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Hotel Deluxe

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Butlers and bellboys, champagne and shoeshine -

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to understand luxury, look no further than the five-star hotel.

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Hotels are probably the ultimate urban symbol of wealth and power.

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They tend to represent the finest that we can produce

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in terms of an architectural environment.

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No other place so perfectly reflects and defines

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our changing ideas of comfort, design, service...and glamour.

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There's always an energy around a hotel,

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there's always a buzz about a hotel,

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because most people are in there for an occasion.

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Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.

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Luxury hotels have always been about exceeding expectations.

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When people were going to them for the first time,

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they expected to enter a different world.

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Here we are.

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Once, it was only hotels that had en-suite bathrooms,

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now we ALL aspire to them.

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The need for innovation in hotels

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is the insatiable appetite of the customer for what's new

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and what's on the button.

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The precise details of luxury may change, but the definition doesn't.

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Luxury hotels are only for the few. THEIR story is a very select one.

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The luxury hotel is around 150 years old -

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a product of the age of empire, when Britain ruled the world,

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and the aristocracy ruled Britain.

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Their clients were a tiny, wealthy elite

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who had huge houses run by servants,

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so that's what they expected from a hotel.

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A luxury-hotel experience

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is all about taking out the worry,

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the hassle and the problems of life.

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For example, you could ring the bell

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and somebody would come and draw your bath.

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You would perhaps have one or two or three butlers there -

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one to unpack your bags, another to make sure that they took everything away.

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Titled travellers, Victorian business barons,

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American millionaires -

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this high society crowd could afford to pay for what the hotels offered.

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The grand hotels of the past exuded total glamour

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for a very exclusive, small group of people

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who travelled from one grand hotel to another and often did a circuit.

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So they'd be in Paris, Monte Carlo, Cannes...

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And...a wonderful lifestyle.

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Um, but it was for just a few, cos travel was just for a few.

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The grand designs of hotels mimicked the importance of their guests

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to give the nobility and millionaires a suitable setting.

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They are built to look like palaces.

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They are built to look like a new, new version of a palace.

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They were often called

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"The Royal..." this, "The Imperial..." that.

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So it's a palace for a plutocrat rather than a king.

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One could live in grand style in a large building

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with an exceptionally high standard of service -

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every whim catered to, constant amusement,

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good food available at any hour of the day or night.

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By the 20th century,

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the names of our grandest hotels were famous -

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The Savoy, The Connaught,

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The Ritz and The Dorchester, The Grosvenor, Claridge's -

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these were strung like pearls around Mayfair and the Strand.

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They'd be your home away from home.

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Somewhere respectable where good people, nice people,

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could go and could meet...

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..in the first era that was really...lacked chaperones.

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When young ladies hadn't been able to really be seen in a public place.

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They were an area of freedom.

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They were also, of course, immensely more comfortable

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than any of the aristocracy's creaking stately homes.

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I mean, you had...hot water.

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A lift! Here it was known as an ascending room.

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From their earliest days, these hotels were more innovative

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than almost any other buildings of their time.

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As much as hotels might have an aesthetic

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and be remembered for their aesthetic,

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in practice, they're highly refined machines.

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They were really ahead of their time, they were really...

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not just laboratories for life, but laboratories for technology.

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They were the places that first tested intercom to the front desk,

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telephone, even lightbulbs.

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All mod-cons were necessary for the smooth running

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of the deluxe hotel,

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which in turn, made life more comfortable for the guests.

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Technology made the incredible cleanliness of hotels

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tremendously important and much easier, much simpler.

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When there was running water, there were electric sockets

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that would support vacuum cleaners and other modern appliances.

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Boys, try and not be so noisy tonight, won't you?

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All right.

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MACHINE WHIRRS

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The grand hotels were little microcosms.

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They had their own laundries, printing presses...

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The Savoy even had its own electricity plant!

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An entire world was within their walls

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and the staff were a fundamental part of the machinery.

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Well-trained, at your service, and three to every guest.

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Sorry, Madam.

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But because those who eat the honey don't NEED to meet the bees,

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most of the staff were hidden way.

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There would be entirely separate communication corridors

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and stairways, so that staff were NEVER seen,

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unless they were actually required for a particular service.

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CLATTERING AND SHOUTING

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This notion of keeping the hotel free of any evidence of work

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was important to the notion of leisure

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that was embodied in the design of these buildings,

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and the notion that people should be entertained the whole time.

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Work was not part of that equation at all

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and so it needed to be hidden, to be concealed.

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These hotels did not allow just ANYBODY in,

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they were private clubs where rich women felt protected

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and rich men could meet in convivial surroundings.

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In the derelict remains of The Cavendish in St James's,

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a former guest recalled the hotel's role in its heyday.

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What secrets this small garden could tell.

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And all the prime ministers were here at one time or another,

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'even Sir Anthony Eden as a young man.

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It was here that The Times newspaper

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was sold by Lord Astor to the rising Lord Northcliffe.

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That was only one of the big deals that went on

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in the discreet surroundings of The Cavendish.

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Discretion was all part of excellent service.

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Staff were told to turn a blind eye to anything, or anyone

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their guests might care to do.

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The bedrooms, you can well imagine, would have some stories to tell.

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One, at any rate, can be told about this room,

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because it was here on the notorious tiger-skin rug

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that the passionate love affair

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between the lady novelist Elinor Glyn and the Marquis Curzon,

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viceroy of India no less, took place. Here...

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before this fireplace on the rug.

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Oh, no, there IS a connection between hotels and scandal.

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I think it's because hotels are this strange space

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between public and private space,

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they're somehow outside of the normal rules of society.

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If there is a "do not disturb" sign on the door,

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whatever you're taking, you must not knock or open or go in.

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At the Hotel Meurice in Paris,

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Salvador Dali drew on the walls of his room

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while his pet ocelots pooed on the carpets.

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At the Savoy, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas

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carried on their illicit affair.

