The Berkeley is a five-star deluxe hotel, located in

Wilton Place Wilton Place is a street in Knightsbridge, London. It runs north–south between Knightsbridge to the north and Wilton Crescent to the south. It is home to The Berkeley, a five star hotel, and St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. The Berkeley sta ...

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The hotel is owned and managed by

Maybourne Hotel Group Maybourne Hotel Group is a Qatari-owned British luxury hotel operator, which owns and manages The Berkeley, Claridge's and The Connaught hotels in London. History and Background The Maybourne Hotel Group, formerly The Savoy Hotel Group has been ...

, which also owns

Claridge's Claridge's is a 5-star hotel at the corner of Brook Street and Davies Street in Mayfair, London. It has long-standing connections with royalty that have led to it sometimes being referred to as an "annexe to Buckingham Palace". Claridge's Hote ...

and The Connaught in

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

, London.

History

1800s and early 1900s

Located on the corner of

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

and Berkeley Street, it was the base for drivers of

mail coach A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. M ...

es travelling to the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

and hence named the

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

coffee house A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non- ...

. As a result, it started to expand and became a hotel for travellers both to and from London who were travelling on the mail coach services. With the coming of the railways, in 1897 the building was formally renamed The Berkeley Hotel, a location trusted by the parents of

debutante A debutante, also spelled débutante, ( ; from french: débutante , "female beginner") or deb is a young woman of aristocratic or upper-class family background who has reached maturity and, as a new adult, is presented to society at a formal " ...

s to keep an eye on the reputation of their daughters. In 1900,

Richard D'Oyly Carte Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establi ...

bought the hotel, and his family remained in control for the next century. In the 1920s The Berkeley became one of the first London hotels with

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, and in the 1930s

double glazing Insulating glass (IG) consists of two or more glass window panes separated by a space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope. A window with insulating glass is commonly known as double glazing or a double-paned window, ...

. Ferraro, the ''

maitre d'hotel Maitre or Maître is a French-language title, associated with lawyers. It is also a surname, equivalent to the English "Master" Notable people with the surname include: *Jean-Philippe Maitre (1949–2006), Swiss politician *Romain Maitre (born 19 ...

'' of the Berkeley Grill, was a fixture of London

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, c ...

in the 1920s and 1930s and appears in several novels of the period, such as

Dennis Wheatley Dennis Yeats Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was a British writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series ...

's ''Three Inquisitive People'', written 1932 but not published till 1940. He also is mentioned in

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeev ...

's 1931 novel, ''Big Money'', some of which takes place at the Berkeley.

Late 1900s and 2000s

In 1972, the hotel moved to a new building designed by British architect

Brian O'Rorke Edward Brian O'Rorke (1901 – 1974) was a New-Zealand-born British architect and interior designer. Early life and education Brian O'Rorke was born at Fendalton, Christchurch, New Zealand, on 14 June 1901, the third son of Edward Dennis O'Ror ...

on Wilton Place, Knightsbridge. Incorporating restored features from the original building, it is also unique in that it is London's only hotel with a rooftop

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

. Although the

Savoy Hotel 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 188 ...

in the Strand also has a pool open to the sky, that pool is located in an atrium on the third floor. In the 1980s, Madame Somoza, had become a frequent customer at the restaurant and even Queen Elizabeth used to lunch with friends. In the winter months Health Club & Spa transforms its roof-top terrace into a pine-filled forest cinema. Hotel guests and visitors alike are treated to winter classics on the big screen while nestling between warm down-feather

Moncler Moncler S.p.A. is an Italian luxury fashion house specialized in ready-to-wear outerwear headquartered in Milan, Italy. Since its start as a down jacket boutique, Moncler has expanded to design vests, raincoats, windbreakers, knitwear, leather ...

blankets and hot water bottles. In 2005, The Savoy Group, including The Berkeley, was sold to a group of Irish investors. The sale of The Savoy Group led to the Savoy Hotel and

Savoy Theatre The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy Pala ...

being sold off and the remaining properties, including the Berkeley, being renamed as the Maybourne Hotel Group. Recently released plans for developments at The Berkeley show that the swimming pool on the roof will be closed and a new spa will be opened Bamford Hay Barn Spa, and additional rooms will be added to the roof area.

Restaurants and bars

In 1998,

Pierre Koffmann Pierre Koffmann (born 21 August 1948) is a French professional chef. He was one of a handful of chefs in the United Kingdom to have been awarded the coveted three Michelin stars at his restaurant La Tante Claire in London. Until December 2016 he ...

moved his

Michelin starred The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...

La Tante Claire La Tante Claire (''The Aunt Claire'') was a restaurant in Chelsea, London, which opened in 1977 and 1998. Owned and operated by Pierre Koffmann, it gained three Michelin stars in 1983, and held all three until the restaurant moved premises in 199 ...

" from the area of

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

to the hotel, serving his signature dish of pig's trotter stuffed with

morel mushroom ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales (division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges wi ...

s. The original Chelsea site was taken over by

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a tot ...

, who opened the signature

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, also known as Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road, is the signature restaurant owned and operated by Gordon Ramsay, located at Royal Hospital Road, in Chelsea, London, Chelsea, London. It opened in 1998 and was Ramsay ...

there. Replaced at the hotel in 2003 by the Gordon Ramsay-run "Boxwood Café", after its closure Koffmann returned in April 2010 to open the signature "Koffmann's" restaurant at the hotel. Koffmann's at The Berkeley closed on 31 December 2016.

Marcus Wareing Marcus Wareing (born 29 June 1970) is an English celebrity chef who is currently Chef-Owner of the one-Michelin-starred restaurant Marcus (formerly Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley) in Knightsbridge. Since 2014, Wareing has been a judge on '' Maste ...

heads the Michelin 1 star-rated "Marcus", which in 2010 replaced Gordon Ramsay's Michelin-starred Pétrus restaurant. The Collins Room is home to the Pret a Portea, and serves afternoon tea. The Blue Bar was designed by

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

architect David Collins, and is decorated entirely in Lutyens Blue, a colour he created in honour of

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

. In 2004, an album entitled ''The Blue Bar'' was released through Warner Dance, featuring a mix of ambient techno and electronica regularly played in the bar.

References

External links