The two dozen guests dined in an enormous gondola. After dinner, Enrico Caruso sang, and a baby elephant brought in a five-foot birthday cake.