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Things go on in hotels that you would never know,

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and it's the job of the staff never to let on.

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Throughout the early 20th century, the private lives of luxury hotels

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remained invisible to the public eye.

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With the growing popularity of cinema in the '30s and '40s, however,

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they began to be revealed.

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ARCHIVE: Boys, I want to see every eyelid snap.

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ALL: Yes, Sir!

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Hollywood exploited the grand hotel,

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for glamorous settings, drama and fun.

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It found character in the ranks.

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ALL: Good morning, Mr Hammerstein.

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There was the spectacle of the hotel lobby and ballroom.

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And the rubbing together of the classes

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fed the American Dream with working boy often winning rich-girl guest.

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He could name mine any time!

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Hollywood also staged lavish cabaret on a grand scale.

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Gradually, the grand hotels began to ape these films.

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They began to put on cabaret

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based on the fictional version of themselves.

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It's the witching hour of midnight. We're watching the dancers

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trip the light fantastic to Billy Gerhardy and his band.

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To pay for this,

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the wealthy public was admitted to swell the numbers.

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It made financial sense.

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And hotels began to have a more public face.

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The Great Room in the Grosvenor House

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used to be an ice-skating rink originally

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That's what I was told.

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The hotels were the places that had incredible shows.

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I guess you could argue somewhere like Vegas

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is a more tacky, but modern version of the grand hotels.

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A lot of these hotels did that when it was part of their attraction.

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A hotel is a business, and if a business doesn't generate cash

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and make profit, it can't survive.

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You have to get a return on investment

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so it's all about square footage and making sure it works for you.

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These grand hotels had huge public space.

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And these spaces were ideal venues for the partying '60s,

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when Britain had plenty to celebrate.

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ARCHIVE: 'If you have money, you don't expect to fight your way into the Dorchester,

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'unless you're so famous you can't move for your army of fans.'

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This was when luxury hotels established themselves

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as focus points for public occasions.

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It was the era of the gala dinner, the charity ball,

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the award ceremony.

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The great and the good from all walks of life

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mingled in the spotlights.

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It was like Olympic rings of social circles

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and then, as now, royalty and the aristocracy

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were fascinated to meet the theatocracy.

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It was a marriage made in heaven.

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The hotels all sparkled and everyone was a star for the night.

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There is a great quote from Michael Caine

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talking about when you first arrive

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it's like you were the first person on stage.

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It's that sense of being walked to your table, the sense of occasion,

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You probably put your best suit on or your little black dress.

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It's an exciting evening for you. The anticipation is there.

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'Good evening from the Dorchester Hotel in London

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'on television's biggest social occasion...'

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Something which runs parallel with the hotel industry is the theatre.

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I always sort of feel that when you have a lunch or dinner service,

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it is kind of like getting ready for curtain up.

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I think cinematic, actually, more than theatre.

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Done well, they can be completely immersive.

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Done badly, they can be immersive as well!

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You're in someone else's world.

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You don't have control over that.

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You are part of somebody else's narrative for better or worse.

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TV cameras and press photographers were granted greater access

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to record this parade of prestige.

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The irresistible rise of the media spread the glamorous images

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far and wide, but they were missing a far more interesting story

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that was playing at the grand hotels.

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Backstage it wasn't Great Expectations, it was Bleak House!

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There was never any money spent on staff feeding or locker rooms.

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There was a lot of fighting that went on, fist-fights and so on.

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A lot of theft.

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Back of house, it was completely ghastly.

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When I worked at the Berkeley,

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we had to take all our clothes off, apart from our bra and knickers,

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lock them away, put on our whites,

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and we were searched before we left the hotel,

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in case we had stolen any food.

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I think it says a lot about what the economic situation was.

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Staff could be dismissed with a day's notice.

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Wages were below average.

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Waiters and kitchen staff worked long, hard hours.

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The kitchen was like rowing on a galleon.

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People shouting, the heat was huge, it was enormous.

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It was thoroughly unpleasant.

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For years, this story had remained hidden.

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Staff put up with it as part of the job.

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Then, in 1963, the BBC were allowed into a luxury hotel

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to make a documentary.

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Going in behind the velvet curtain,

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they produced what must be one of the first examples of the TV expose.

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352. OK.

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-NARRATOR:

-'Service trolleys like this can travel many corridor miles per day.

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'It's as if this place was a hospital, where the staff are the doctors

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'dispensing charm and tranquillisers.'

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How are you this morning? Fine, thank you.

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Come along, my dear, breakfast is here.

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Coming!

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'Many floors below the splendour are the quarters of the staff.

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'There's something archaic, almost medieval about the contrast.'

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This was the enlightened '60s.

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A time when trade unions were demanding a fairer deal for workers.

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The documentary questioned the whole idea of the luxury hotel.

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Is this yesterday's culture?

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The diners here, the food they're eating, the music they're hearing,

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the staff that serve them,

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seem sometimes to exist only in a timeless international limbo.

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It's hardly changed for 40 years,

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despite the fact that after the war, many people were asking,

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just how long CAN all this last?

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I remember people came back from the war,

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wanting to put things right for ever.

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What are those extraordinary

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Edwardian and Victorian mock palaces doing here?

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They don't make any economic sense and they're just a great affront.

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Aesthetically, they are always interesting.

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They tend to represent the finest that we can produce

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in terms of an architectural environment.

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Morally, they are another matter.

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They're there, as William Morris said,

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to cater for the swinish luxury of the rich.

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The film was shot at the Savoy

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but it could have been any grand hotel of the time.

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The management tried to get an injunction,

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but failed, and the programme went out,

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pulling no punches in showing the gulf between the rich and the rest.

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Here, a client may pay £3,000 for a ball.

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A washer-up keeps his family on this sum for seven years.

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Could this mean that the luxury hotel will flounder?

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The hoteliers themselves seem to think

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that however society may change, there will still be people

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who are able to buy what they are selling.

