8 | Hospitality Today | Summer 2018
HOTEL
FOCUS
The New Royal Lancaster
This issue’s ‘hotel focus’ is on the Royal
Lancaster London hotel, which reopened
at the end of last year after an £80 million
renovation, marking its new incarnation with
a return to its original ‘Royal’ name after
years as ‘Lancaster London’. In February,
the Sunday Times awarded Royal Lancaster
London a place in its ‘Top 100 Companies to
Work For’ for the third consecutive year.
The showpiece of the lobby is a grand
sweeping staircase made of 300 square
meters of white Carrara marble which
wraps around to the first floor (below, right).
The hotel overlooking Hyde Park, an iconic
novelty in the Sixties that featured in
films including The Italian Job, has been
completely transformed both internally
and externally, including an opulent new
entrance. The concept and design was
created by London-based Studio Proof. The hotel opened in 1967 and its name can
be traced to the House of Lancaster – the
victorious faction during the Wars of the
Roses, which was later absorbed by the current
British monarchy. To honour Queen Victoria,
one of the grand entrances to the Kensington
Gardens was named ‘Lancaster Gate’. Starting
from the end of the 19th century, the name
spread to the nearby area (previously known
as ‘Upper Hyde Park Gardens’). The local
underground station on the Central Line
opened in 1900, and was named after the area.
The entire frontage of the hotel was remodelled
and the