Inside Claridge’s: the gossip and grandeur of the grand dame is revealed in a new book

Few London grand dames can boast the heady opulence of Claridge’s. A heritage of lavish lunches and gorgeous get-togethers surrounded by icy-chic Art Deco elegance, the Mayfair bolthole and ‘annex to Buckingham Palace’ is the sort of storied-walled rendezvous that rightly gives the Mayfair idyll its reputation of refined splendour. Its royal roots date as far back as 1860, when the French Empress Eugenié, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte III, would claim it as her ‘winter quarters’ of choice, and invite Queen Victoria to visit. Later, by 1947, so many rulers were staying at the hotel that when one diplomat called up and asked to speak with ‘the King’, the telephone operator coyly replied, ‘Certainly sir, but which one?’…

Meanwhile its Hollywood-coded reputation of lofty hedonism was forever immortalised when American actor Spencer Tracey noted, ‘Not that I intend to die, but when I do, I don't want to go to heaven, I want to go to Claridge's’. Further proving to be an ample source of material for glamour, grandeur and gossip, it’s why the hotel has finally poured all of these tantalising tales into its very own tome, ‘Claridge’s: Queen of Hotels, Hotel of Kings’ – and it’s a real page-turner…

A biography of royals, rockstars and ravishingly well-heeled revellers, the new book, written by historian Martin Williams, is wrapped in that famed Claridge’s aquamarine hue, and encased in over a century of style and prestige. Taking a starring role? Tatler, which has spent decades covering both the antics and elegances that unfurl in these hallowed halls of Brook Street.

First, some legendary covers. In 1911, the Countess of Lytton, dressed up as the ballerina Anna Pavlova, graced the cover of The Bystander, bringing a dose of familiar glamour to the pages. More than two decades later, in 1935, one edition of The Tatler featured Mr Walter Chrisham, Lady Plunkett and the Hon David Herbert dressed as ‘the Bacchanals of Olympus’ at an Olympian ball, held at Claridge's. Also in attendance at this rather grand affair was Lady Isabel Manners, Mrs Bryan Guinness and Lady Caroline Paget, all of whom dressed up as ‘gods, goddesses, nymphs and fauns’, as per the theme, while Lady Mary Lygon came as Amphitrite, arriving in a chariot shaped like a sea shell. Elsewhere, couturière Elsa Schiaparelli came as a ‘dramatic Stella’ – an ensemble she designed herself, naturally.

In 1915, an enigmatic Tatler writer known simply as ‘Eve’ called upon readers to do Good Works at Claridge's, benefitting those most impacted by the First World War. ‘Come to Claridge’s to help the Stricken and Starving - and to See Some of the most Beautiful Women in the World’, she wrote of a charity event held in the hotel foyer and restaurant.

The decades passed, but the connection between Tatler and Claridge's endured. Tina Brown, the editor known for propelling Tatler into an epoch of opulence in the early 1980s, spent much time at the address towards the end of the Thatcher era. It was at Claridge's that she profiled the flamboyant Baron Enrico di Portanova and his wife, Sandra, who had stayed for such long stints they’d become near-permanent residents. ‘I adore the old-world atmosphere,’ Sandra told Brown, ‘And since we’ve changed the curtains from grey to salmon, it looks so much fresher.’

Nicholas Coleridge, associate editor of Tatler around this time and later editorial director of Condé Nast, also met the Portanovases, the new book reveals. Sharing a memory of a dinner party the Baron had hosted, for which he claimed proudly he had cooked himself, Coleridge recalls the ‘hotel had prepared the most marvellous dishes of spaghetti, and he [the Baron] opened a giant tin of caviar, deeper and wider than you’ve ever seen and he stood above it and poured it all in a heap. Then, assisted by a Claridge’s footman, he mixed it with a fork into the pasta, which was served with green salad [...] We all had to go along with this complete fantasy.’

But of course, this special relationship is not just a relic of the past. Besides reporting on the many ultra-exclusive events (like the coveted Christmas tree reveals in collaboration with the likes of Dior, Louis Vuitton and Burberry; delectable new menu launches; and private bashes hosted by the great and the glamorous) and coming right up into the 2020s, one page reveals the tale of a particular party I should be careful to comment on: the somewhat frowned-upon (but still thoroughly fabulous) bash the Conde Nast-ians threw when leaving Hanover Square’s Vogue House, the former home of the media empire between 1958 and 2024.

The Claridge's team - a mere stone's throw away on the neighbouring Brook Street - had caught wind. That afternoon, as the tome reports, they wheeled over a silver trolley full of bubbles which was remarkably hoisted up to the higher floors via a bucket and rope to get into the hands of ‘somebody rather famous’. Outside and on the ground floor - as the book suggests - ‘[we] had a party on the doorstep for the writers, editors and photographers,’ says the utterly wonderful Maybourne group PR-doyenne, Paula Fitzherbert, who had announced - to much joyous furore - earlier in the day that, ‘We’re coming with champagne!’.

But now the celebrations are back at Claridge’s itself, and last week a soirée in the marble-slick ballroom was on the cards for ‘Queen of Hotels’ as it toasted the launch of this greater-than-fiction, real-life novella. The likes of Dame Joan Collins, Christopher Kane, Harris Reed and Zenouska Mowatt joined the festivities as dancers swung from crescent moon stands; jazz bands slid their trumpets with flapper-era frivolity; and towers of burgers, fries and caviar luges lined the stomachs of the most rowdy merrymakers. As Collins puts it herself, ‘At Claridge’s you just feel like you’re part of a warm and happy family’. Quite right. And that extended family will continue to fill the pages of Tatler for many more years to come.