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In the Herald newspaper the next day, its TV critic wrote,

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"This cool-eyed documentary would have coaxed

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"revolutionary sentiments out of the mildest of country rectors."

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But they were all underestimating the powerful pull of luxury.

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This was the beginning of the consumer age,

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and rather than wanting to destroy the palaces of pleasure,

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lots of people aspired to stay in them.

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An awful lot of people were going to hotels for the first time.

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People who weren't used to being served

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and didn't know quite how to respond to it.

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Here we are, Room 1520.

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I've put you right next to the lift. It's very convenient.

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-IN POSH VOICE:

-Oh, good, that is kind of you.

-Here we are.

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These were the days when many people considered any hotel to be "posh".

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Meaning not for the likes of us.

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If you think of the psychology of the doorman in his uniform,

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the epaulettes, the big hat,

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he towers over the door of the taxi or car,

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and you step out, it's intimidation. The big entrance.

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And if you're not confident or used to it, this is very threatening.

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Good night, madam.

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Often, they were being served by people who, on the face of it,

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were miles smarter than they were,

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so the whole thing must have seemed rather intimidating.

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They were very bad, historically, about being snobby about the guests.

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Your luggage, madam. I believe I've got everything.

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Not good enough. They're not for us.

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Who are you to make that judgment?

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Thank you, madam.

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Fred, him bringing in our luggage!

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Looked more as though he was delivering the groceries!

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I bet you tipped him!

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-Only half a crown!

-Half a crown for five minutes' work?!

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That's £2.10 an hour!

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I only get 10 bob an hour, and I'm a first-class tradesman,

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with seven years' apprenticeship!

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Yes, but you have to do things right when you stay in a place like this.

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Tell him to take the ruddy lot down again!

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I'll bring it all up for a tanner!

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Oh, don't be mean, love. I mean, after all, we've got to pay,

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so we might as well enjoy it.

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I am! I'm running the hot water, and I'm not putting the plug in!

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I've a good mind to let it run all night!

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The ultimate testament to the pull of posh was to be found

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hundreds of miles away

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in the proletarian, egalitarian Soviet empire.

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The old spa town of Carlsbad, in communist Czechoslovakia,

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had grand hotels of the most palatial kind,

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left over from its Imperial past.

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In the '60s, the Communist Party saw them

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not as a places the workers could aspire to,

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but as a way of tempting foreigners to come and spend their money.

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Foreigners like Alan Whicker.

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Austrian emperors, German Kaisers, Russian Tsars,

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all stroll through these quiet colonnades.

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The local hotel registration books read like a roll-call of the famous.

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And, remarkably, the place has changed very little

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since those illustrious guests strolled this way.

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Take this hotel,

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the largest social centre in central Europe, with 800 rooms.

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Today, it's casting seductive eyes towards those banished aristocrats

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who happen to have hard currency.

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And much is being done to lure them

0:22:350:22:37

back to the patrician surroundings that they once knew so well.

0:22:370:22:40

But perhaps to salve its communist conscience, the Hotel Moscow Pupp

0:22:400:22:46

leaves by every bedside a brochure in which it says,

0:22:460:22:50

how many famous and more or less important people from all parts of the world

0:22:500:22:54

this hotel has welcomed within its walls since its foundation.

0:22:540:22:58

But for a long, long time, it did not consider those through whose work,

0:22:580:23:02

drudgery, privation and sweat this proud enterprise was created.

0:23:020:23:07

The simple working classes.

0:23:070:23:09

The heroes of the commonplace, everyday life.

0:23:090:23:12

Today, however, the Grand Hotel Moscow belongs to them,

0:23:120:23:16

the true rulers of this country.

0:23:160:23:19

"Belongs to them."

0:23:190:23:21

They can't actually come in here, of course, it's far too expensive,

0:23:210:23:25

and it's reserved for foreigners, but, it belongs to them.

0:23:250:23:29

Come the revolution, you'll all have hotels.

0:23:290:23:32

In a strange way, he was right. A hotel revolution was on its way.

0:23:320:23:38

Back in Britain,

0:23:380:23:40

the Grand hotels were about to face their first serious challenge.

0:23:400:23:44

London's new landmark.

0:23:460:23:48

The Hilton Hotel, 30 storeys of it high over once sedate Park Lane,

0:23:480:23:53

to say nothing of four more storeys underground.

0:23:530:23:58

If you have a head for heights, there is a grandstand view

0:23:580:24:01

from the rooftop restaurant with that controversial view

0:24:010:24:05

of Buckingham Palace and the Queen's once-private garden.

0:24:050:24:08

This was the first international hotel coming over from America.

0:24:080:24:12

And having an American company come in with its systems,

0:24:120:24:16

with its different approaches, was a big, big occasion.

0:24:160:24:20

It was a determined statement

0:24:230:24:26

of American cultural imperialism.

0:24:260:24:30

It was huge. It was brash. It was modern.

0:24:300:24:33

At a time when there were virtually no tall buildings in London,

0:24:330:24:38

that one towered over everything else.

0:24:380:24:42

It gave people an image of the future.

0:24:450:24:48

Obviously, the '60s was doing that in so many other areas,

0:24:480:24:53

and hotels do manifest what's going on in other parts of society.

0:24:530:24:57

That's the point of them.

0:24:570:24:59

The Park Lane Hilton was a luxurious home away from home

0:24:590:25:03

for travelling Americans.

0:25:030:25:06

But what they took for granted was a revelation to the British.

0:25:060:25:10

It was air-conditioned.

0:25:100:25:12

There were very few hotels air-conditioned.

0:25:120:25:15

You didn't have air conditioning at the Savoy or the Ritz or anywhere.

0:25:150:25:19

You got lots of lifts, and the lifts were faster.

0:25:190:25:21

These were things that people went, "My God!"

0:25:210:25:24

It wasn't just the technology that was innovative.

0:25:240:25:27

It was the Hilton style of service, too.

