The Kimpton Fitzroy London is a historic five-star hotel, located on Russell Square,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. From its opening in 1900 until 2018, it was known as the Hotel Russell.

History

The Hotel Russell was built in 1898 by the architect

Charles Fitzroy Doll Charles Fitzroy Doll JP, FRIBA (1850–1929), was an English architect of the Victorian and Edwardian eras who specialised in designing hotels. He also designed the dining room on the RMS ''Titanic'', which was based on his design for that in t ...

and opened in 1900. It is distinctively clad in decorative ''thé-au-lait'' ("tea with milk")

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

and was based on the Château de Madrid near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Its restaurant, which was originally named after the architect but is now called Neptune, is said to be almost identical to the RMS ''Titanic'''s dining room, which he designed.

Also in the hotel is "Lucky George", a bronze dragon on the second floor stairs. An identical copy was on the ''Titanic''. Known for its palatial design, the hotel's fixtures and fittings included an ornate Pyrenean marble staircase and an interior sunken garden. Each room was fitted with an en-suite bathroom, a great innovation at the time. A sister hotel by the same architect, the Imperial Hotel, was also built on Russell Square, but it was demolished in the late 1960s. The life-size statues of four Queens - Elizabeth I, Mary II, Anne and Victoria - above the main entrance were the work of the sculptor

Henry Charles Fehr Henry Charles Fehr Royal British Society of Sculptors, FRBS (4 November 1867 – 13 May 1940) was a British monumental and architectural sculptor active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He produced several notable public scu ...

. The façade, by Doll, incorporates the

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

of the world's nations (as they were in 1898) in the spandrels of the first floor. The hotel was one of the few that were not taken over by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It survived the war largely intact, but the magnificent

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

that stood on the roof was badly damaged in an air raid of 1941 and not replaced. The

Russell Group The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public university, public research university, research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its memb ...

of universities is named after Hotel Russell, where the first informal meetings took place. On 16 April 2018, the hotel reopened as The Principal London after an extensive renovation by the

Principal Hotel Company Principal Hotel Company is a British hotel and conference venue operator headquartered in Harrogate, England. History Principal Hotel Company advertises that it was established in 1898, as that is the year the oldest hotel in its chain, Kimpton F ...

. In July 2018, the Principal Hotel Company sold 12 hotels in its portfolio (including The Principal London) to Covivio Hotels, which then licensed their management to

InterContinental Hotels Group InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the F ...

. The hotel was renamed the Kimpton Fitzroy London on 24 October 2018. The interior features contemporary design by lead designer Tara Bernerd & Partners. The bedrooms are decorated with a design by British textile artist Kit Miles.

In popular culture

The Hotel Russell is mentioned in

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

's musical ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

'' during the song "The Journey to the Heaviside Layer". The Hotel Russell is used as a location in the 1981 miniseries ''

Kessler Kessler or Keßler (in German) may refer to: * Kessler (automobile), an American automobile made 1921–1922 * Kessler (name), people named Kessler * ''Kessler'' (TV series), a British television series from 1981 * Kessler, Ohio, an unincorporat ...

''.

Gallery

File:Fehr-russell-2.JPG, Statues of British Queens on the Hotel Russell by

File:Marble Staircase Hotel Russell.jpg, The Pyrenean Marble Staircase File:Kimpton Fitzroy London Entryway.jpg, Kimpton Fitzroy London Entryway File:Kimpton Fitzroy London Front Desk.jpg, Kimpton Fitzroy London Front Desk File:Kimpton Fitzroy London Guest Room.jpg, Kimpton Fitzroy London Guest Room

References

External links

* {{Hotels in London Kimpton hotels Hotels in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Buildings and structures in Bloomsbury Hotels established in 1900 Hotel buildings completed in 1900

History

In popular culture

Gallery

See also

References

External links