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Café Royal to become five-star hotel in £90m lease
Terry Kirby, Evening Stanadard28.08.08
The historic Café Royal in Regent Street, where Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley were once regulars in the Grill Room, is to be transformed into a 160-bedroom five-star hotel under a multi-million pound deal being finalised today.
The hotel is expected to be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics and would be in pole position to capitalise on the huge demand for rooms in central London.
It could also act as a suitably prestigious base for bodies such as the International Olympic Committee.
Home to the National Sporting Club for many years as well as being a venue for banquets and conferences, the Café has been leased by the Crown Estate to Isreal-based Alrov Group, which sepcialises in developing landmark buildings and has a number of properties in Israel and Europe.
The 125-year, £90million lease deal was first mooted earlier this year and has now been officially signed.
The hotel will be the centrepiece of the massive Quadrant development by the Crown Estate which is designed to revitalise and open up the southern end of Regent Street and create a 44,000 square foot public space.
Much of it will be traffic free and, after Trafalgar Square, it will be the largest new public space created in London for more than 30 years.
The development site will include the Regent Palace Hotel as well as the existing Quadrant Arcade and has been described as the "most ambitious development ever undertaken on Regent Street".
It will also include 16,000 square feet of shopping space, with many famous names expected to be keen on a base in Regent Street which is already home to big names such as Apple and the recently opened Banana Republic.
The Georgian thoroughfare was designed by John Nash in the early 1800s and named after the then Prince Regent, later George IV. Completed in 1825 and originally called New Street, all of Regent Street, which was built to a unified design is now Grade II listed.
The public rooms of the Café Royal, which include the Grill Room, are all Grade I listed and will be preserved under the development scheme.
The new hotel will also include a spa, gym and restuarant, expected to be presided over by one of London's leading chefs.
Georgi Akirov, Managing Director of Alrov's luxury hotel business said: "We look forward to delivering a world class hotel in this exciting location, in time for the 2012 London Olympics."
"Café Royal occupies a unique place in London's history, culture and heritage. Alrov has a proud history of developing projects, within landmark buildings around the world, which respect and build on the cultural heritage of the site."
The Café Royal, currently in the hands of the Stanwood Hotel group, was established in the 1860s by Daniel Thevenon, a bankrupt French wine merchant who fled his home country to try his hand in London.
By the 1890s it had become one of the centres of fashionable London, and frequented by such figures as Wilde, as well as the artist James McNeill Whistler and Max Beerbohm, the caricaturist.
Since 1951, it has been home to the National Sporting Club, which stages boxing matches and other events, usually attended by a host of sporting stars and celebrities.
The Crown Estate owns almost all of Regent Street and has been anxious to develop the southern end near Piccadilly Circus, which has not prospered as much as the Oxford Circus end.
Although this is Alrov's first major venture in Britain, the company owns property in France, Switzerland and the Netherlands and is one of Israel's top groups.
The haunt of intellectuals, artists and royalty
• The Café Royal was established in 1865 by Parisian wine merchant Daniel Nicholas ThÈvenon, who was fleeing bankruptcy in his home country.
• In 1894 it was the scene of an infamous murder when night porter Marius Martin was found with two bullets in his head.
• Oscar Wilde had his only civil meeting with the Marquis of Queensberry there and also lunched with Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie). Wilde later brought a libel case against the Marquis which backfired and led to his own prosecution and imprisonment for gross indecency.
• The café's domino room was called the "haunt of intellect and daring" by Max Beerbohm.
• Regular customers included W B Yeats, Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, George Bernard Shaw, Paul Verlaine, Walter Sickert, Augustus John and Whistler. The wit and artist Will Rothenstein drank vermouth there.
• The café was frequented by Edward VIII and George VI in the early part of the 20th century. An entry in the waiter's instruction book ran: "Prince of Wales, Duke of York lunch frequently. Always plain food and no fuss. Call head waiter and notify the manager."
• The National Sporting Club's boxing activities found a permanent home at the Café Royal in 1955.
• In 2003, the body of a 47-year-old Ukrainian cleaner was found in a broom cupboard there.
Reader views (4)
this is the venue where i learned the ropes of the banqueting world... it's so iconic i will never forget it. i worked here for nearly 2 years.... it will allways be in my memories how we ran 600 people banquets, 400 people boxing dinners... it was fantastic... rest in peace Cafe Royal.....
- Marcel Kraan, steenwijk, holland
How wonderful. I met my husband at the Cafe Royal. Some of the rooms, especially on the first floor have superb painted ceilings. The cellar was always a wine lovers paradise and held some wonderful lunches and dinners. The Grill Room under the watchful eye of Ambrosini was the venue of a few of my birthday parties. Lord Forte was in love with this place.
- Joy, Barnsley
Great idea but exactly will happen to the shops around it on regent street? What will the development around it be like? Will the arcade be part of the hotel?
- Mara, london
Good idea. It's a bit of a waste of it at the moment - Balls and Corporate events not withstanding. It looks tired and is in a superb position with an historic name to build on. Also would be a superb wedding venue if given a facelift.
- Squiz, Islington