0:25:270:25:31

Grand hotels were about paying attention and being servile,

0:25:310:25:36

standing to attention and receiving orders.

0:25:360:25:38

The American service ethic was far more upfront and in your face.

0:25:400:25:45

This is where America scored.

0:25:470:25:50

The Americans do smile and say, "Hi, how are you? Hello."

0:25:500:25:54

I think that people within - the travelling public, when I say people -

0:25:540:25:59

enjoyed that, enjoyed that difference.

0:25:590:26:04

In 1963, 12 Hilton hotels opened around the world.

0:26:100:26:15

Modern mansions built for the '60s plutocrat.

0:26:150:26:19

Mr Hilton, why are all your hotels so alike, so American?

0:26:190:26:23

I don't believe that they are so alike.

0:26:230:26:27

I believe they're all different,

0:26:270:26:29

and that is something that we thought of for a long time.

0:26:290:26:33

We do not even call our hotels a chain,

0:26:330:26:37

we call them a system of hotels, and they are all different.

0:26:370:26:42

But the whole point was standardisation.

0:26:420:26:44

From Park Lane to Addis Ababa, you always knew what you were getting.

0:26:440:26:50

The campaign was, wherever you landed, you said, "Take me to the Hilton."

0:26:500:26:53

And, of course, you could get a BLT and a club sandwich and a burger.

0:26:530:26:57

You wanted to know that you could get international standards,

0:26:570:27:02

meaning American standards, everywhere.

0:27:020:27:05

And you wanted to know that it was hygienic.

0:27:070:27:10

Is it safe to drink the water?

0:27:100:27:12

Hilton water was different from everyone else's water.

0:27:120:27:16

Not only was it safe, it was cool.

0:27:160:27:19

Let's talk about that just for a second.

0:27:190:27:21

Do you know what that was? Iced water.

0:27:210:27:23

Wherever you went, you got iced water.

0:27:240:27:27

Tell me when you get iced water now.

0:27:270:27:29

You don't go into a hotel or a restaurant anywhere

0:27:290:27:32

and get iced water, and yet in those days, that's what you got.

0:27:320:27:35

Iced water.

0:27:360:27:38

Brethren.

0:27:380:27:39

In the beginnings, there was darkness upon the face of the Earth,

0:27:410:27:44

and there was no iced water.

0:27:440:27:47

And Hilton said, "Let there be iced water."

0:27:480:27:51

And in every bathroom, pipes ran with plenteous iced water,

0:27:510:27:54

and Hilton saw that it was good.

0:27:540:27:57

Then he said, "Let there be music."

0:27:570:27:59

And in every lobby, single-studio parlour, double French bedroom

0:27:590:28:02

and luxury suite - nay, in every elevator -

0:28:020:28:05

other pipes gushed with plenteous canned music.

0:28:050:28:08

And Hilton said,

0:28:080:28:09

"Let the Earth bring forth Hiltons yielding fruit after their kind."

0:28:090:28:15

And the El Paso Hilton begat the Beverly Hilton,

0:28:150:28:19

which begat the Puerto Rico Hilton, which begat the Istanbul Hilton,

0:28:190:28:24

which begat the Panama Hilton, which begat...

0:28:240:28:27

I think what Conrad Hilton wanted to do was to establish a standard

0:28:270:28:31

worldwide so that people who travelled could always be confident

0:28:310:28:36

of a standard of comfort.

0:28:360:28:38

In a funny way,

0:28:380:28:39

he was the first person trying to homogenise the world.

0:28:390:28:43

..the Acapulco Hilton, and on the seventh day...

0:28:430:28:46

..he rested.

0:28:470:28:48

But real luxury isn't off the peg.

0:28:510:28:54

If Luxury were a town, it would be twinned with Exclusivity.

0:28:540:28:59

So the super-rich flew off in search of something new,

0:28:590:29:03

somewhere they could mingle with members of their own elite group.

0:29:030:29:07

On the Caribbean island of Jamaica, they found it.

0:29:070:29:11

Frenchman's Cove, the most expensive hotel in the world,

0:29:140:29:20

and Alan Whicker was on hand to sample it.

0:29:200:29:23

At last, I've made it.

0:29:250:29:27

This is the place where my every wish can be satisfied.

0:29:270:29:30

I've been looking for this kind of place for years!

0:29:300:29:34

Only a tiny number of people could afford to stay here,

0:29:360:29:40

in the private, purpose-built villas

0:29:400:29:42

scattered around 45 acres of tropical paradise.

0:29:420:29:46

Throughout the '60s, Frenchman's Cove attracted people like

0:29:460:29:50

the Queen and Prince Philip, the Aga Khan,

0:29:500:29:52

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

0:29:520:29:56

and, of course, a certain reporter.

0:29:560:29:59

# Desires will come to you

0:29:590:30:02

# When you wish upon a star

0:30:040:30:09

# Makes no difference who you are... #

0:30:090:30:13

Right, well, now I'm entitled to order anything I want in the world.

0:30:130:30:19

And I do mean anything.

0:30:190:30:21

Magnums of champagne, mountains of caviar, lashing of smoked salmon...

0:30:210:30:25

I can telephone my second cousin in Australia,

0:30:260:30:30

I can call for a Cadillac and chauffeur,

0:30:300:30:34

for a boat to go out marlin fishing,

0:30:340:30:37

for an aircraft to fly me down to Montego Bay for golf.

0:30:370:30:41

All this, and it won't cost me a penny.

0:30:410:30:43

That's to say, it won't cost me a penny MORE.

0:30:480:30:52

Frenchman's Cove was an all-inclusive package holiday.

0:30:520:30:56

In 1966, it cost £700 a fortnight to stay here -

0:30:560:31:02

over a year's pay for a trained chef at the Savoy.

0:31:020:31:05

The owner told Alan how REAL luxury worked.

0:31:060:31:09

For instance,

0:31:090:31:10

it's an established procedure of the hotel that the chef interviews

0:31:100:31:14

each guest twice a day, once for his lunch and secondly for his dinner.

