SAVOY HOTEL THE STRAND, LONDON
IT IS NOW TEN YEARS since the Savoy was renovated and totally restored to its former majesty.
The Savoy Grill is back in place, as is the River Room, now named the Kaspar dining room, and the celebrated Front Lobby. All the rooms and suites have been made new again. It is always interesting to describe the menus and the décor but this hotel is so unique because of its long history, the huge number of famous guests, the list of historical events that happened here, that I would like to write about these fascinating facts.
In 1884, the construction of the Savoy began using the profits of the Savoy Theatre next door. The artist James Whistler sketched the scaffolding, returning in May 1896 to stay at the hotel. His series of inspired etchings made from his Savoyards window captured the essence of London at the close of that century.
Claude Monet's passion for the Thames led him to paint it in all-weather conditions and times of day---but almost always from the same vantage point---his room on the fifth floor of the Savoy. When the light changed, he would put one canvas aside and turn his attention to another, and so on as the day advanced. He stayed at the hotel on three occasions between 1899 and 1901. His painting of Waterloo Bridge painted from the hotel in 1900 is now in Dublin.
Just before leaving for South Africa, early in 1898, businessman Joel Wolff gave a dinner party for 14 at the hotel. One guest cancelled at the last minute but the host balked at the superstition that whoever left the table earliest would be destined to die first. A few weeks later, Wolff was shot dead in his office in Johannesburg. Since then, if there happened to be 13 guests at a party, a member of staff would be recruited to join them. This, however, was not always convenient or practical, so Kaspar the Cat was commissioned by the Savoy from art-deco designer Basil Ionides in 1926. His brief was to design a three foot-high cat, which he carved from a single piece of plane tree.
Christened Kaspar, he now lives on a high shelf in the Pianoforte Room, with his back to a mirror and is only removed if a party of thirteen is lunching or dining at the Savoy. He is then placed on the fourteenth chair with a napkin before him, changed as he is served each course of the meal.
The Savoy Court, leading to the Strand entrance of the Savoy, is the first and only road in Britain down which traffic travels on the righthand side.
The Duc D'Orleans, claimant to the French throne, was the first guest for whom the Savoy obligingly stamped the fleur-de-lis crest on the crockery and linen he used.
The first "water party" in 1905 was also the hotel's most elaborate, known as the famous Gondola Dinner. Host George Kessler, a Wall Street financier, entertained his guests in a recreated Venice. The courtyard was made watertight and flooded to a depth of four feet, scenery erected around the walls, gondolas built, costumes designed and guests dined in Gondolas on the Grand Canal. Caruso was there as a singing gondolier.
A member of the Strauss family was the first artist hired by the Savoy to provide music while the guests dined. The idea, said Ritz, was to "cover the silence which hangs like a pall over an English dining table."
The Savoy was the site of the first verbal altercation between Lord Queensbury and Oscar Wilde.
On 29th May, 1913 tradition was overturned when two diners at the Savoy got up to dance to the string orchestra. As others followed suit, a space was cleared between the tables and social tradition was overturned. Dining to music was not new; however, dining and dancing had always been entirely separate activities. Over the next four decades, the Savoy became established for dinner and dancing.
Peach Melba was originally dreamed up by Escoffier to finish a dinner celebrating Dame Nellie Melba's performance as Elsa in Lohengrin. Melba Toast was also named in honour of Dame Nellie, although in this case, devised by Madame Ritz with Escoffier.
The Pilgrim's Society of Great Britain was formed at the Savoy in 1902 on the eve of King Edward's coronation by Sir William Goode and his American friends, George Wilson and Lindsay Russell. They decided to form a club "composed of Americans like ourselves, who have made the pilgrimage over here and have received and appreciated British hospitality and there will be English members who have made the pilgrimage and discovered that we are not all Red Indians." Soon after, a sister society, The Pilgrims of the United States, was formed.
One of the most distinguished dishwashers to have graced the Savoy's kitchens was Guccio Gucci. As a young Italian in London at the turn of the century, he was so impressed with the glamour and wealth of the guests that he returned to Florence and started his renowned luxury leather goods company.
Omelette Arnold Bennett, named after novelist Arnold Bennett, who immortalised the inner sanctum of the Savoy management in his novel, The Imperial Palace, was actually invented by the author himself and is still served in the Savoy Grill today.
Austrian opera singer Richard Tauber signed his first contract to sing in England on the back of a Savoy restaurant menu.
