The Ritz London

The world's greatest hotel, as conceived by the world's greatest hotelier. For over a century The Ritz has been the benchmark by which other hotels are measured. A London landmark at 150 Piccadilly, The Ritz has been home to the great and the good, the intelligentsia, the glitterati and thousands of discerning guests since 1906.

The site now occupied by The Ritz at 150 Piccadilly has previously been home to several similar businesses. The Old White Horse Cellar was once one of the most famous coaching inns in England, later the site was occupied by the Bath Hotel and then the Walsingham House Hotel, which was demolished to make way for The Ritz.

Construction of The Ritz began in 1905 and the building was completed remarkably quickly, in large part due to the efforts of Swedish engineer Sven Bylander who designed its steel frame, something of a rarity in European buildings at the time.

The actual design of the hotel is the work of architects Charles Mewès and Arthur Davis. Mewès, a Frenchman and London born Davis had worked with César Ritz before on the Hotel Ritz in Paris, and The Carlton in London. For The Ritz London they drew up a stunning French chateau-style masterpiece with a wealth of clever details; light wells allowed rooms with no outside windows natural light, projecting dormer windows and tall chimneys broke the skyline. Some of the details are less functional; the copper lions on the corner of the roof are purely decorative.