0:31:140:31:18

This gives us time to cook everything specifically to order.

0:31:180:31:21

But the interesting point is that we end up by having

0:31:210:31:24

no trouble at all, because when the average human being is

0:31:240:31:28

confronted with an unlimited number of choices like that,

0:31:280:31:31

he immediately lays himself back in our hands and says,

0:31:310:31:34

"What do you have?"

0:31:340:31:36

So we end up giving everyone baked beans for dinner!

0:31:360:31:39

The driving force behind the spread of luxury hotels

0:31:460:31:49

throughout the '60s was the rise of a new group,

0:31:490:31:53

the international business executive transported by jet travel.

0:31:530:31:58

As busy businessmen thronged through Heathrow, a new crop of hotels

0:32:050:32:08

sprang up to accommodate them in the modern grand style.

0:32:080:32:12

What these hotels offered was

0:32:120:32:14

cut-price variations on the Hilton hotel.

0:32:140:32:18

Room service, one of the hallmarks of luxury, was reduced to this.

0:32:180:32:23

All these hotels were built in response to a Government initiative

0:32:270:32:32

that was itself responding to a crisis in Britain's hotels.

0:32:320:32:36

The Labour Government decided that there weren't enough hotels,

0:32:400:32:44

and that they would offer a grant - not a loan, a grant.

0:32:440:32:49

And, believe it or not, it was £1,000 a room.

0:32:510:32:55

So all the property companies -

0:32:550:32:57

not hotel companies, property companies - said, "Whoopee."

0:32:570:33:01

And so, 27 major hotels opened in 1971 in London.

0:33:030:33:08

One of them was a bed factory.

0:33:080:33:10

'However, there seems to have been no planning to co-ordinate

0:33:100:33:14

'the rival projects, and the hotels have realised only now

0:33:140:33:17

'just how many rooms are waiting to be let.'

0:33:170:33:20

In 1971, David Levin flew in the face of the corporate scramble.

0:33:270:33:32

Using a Government grant,

0:33:320:33:34

he built a small bespoke hotel in Knightsbridge.

0:33:340:33:38

'I said that I was going to build a grand hotel in miniature.

0:33:390:33:43

'I had to say miniature because we only had 50 rooms.'

0:33:430:33:46

The Capital offered five-star service and accommodation,

0:33:490:33:53

but not, according to the rulebook, a five-star location.

0:33:530:33:58

The concept was that you had to be on the Rue de Rivoli, you had to be

0:33:580:34:02

on the Champs-Elysees, you had to be on Park Lane, or else you were a dud.

0:34:020:34:07

There was an American man that said,

0:34:080:34:10

"Position, position, position - the three most important points."

0:34:100:34:14

Conrad Hilton.

0:34:140:34:16

I don't believe that. And I said, "It's not a backstreet.

0:34:160:34:20

"There's no such thing as a backstreet in Knightsbridge."

0:34:200:34:24

Having worked in hotels all his life,

0:34:240:34:28

David Levin had firm ideas about what he wanted to create.

0:34:280:34:32

Where he could see the need for innovation in the '70s was

0:34:320:34:36

in the hotel restaurant.

0:34:360:34:39

You need to understand

0:34:390:34:42

that the world did not go to a hotel to eat.

0:34:420:34:48

The world came to a hotel to stay,

0:34:480:34:50

and there would be what was called the dining room, not a restaurant.

0:34:500:34:55

If I tell you that the Automobile Association, that was really

0:34:550:34:58

the only hotel/restaurant guide, had demanded that an establishment

0:34:580:35:05

to have five stars, it required one fresh vegetable on the menu.

0:35:050:35:09

The rest were tinned or frozen.

0:35:090:35:11

And I just felt the standards,

0:35:110:35:13

particularly in this country, were so low...

0:35:130:35:16

that it would be a joy to,

0:35:160:35:19

um...to improve them.

0:35:190:35:22

He took on a chef called Richard shepherd,

0:35:220:35:25

and their fresh approach to hotel dining made headlines.

0:35:250:35:30

We had a wonderful write-up in The Evening Standard.

0:35:310:35:35

It was written by a man called Quentin Crewe,

0:35:350:35:37

who absolutely closed restaurants.

0:35:370:35:39

He was so, sort of, difficult.

0:35:390:35:42

Quentin crew said,

0:35:430:35:45

"I ate a scallop mousse spiced with sea urchins

0:35:450:35:48

"and my friends had lobster bisque.

0:35:480:35:51

"It was so fresh and pure of taste

0:35:510:35:53

"that is seemed as if a wizard had just spoken sharply to some lobsters

0:35:530:35:57

"and they had turned into soup."

0:35:570:36:00

But we were full that night The Evening Standard came out.

0:36:010:36:04

That was how desperate people were to find good food.

0:36:040:36:08

In 1974, the Capital Hotel restaurant

0:36:080:36:12

was awarded a Michelin red star for excellence.

0:36:120:36:17

But the Guide was less impressed

0:36:170:36:19

by some of our other, more famous, hotels.

0:36:190:36:23

We can't see you because you don't want to be recognised in restaurants and hotels.

0:36:230:36:28

-What shall I call you?

-Mr Dupont.

0:36:280:36:31

Being French, Dupont is quite a good name.

0:36:310:36:34

This criteria by which you judge, presumably you haven't changed over the years,

0:36:340:36:39

but the 25 stars in this edition

0:36:390:36:42

go to restaurants that you call "good in their class."

0:36:420:36:46

Yes.

0:36:460:36:48

There are world-famous restaurants, like The Ritz, The Savoy Grill - not good in their class?

0:36:480:36:53

# Is that all there is?

0:36:580:37:00

# Is that all there is?

0:37:020:37:05

# If that's all there is, my friends... #

0:37:070:37:11

Some of what was on offer in Britain's five-star hotels

0:37:110:37:15

seemed little different from a B&B,

0:37:150:37:18

apart from the theatre surrounding it.

