Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel

Last updated

Kimpton Fitzroy London
Hotel Russell on Russell Square, London - April 2007.jpg
Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel
Hotel chain Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
General information
Location Russell Square, London, UK
Coordinates 51°31′22″N0°07′30″W / 51.5227°N 0.1250°W / 51.5227; -0.1250
Opened1900;124 years ago (1900)
Owner Covivio Hotels
Management InterContinental Hotels Group
Design and construction
Architect(s) Charles Fitzroy Doll
Other information
Number of rooms334
Website
www.kimptonfitzroylondon.com
The hotel seen from Woburn Place Hotel Russell Feb 2023 02.jpg
The hotel seen from Woburn Place

The Kimpton Fitzroy London is a historic five-star hotel, located on Russell Square, Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. From its opening in 1900 until 2018, it was known as the Hotel Russell.

Contents

History

"Lucky George" Lucky George Hotel Russell.jpg
"Lucky George"

The Hotel Russell was built in 1898 by the architect Charles Fitzroy Doll and opened in 1900. It is distinctively clad in decorative thé-au-lait ("tea with milk") terracotta and was based on the Château de Madrid near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

Its restaurant, which was originally named after the architect but is now called Neptune, is said to be almost identical to the RMS Titanic's dining room, which he designed. [1] Also in the hotel is "Lucky George", a bronze dragon on the second floor stairs. An identical copy was on the Titanic. [1]

Known for its palatial design, the hotel's fixtures and fittings included an ornate Pyrenean marble staircase and an interior sunken garden. Each room was fitted with an en-suite bathroom, a great innovation at the time. [2] A sister hotel by the same architect, the Imperial Hotel, was also built on Russell Square, but it was demolished in the late 1960s. [3]

The life-size statues of four Queens - Elizabeth I, Mary II, Anne and Victoria [4] - above the main entrance were the work of the sculptor Henry Charles Fehr. The façade, by Doll, incorporates the coats of arms of the world's nations (as they were in 1898) in the spandrels of the first floor. [5]

The hotel was one of the few that were not taken over by the War Office during the Second World War. It survived the war largely intact, but the magnificent dome that stood on the roof was badly damaged in an air raid of 1941 and not replaced. [5]

Campaign for Better Transport, then known as 'Transport 2000' was launched on 6 February 1973 with a press conference at the Hotel Russell, London.

The Russell Group of universities is named after Hotel Russell, where the first informal meetings took place. [6]

On 16 April 2018, the hotel reopened as The Principal London after an extensive renovation by the Principal Hotel Company. [1] In July 2018, the Principal Hotel Company sold 12 hotels in its portfolio (including The Principal London) to Covivio Hotels, which then licensed their management to InterContinental Hotels Group. [7] The hotel was renamed the Kimpton Fitzroy London on 24 October 2018. [8]

The interior features contemporary design by lead designer Tara Bernerd & Partners. The bedrooms are decorated with a design by British textile artist Kit Miles.

The Hotel Russell is mentioned in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats during the song "The Journey to the Heaviside Layer".

The Hotel Russell is used as a location in the 1981 miniseries Kessler .

The Kimpton Fitzroy London appeared on Top Chef: World All-Stars as the accommodation of the season's contestants. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Square</span> Large garden square in London, United Kingdom

Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row. Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Senate Office Building</span> American government building

The Russell Senate Office Building is the oldest of the United States Senate office buildings. Designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, it was built from 1903 to 1908 and opened in 1909. It was named for former Senator Richard Russell Jr. from Georgia in 1972. It occupies a site north of the Capitol bounded by Constitution Avenue, First Street, Delaware Avenue, and C Street N.E.

The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC is a San Francisco, California, based hotel and restaurant brand owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queens Gardens, Brisbane</span> Heritage listed park in Brisbane, Queensland

Queens Gardens is a heritage-listed park located on a city block between George Street, Elizabeth Street and William Street in the Brisbane CBD, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1905 to 1990s. It is also known as Executive Gardens and St Johns Church Reserve. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

Novotel is a French midscale hotel brand owned by Accor. Created in 1967 in France, the company grew into what became the Accor group in 1983, and Novotel remained a pillar brand of Accor's multi-brand strategy. Novotel manages 559 hotels in 65 countries (2021). Since 2010, Novotel also includes the apartment hotel brand Novotel Suites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land Administration Building</span> Heritage building in Australia

Land Administration Building is a heritage-listed former government building at 142 George Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Thomas Pye and built from 1899 to 1905 by Arthur Midson for the Queensland Government. It was also known as the Executive Building or (now) the Old Executive Building. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimpton Clocktower Hotel</span> Historic commercial building in Manchester, England

The Kimpton Clocktower Hotel is a historic commercial building, now a hotel, at the corner of Oxford Street and Whitworth Street in Manchester, England. The building was originally constructed in segments from 1891 to 1932 as the Refuge Assurance Building.

