The Ritz London

The Ritz London stands at 150 Piccadilly in the City of Westminster. Built on the site of the Old White Horse Cellar, a famous coaching inn, it opened in 1906. The building is neoclassical in the Louis XVI style, designed to resemble a Parisian apartment block. Its architects were Charles Mewès and Arthur Davis, with engineering by Sven Bylander. The exterior shows Franco-American influences, with green copper lions at the corners of the pavilion roofs. The hotel became a symbol of luxury and high society soon after opening. Politicians, writers and actors gathered here during and after the First World War. David Lloyd George held secret meetings at the Ritz, and Noël Coward dined here in the 1920s and 1930s. The Palm Court hosts the famous afternoon tea, served in cream-coloured Louis XVI surroundings. The Rivoli Bar, designed in Art Deco style, resembles the bar on the Orient Express. Inside, the ground-floor rooms form a grand suite praised as a masterpiece of hotel architecture. The Marie Antoinette Suite features boiserie, while William Kent House contains private dining rooms. Every bedroom once had a working fireplace and a heated towel bar. The hotel installed large lead-lined tanks on its roof to provide hot and cold water. The interior was designed by London and Paris-based craftsmen in the Louis XVI style.