0:37:180:37:21

Room service!

0:37:210:37:23

It wasn't just food, it was standards generally

0:37:230:37:27

and the problem was widespread.

0:37:270:37:29

Why did hotels lose their way in the seventies?

0:37:310:37:36

They were mediocre.

0:37:360:37:38

They just didn't seem to be driven by people with passion.

0:37:380:37:43

I think they rested on their laurels

0:37:430:37:44

and then one day realised that they had empty dining rooms.

0:37:440:37:47

They woke up and said, "What will we do? We are dying."

0:37:470:37:51

It looked as though luxury had lost its lustre.

0:37:520:37:55

But each decade somebody comes along and shines it up again.

0:37:570:38:01

I think the hotel world, like everything,

0:38:030:38:07

is a combination of the established companies -

0:38:070:38:11

who have a great deal of money

0:38:110:38:14

and access to marketing and connections

0:38:140:38:18

and the machine, basically - and the innovators,

0:38:180:38:20

who are, invariably on the outside.

0:38:200:38:23

Innovation always comes from the outside.

0:38:230:38:26

It never comes from the middle. That's a fact in everything.

0:38:260:38:30

I think I was running a strange little life

0:38:350:38:38

between the Portobello Road and being a sort of strange actress.

0:38:380:38:43

And I was talking to people coming from Italy and LA saying,

0:38:430:38:47

"There's nowhere to stay between a bed-and-breakfast dump

0:38:470:38:51

"and the Ritz or the Dorchester."

0:38:510:38:53

There wasn't an in-betweeny.

0:38:530:38:56

There wasn't that thing I started - a home away from home.

0:38:560:38:59

That's how I got started.

0:38:590:39:01

The '70s saw a new group join the ranks of the rich.

0:39:060:39:10

Young millionaires from the music and creative industries.

0:39:100:39:15

They were sophisticated, well travelled and knew what they wanted.

0:39:150:39:19

And Anouska Hempel gave it to them with Blakes -

0:39:190:39:23

a whole new kind of hotel.

0:39:230:39:25

Hotels, up to that point, had not been fun and young.

0:39:330:39:36

The young weren't really acknowledged.

0:39:360:39:39

So what Anouska Hempel did was to create this very funky hotel.

0:39:390:39:44

And it was really decadent

0:39:440:39:49

and that suited the age

0:39:490:39:52

because it was naughty.

0:39:520:39:54

It was very ahead of its time.

0:39:560:39:57

It was very sexy. It was very glamorous.

0:39:570:40:00

It wasn't about business.

0:40:000:40:02

It was affairs and fabrics and souffles with gold leaf

0:40:020:40:07

and it was expensive

0:40:070:40:09

and it was a jewel, and I loved it.

0:40:090:40:12

It became synonymous with, sort of, sex, basically.

0:40:190:40:23

And with a very, sort of,

0:40:230:40:25

international jet-set/rock'n'roll crowd.

0:40:250:40:28

That was its mythology.

0:40:280:40:31

Anouska Hempel had created one of the first

0:40:320:40:36

small, stylish, independent hotels

0:40:360:40:39

that later became known as boutique.

0:40:390:40:42

She recognised that there was a new, more informal,

0:40:420:40:46

more design-educated kind of customer there,

0:40:460:40:51

who absolutely didn't want to stay, um...

0:40:510:40:55

with geriatric Americans in a city-centre hotel.

0:40:550:41:00

Rock stars belonged to AN elite but they weren't THE elite.

0:41:030:41:08

That accolade belonged to the sheiks of the Middle East,

0:41:080:41:11

whose oil had propelled them into the Premier League of wealth.

0:41:110:41:16

We think the British have invaded us some time ago!

0:41:160:41:20

We are giving you back a touristic invasion.

0:41:210:41:24

So England is gaining twice.

0:41:240:41:27

They were very opulent times.

0:41:320:41:35

They were in another league

0:41:350:41:37

as far as spending's concerned and what they wanted.

0:41:370:41:40

The Arabs arrived in the mid-'70s

0:41:490:41:52

and embraced everything that Britain had to offer.

0:41:520:41:55

My children enjoy staying here in London

0:41:570:42:00

because there's a lot of things to do.

0:42:000:42:03

What sort of things?

0:42:030:42:04

Going to the zoos, going to museums...going to Brighton Beach.

0:42:040:42:10

They love our weather.

0:42:120:42:14

I know that sounds extraordinary

0:42:140:42:16

but during the summer months in the Middle East,

0:42:160:42:20

if you have an average of 45-50 degrees centigrade,

0:42:200:42:23

wouldn't you want to come here to London

0:42:230:42:26

and enjoy the beautiful weather we have? They just adore that.

0:42:260:42:31

This wealthy group stayed in the best hotels and flashed the cash.

0:42:350:42:40

And in hotels, that gets you a lot of service.

0:42:400:42:46

They love hotels.

0:42:500:42:52

I remember, when I was a young manager,

0:42:520:42:56

and the first Middle-East guests arrived in abundance...

0:42:560:43:01

I was the only one who didn't end up with five gold watches.

0:43:010:43:05

I must never have been in the right place!

0:43:050:43:08

All the staff were, "I've been given another Rolex."

0:43:080:43:11

Arab guests didn't just stay in hotels, they bought them.

0:43:110:43:17

Most famously, The Dorchester on Park Lane, for £9 million.

0:43:170:43:22

Why are the Arabs particularly interested in a hotel which is something of a British institution?

0:43:220:43:27

I think that is WHY they are interested in it.

0:43:270:43:30

They want a hotel which is essentially British,

0:43:300:43:32

with the tradition that goes with it.

0:43:320:43:34

Tourists with money to spend knew what they wanted from the UK -

0:43:390:43:42

tradition, and what was left of our aristocratic past

0:43:420:43:47

and its luxurious trappings.