Grand Staircase of the <i>Titanic</i> Staircase on the Titanic

The set of large ornate staircases in the first-class section of the Titanic, and RMS Olympic ; sometimes collectively referred to as the Grand Staircase, is one of the most recognizable features of the British transatlantic ocean liner which sank on her maiden voyage in 1912 after a collision with an iceberg. Reflecting and reinforcing the staircase's iconic status is its frequent, and prominent, portrayal in media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilford Street</span>

Guilford Street is a road in Bloomsbury in central London, England, designated the B502. From Russell Square it extends east-northeast to Gray's Inn Road. Note that it is not spelt the same way as Guildford in Surrey. It is, in fact, named after Frederick North, Lord North, a former Prime Minister, who was also 2nd Earl of Guilford (sic).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reynolds Building</span> United States historic place

The Reynolds Building is a 314-foot (96 m) Art Deco skyscraper at 51 East 4th Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was completed in 1929 and has 21 floors with 313,996 square feet (29,171.2 m2) of space. For much of its history the building served as headquarters for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. After a sale to PMC Property Group in 2014, the building went through an estimated $60 million in renovations. In March 2016, The Residences @ the R.J. Reynolds Building, apartments located on the top 11 floors, opened. The first six floors opened as the Kimpton Cardinal Hotel in April. Katharine Brasserie & Bar, a restaurant named for Katharine Smith Reynolds, followed in May.

<i>Titanic</i> Belfast Visitor attraction in Northern Ireland

TitanicBelfast is a visitor attraction opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast's maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city's Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built. It tells the stories of the Titanic, which hit an iceberg and sank during her maiden voyage in 1912, and her sister ships RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic. The building contains more than 12,000 square metres (130,000 sq ft) of floor space, most of which is occupied by a series of galleries, private function rooms and community facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Swan Hotel, Alnwick</span> Pub in Alnwick, Northumberland, UK

The White Swan Hotel is a hotel in the middle of the historic market town of Alnwick, Northumberland, England. The hotel is a 300-year-old coaching inn and is a Grade II listed building. Its most distinctive feature is the Olympic Suite, a large room furnished with interior decorations from RMS Olympic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Fitzroy Doll</span> English architect

Charles Fitzroy Doll JP, FRIBA (1850–1929), was an English architect of the Victorian and Edwardian eras who specialised in designing hotels. He also designed the dining room on the RMS Titanic, which was based on his design for that in the Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury.

Henry Charles Fehr FRBS was a British monumental and architectural sculptor active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He produced several notable public sculptures, war memorials and works for civic buildings. These included architectural sculptures for Middlesex Guildhall, for Wakefield County Hall and for Cardiff City Hall. Throughout the 1920s, Fehr created a number of war memorials, often featuring detailed bronze statuary, for British towns and cities. Notable examples of Fehr's war memorials include those at Leeds, Colchester, Keighley and at Burton upon Trent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Taylor (architect)</span> British architect

Russell Taylor is a British architect who has designed and worked on a variety of building types, designing in the style known as New Classical Architecture, which follows the Classical tradition. He formed Russell Taylor Architects in 2005 and has offices in London and Cornwall.

First-class facilities of the <i>Titanic</i>

Reflecting the White Star Line's reputation for superior comfort and luxury, the Titanic had extensive facilities for First Class passengers which were widely regarded as the finest of her time. In contrast to her French and German competitors, whose interiors were extravagantly decorated and heavily adorned, the Titanic emphasized comfort and subdued elegance more in the style of a British country manor or luxury hotel. Titanic's enormous size enabled her to feature unusually large rooms, all equipped with the latest technologies for comfort, hygiene, and convenience. Staterooms and public spaces recreated historic styles with a painstaking attention to detail and accuracy. There was a wide range of recreational and sporting facilities in addition which provided ample opportunity for amusement during a voyage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B&O Railroad Headquarters Building</span> Mixed-use: Office, Hotel and Restaurant in Maryland, U.S.

The B&O Railroad Headquarters Building is a historic office building at 2 North Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a 13-story, 220-foot structure designed by the Boston and Baltimore-based architectural firm of Parker & Thomas, and constructed in 1904–1906.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial Hotel, London</span> Hotel on Russell Square, London

The Imperial Hotel is a hotel on the east side of Russell Square, a branch of Imperial London Hotels. - a chain of budget tourist hotels with several properties in the Bloomsbury area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criterion Hotel, Rockhampton</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Criterion Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at 150 Quay Street, Rockhampton, Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by James Flint and built from 1889 to 1890. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beacon Grand Hotel</span>

The Beacon Grand is a historic 416-room hotel in San Francisco, California, opened in 1928 as the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. It is located at the corner of Sutter and Powell Streets adjacent to Union Square.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "'Titanic' hotel to celebrate £85m relaunch in Bloomsbury". Evening Standard. 15 February 2018.
  2. "Decorative Stones in the Hotel Russell, Russell Square" (PDF). University College London. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  3. Hobhouse, Hermione (1972). Lost London ([1st American ed.] ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p.  207. ISBN   9780395135211.
  4. "Statues of Four Queens: Elizabeth, Mary, Anne, and Victoria". Victorian Web. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Hotel Russell, Russell Square London". waymarking.com. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  6. "Four universities join elite Russell Group". BBC News. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  7. "Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel Opening Late October". www.hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  8. "Kimpton Makes Its UK Debut With the Opening of Kimpton Fitzroy London". www.hotelnewsresource.com. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  9. Livesay, Brandon (17 March 2023). "See Inside the 'Top Chef' Hotel Where the Cheftestants Are Living for Season 20 in London". People . Retrieved 7 April 2023.