The Ritz London opened in 1906, designed by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in collaboration with architect Charles Mewès, who modelled the building on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The Louis XVI French architecture, the gilded Palm Court, the long gallery — these things are not decorative gestures. They are what the hotel is. More than any property in London, The Ritz has maintained a singular aesthetic identity across a century of ownership changes, refurbishments, and the general entropy that time applies to grand hotels.
The 136 rooms and suites face either Piccadilly or Green Park. The park-facing rooms — the Park View Suites and the celebrated Royal Suite — are the best in the house: afternoon light through the tall windows, London's most beautiful park as a private garden, the palace roofline visible in the distance. The Louis XVI-style interiors are more formal than contemporary luxury hotels, which is either the reason to choose The Ritz or the reason not to. There is no middle position on the decorative vocabulary of 18th-century French court furniture; you either read it as the pinnacle of hotel design or as something that requires updating. The Ritz's guests, emphatically, read it the first way.
The Ritz Restaurant is one of London's most beautiful dining rooms — the painted ceiling, the mirrored walls, the garden view — and holds a Michelin star that it has earned at consistent quality for years. Afternoon tea in the Palm Court is the most famous afternoon tea in the world: booked months in advance, served beneath the extraordinary gilded ceiling, and accompanied by the finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries that have been the template for every serious afternoon tea in every serious hotel since the tradition began here. The Rivoli Bar is more informal and better than it needs to be.
The service standard operates at a formality that is genuine rather than performative. Jackets are required in the public rooms after 6pm — a rule that The Ritz enforces with the certainty of an institution that has no interest in relaxing it. The butler service on suites is among the most comprehensive in London, and the concierge team manages the expectations of guests who expect the impossible as a matter of course. The Ritz fitness centre is small; the hotel is not for wellness tourism. It is for people who understand what The Ritz means and want the experience that the name has carried since 1906.
The Ritz's William Kent Suite — the hotel's private dining room overlooking Green Park — is the most cinematically appropriate proposal setting in London for those who believe that maximum impact justifies maximum preparation. The hotel's events team handles the staging with the professionalism of an institution that has arranged hundreds of proposals. If the setting fails to produce the intended result, no other London hotel will do better.
The park-facing suites are among London's most romantic hotel rooms, and the Palm Court afternoon tea — booked for the first full afternoon of a stay — is one of those genuinely London experiences that lives outside of trend. The Ritz honeymoon is specific: it suits couples who want grandeur and formality and the sense that they are participating in a tradition. It does not suit couples who want contemporary design or a spa. Know which you are before you book.
Rates from £960/night. Check availability at The Ritz London.
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