0:43:470:43:50

The owners of grand hotels realised

0:43:510:43:54

they were perfectly positioned to get in on the act.

0:43:540:43:59

This is The Ritz, can I help you?

0:43:590:44:01

In 1981, The new owner of The Ritz gave it an extravagant facelift.

0:44:010:44:07

£4 million was spent on restoring the hotel to deluxe splendour.

0:44:070:44:12

And the BBC were allowed in to make a documentary.

0:44:170:44:21

They found the Ritz flogging heritage tourism at £4.50 a head for tea.

0:44:210:44:26

Tea at the Ritz is now one of the things to do on the European tour.

0:44:280:44:32

You can sit next to a pop singer,

0:44:320:44:34

a politician or the Princess Elena Mutafia.

0:44:340:44:37

What is it about The Ritz that attracts you?

0:44:370:44:42

Well, its quiet dignity, really.

0:44:420:44:45

Um...the surroundings are very gracious and it's quiet

0:44:450:44:51

and I don't know of a place like The Ritz

0:44:510:44:54

that gives that particular atmosphere.

0:44:540:44:57

-Could you take that one away?

-Are you sure?

0:44:570:45:00

Everybody should enjoy what is beautiful in life

0:45:000:45:03

and this place is truly beautiful.

0:45:030:45:07

So let people enjoy it.

0:45:070:45:09

There are probably not many people in England today

0:45:110:45:14

who can afford to enjoy it, are there?

0:45:140:45:16

Yes, I agree, but they can always come to tea.

0:45:170:45:21

To stay at the Ritz in 1981 cost about £200 a night.

0:45:230:45:29

That included breakfast.

0:45:290:45:31

A nice breakfast in a moment, I hope.

0:45:310:45:33

Lord Carnarvon, now 83, has been coming to The Ritz for 60 years.

0:45:330:45:39

In the '20s, His Lordship got free board and lodging in exchange

0:45:390:45:44

for encouraging his wealthy friends to stay here.

0:45:440:45:47

Now he has to pay his bill with the best of them.

0:45:470:45:50

-Two coddled eggs, please.

-Thank you.

0:45:500:45:52

Well, I'm ready whenever you are.

0:45:520:45:55

Coffee, that's right. Pour it out there, would you? Pour it out there.

0:45:550:45:59

-Put the coffee in there!

-Right, sir.

-Do what I tell you. Then bring...

0:45:590:46:04

I want a saccharine, do you see? Don't have sugar. That's right.

0:46:040:46:08

-That'll do.

-Sir. Milk?

-No! No milk. Always black.

-Your toast, sir.

0:46:080:46:13

And put the toast down.

0:46:130:46:16

I want some butter and then hurry up the eggs.

0:46:160:46:19

-I don't want to be here all night.

-Right you are, sir.

-Thank you very much.

0:46:190:46:22

You must get on with it!

0:46:220:46:24

It takes about three-quarters of an hour to bring anything!

0:46:240:46:28

But, there you are, that's life. I think something's arriving.

0:46:280:46:31

Good boy! That's right, pop them down. Thank you very much.

0:46:310:46:36

-Bless you.

-Everything you require, sir?

-What?

0:46:360:46:39

I want the marmalade and the butter! That's right, thank you very much.

0:46:390:46:43

-That's here.

-Got the marmalade. I think we're all set now.

-Enjoy.

0:46:430:46:48

Thank you so much.

0:46:480:46:50

Don't freeze the butter!

0:46:530:46:56

However...

0:46:570:46:59

Never grumble about anything in life. That's a great motto.

0:47:000:47:04

The new look Ritz was not all to Lord Carnarvon's taste.

0:47:060:47:10

The makeover had got rid of some traditional luxury touches he'd once enjoyed.

0:47:100:47:15

I miss one thing only here, and that is the baths.

0:47:180:47:22

There used to be huge, great, wonderful baths here.

0:47:220:47:27

But I quite understand the reason.

0:47:270:47:29

Americans, for instance, they're used to taking showers

0:47:290:47:34

and they don't like these big, old-fashioned baths

0:47:340:47:37

like I used to like so much.

0:47:370:47:39

And The staff didn't like the changes either.

0:47:390:47:44

These bathrooms were really beautiful before.

0:47:440:47:47

They had lovely Battersea glass tiles

0:47:470:47:50

and beautiful porcelain baths.

0:47:500:47:53

They sparkled, yes. Just the kind of bath men would like.

0:47:530:47:59

You could swim in it!

0:47:590:48:02

They had to use a sledgehammer to break them up to take them out.

0:48:020:48:07

I thought the end of the world had come.

0:48:100:48:12

For a certain way of life, the end of the world HAD come.

0:48:180:48:22

Lord Carnarvon and his ilk were finding it financially tougher

0:48:220:48:26

than in the old days.

0:48:260:48:28

High taxation had seen many of the aristocracy

0:48:280:48:31

struggle to keep their country houses running.

0:48:310:48:36

So many of them had begun to let in the hoi polloi,

0:48:360:48:40

by opening their houses as museums, or filling their gardens with lions.

0:48:400:48:45

Some had even turned them into luxury hotels.

0:48:450:48:49

Country house hotels were run in a very personal way.

0:48:490:48:54

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

0:48:540:48:58

They would have six wonderful bedrooms

0:48:580:49:02

and 15 dreadful bedrooms because they were originally for staff.

0:49:020:49:07

They would tend to employ local people and they would tend

0:49:070:49:12

to do the things that they liked - the aristocracy liked.

0:49:120:49:16

Um...a fire burning in the bedroom.

0:49:160:49:20

You know, because that's what they were used to.

0:49:200:49:24

Well, I have to tell you that's quite dangerous.

0:49:240:49:29

Breakfast would be laid out on a sideboard with hot plate

0:49:290:49:33

and it would just be wrecked because they would do it at eight

0:49:330:49:37

and you came down at ten o'clock.

0:49:370:49:39

So there were all these foibles. They were unprofessional.

