The Ritz, London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly in London
The Ritz, London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly in London, England. A symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. It is a member of the international consortium, The Leading Hotels of the World. Opened by Swiss hotelier César Ritz in May 1906, eight years after opening the Hôtel Ritz Paris, after a weak beginning the hotel began to gain popularity towards the end of World War I, and became popular with politicians, socialites, writers and actors of the day in particular. David Lloyd George held a number of secret meetings at the Ritz during the latter half of the war, and it was at the Ritz that he made the decision to intervene on behalf of Greece against Turkey. Noël Coward was a notable diner at the Ritz in the 1920s and 1930s. Owned by the Bracewell-Smith family for a period until 1976, The Ellerman Group of Companies purchased the hotel for £80 million from Trafalgar House in October 1995. They spent eight years and £40 million restoring it to its former grandeur. In 2002, it became the first hotel to receive a Royal warrant from HRH the Prince of Wales for its banquet and catering services. The exterior is both structurally and visually Franco-American in style with little trace of English architecture, and is heavily influenced by the architectural traditions of Paris. The facade on the Piccadilly side is roughly 231 feet (70 m), 115 feet (35 m) on the Arlington Street side, and 87 feet (27 m) on the Green Park side. At the corners of the pavilion roofs of the Ritz are large green copper lions, the emblem of the hotel. The interior was designed mainly by London and Paris based designers in the Louis XVI style, which is consistent throughout. Author Marcus Binney describes the great suite of ground-floor rooms as "one of the all-time masterpieces of hotel architecture" and compares it to a royal palace with its "grand vistas, lofty proportions and sparkling chandeliers".
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Location: The Ritz, London is a Grade II listed 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly in London
Photo credit: © Rik Hamilton / Alamy / Afripics
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