Marconi made the first wireless broadcast to the United States from the Savoy.
The two Savoy bands, Bert Ralton and his Havana Band and the Savoy Orpheans, were the first to broadcast regularly from any hotel.
George Gershwin gave "Rhapsody in Blue" its first English premiere at the Savoy.
Silent-screen heart-throb George Galli disappeared mysteriously after checking out of the Savoy and was found 35 years later, having joined a Belgian Monastery.
"Charleston Blues," a new dance in foxtrot tempo was publicly demonstrated for the first time in England by Mr and Mrs. Victor Silvester in the ballroom.
The first rider in the Savoy ballroom was silent film star Tom Mix and his famous horse, Steed who made a surprise appearance at a banquet in their honour.
The first fireproof eiderdown was provided for actor Lionel Barrymore, who had a habit of reading in bed while he chain-smoked.
The Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavolva first danced in cabaret at the Savoy.
Rudolf Valentino's first public appearances at the Savoy was when he danced at the tea dansant afternoons.
During the Second World War, when a bomb which fell on the Strand and knocked down the leader of the Savoy's Dance Band, Noel Coward stepped to the piano and soothed spirits by singing his own compositions.
The hotel was hit twice in one night by high explosive bombs believed to be aimed at Waterloo Station. The ARP men would come out and sweep firebombs off the roof. The one that blew out the entire riverside front of the Savoy was a landmine. It came down on a parachute and landed in a tree outside. Despite these attacks, the Savoy never once closed its doors and learnt after the war that the hotel was one of the ten top targets for the Luftwaffe.
Film star Elizabeth Taylor spent her honeymoon with first husband Nicky Hilton in a suite at the Savoy.
Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh first laid eyes on each other at the Savoy.
In a gesture unheard of in Royal Family Archives, the Queen Mother stood to applaud Maria Callas when she arrived at the Savoy after a triumphant opening in Tosca.
The first wild animal to be brought to a party at the Savoy was Billy Butlin's pet leopard who came for a cocktail party to celebrate Smart's Circus.
The Savoy hosted the first night party for Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific.
The Savoy hosted the launch ball for the epic film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
The first restaurant guests to order porridge and pea sandwiches were John, Paul, George and Ringo, aka The Beatles, when they came to call on Bob Dyan in 1965.
Ready Steady Go hostess, Cathy McGowan, was asked to leave the Savoy when she turned up in a trouser suit. In 1967 actress Geraldine Chaplin was also refused admission to dine when she turned up in a suit by Pierre Cardin. A trouser-clad Twiggy retired to the ladies room to change into a miniskirt and was allowed to stay. By 1969, this rule was relaxed.
Bob Dylan stayed at the Savoy and was refused entrance to the restaurants as he never wore a tie.
The day after 15-year-old musical comedy star, Tommy Steele left school, his mother took him to the Savoy, hoping he would get a job as a pageboy. Tommy took one look at the white gloves and decided to sail to New York the next day. He was later to have his wedding reception at the Savoy.
The first celebrity flood at the Savoy happened when Elton John let his bath overflow.
During the Second World War, American war correspondents spent a lot of time at the Savoy. Titch's Bar became their unofficial headquarters and they remained steadfast clients of the hotel, even after 50 rooms were damaged by a bomb. A Government minister was heard complaining that England's shortage of whisky could be directly attributed to the habits of these foreign journalists.
When the Second World War's blackout ended in 1945, the Savoy was the first public building to switch on its lights.
A letter from Czechoslavakia addressed to "The Manager of the Greatest Hotel in London" was forwarded by the Post Office with the note -- try the Savoy Hotel WC2.
In 1953, HM Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Ball was held at the Savoy.
Approximately 3,000 private luncheons, dinners and receptions are held at the Savoy during an average year.
The Savoy operates its own private electricity generating system, Strand Power Co., supporting all lifts and services in an emergency.
The Savoy was the first hotel to establish a hotel management-training scheme. "Trained at the Savoy" has become a byword for quality in the industry. Many of the students were given experience for a year before returning to home duties. Others were given the opportunity to attend courses at technical college.
Eight china patterns are used at the Savoy with Wedgwood for room service. Royal Doulton in the restaurant, Worcester in the Gilbert and Sullivan Room. Currently there are 230,000 pieces of china and glass in use with a nine-month supply reserve stock. All are made exclusively to the Savoy's own design.