0:49:390:49:43

It was quite amateurish. But they shot up in popularity.

0:49:430:49:48

From the '80s on, wealthy city folk went off for the weekend

0:49:520:49:55

to get a slice of country living.

0:49:550:49:58

However, the landed rich weren't used to serving other people.

0:49:580:50:02

So what the city guests wanted and what they got given,

0:50:020:50:05

were two different things.

0:50:050:50:08

There was a feeling - you're kind of lucky to be coming to stay with us.

0:50:080:50:12

Don't worry too much about the odd bit of peeling paint.

0:50:120:50:14

Maybe the beds aren't as comfortable as you would have hoped

0:50:140:50:17

because you're in this wonderful building,

0:50:170:50:20

built whenever and made of whatever.

0:50:200:50:22

Someone very famous said something here.

0:50:220:50:26

Isn't this a wonderful, historical stay? Actually, no.

0:50:260:50:29

They often weren't fantastically well run.

0:50:290:50:31

They often didn't have... I mean, the food was often very cliched

0:50:310:50:36

and they talked all the time about food.

0:50:360:50:38

Someone would come and tell you about the food.

0:50:380:50:42

Leave it out - I don't want to know!

0:50:420:50:44

I just wanted to put on my jeans and throw a bag in the car

0:50:440:50:47

and race down to somewhere and I didn't want to put on a jacket

0:50:470:50:51

or have a sommelier overwhelm me with a ten-page wine list.

0:50:510:50:56

It took a city type to change the country house hotel.

0:51:010:51:05

In the '90s, entrepreneur Nick Jones had set up Soho House,

0:51:050:51:09

a private club in London,

0:51:090:51:12

that catered for creative and media types.

0:51:120:51:15

Now he began looking around for a country house to turn into a hotel,

0:51:150:51:21

and found Babington House in Somerset.

0:51:210:51:24

Nick Jones, along with friends like the actor Neil Morrissey,

0:51:240:51:29

saw the potential to innovate.

0:51:290:51:32

-Do you like it?

-I love it! I love it! This is a perfect bar area.

0:51:320:51:37

A long bar down here.

0:51:370:51:39

They knew what they wanted because they knew what they didn't want.

0:51:390:51:44

What we're trying to do here is create something which is totally different

0:51:440:51:48

from what else is out in the country at the moment,

0:51:480:51:51

which is the typical country house hotel

0:51:510:51:54

full of chintz and restrictions.

0:51:540:51:56

You know, as soon as you walk in, you feel you've done something wrong

0:51:560:52:00

or put your foot in the wrong place etc.

0:52:000:52:02

People love the country, and want to come, but they don't come

0:52:020:52:07

because of the restrictions which are imposed on them.

0:52:070:52:11

What we're trying to do is bring a bit of London,

0:52:110:52:15

a bit of urbanised way of life to the country.

0:52:150:52:18

The task of re-modelling the country house hotel

0:52:210:52:24

in a more creative way was given to Ilse Crawford.

0:52:240:52:28

It was a brilliant house.

0:52:280:52:31

It had been in the same family for generations

0:52:310:52:33

and they'd lost it in the Lloyds crash.

0:52:330:52:36

Certainly, for me, the most important thing

0:52:360:52:39

was to make it into a house where people felt

0:52:390:52:41

they could enjoy the whole house.

0:52:410:52:43

Like, say, your mythical mate's place where the parents have gone away

0:52:430:52:47

and left the keys to the drinks cabinet.

0:52:470:52:50

This new take on the country house hotel had the monied media set

0:52:500:52:55

piling down to rural Somerset to relax.

0:52:550:52:58

It was Notting Hill goes to the country.

0:52:580:53:02

So everybody knew everybody, and it had a spa.

0:53:020:53:05

The most important dynamic of the last few years,

0:53:050:53:09

which you never had in the '60s or '70s, was the spa.

0:53:090:53:14

They knew who their guests were and they provided what they wanted.

0:53:160:53:20

Then the idea that you would go to a country house

0:53:200:53:24

and dress up and whisper...finito.

0:53:240:53:27

Babington House played in to the boutique hotel explosion

0:53:300:53:34

of the '90s.

0:53:340:53:36

This was all about defining a niche market

0:53:360:53:38

and then designing a hotel that could serve it.

0:53:380:53:43

They were responding to the idea of clubability,

0:53:440:53:48

that you would meet other people like yourself there.

0:53:480:53:52

Your hotel says more about you than cash ever can.

0:53:540:53:57

It's all about fashion.

0:54:000:54:02

Just the same - the way you wear your clothes

0:54:020:54:05

and the different style of clothes that you wear.

0:54:050:54:08

Hotels have to be relevant and up-to-date.

0:54:080:54:11

Anouska Hempel, who had done so much

0:54:110:54:14

to kick start the boutique habit with Blakes Hotel,

0:54:140:54:18

rang the changes with The Hempel.

0:54:180:54:21

I'm sort of giving you the maximum in a minimalistic way.

0:54:210:54:25

You've got posts that go up into infinity,

0:54:250:54:29

to make it very tall and peculiar to sleep in.

0:54:290:54:32

All the rooms have their own uniqueness, their own strangeness.

0:54:320:54:35

What's this big hole above our heads?

0:54:350:54:37

Hole?! Tut! This is an atrium.

0:54:370:54:41

I'll take you into it. I'll stand you here and you too can fly.

0:54:410:54:46

It's not just bed and board... and a base for being in a town,

0:54:480:54:55

or any of those very fundamental human needs.

0:54:550:54:58

It's something to blow your mind aesthetically. It's an experience.

0:54:580:55:03

Gordon Campbell Gray created One Aldwych in Piccadilly,

0:55:050:55:10

with a hotel bar designed to tempt outsiders in.

0:55:100:55:14

I wanted to create a snob-free zone, where everyone is treated the same,

0:55:140:55:18

which was quite new for a five-star hotel. So I hired

0:55:180:55:22

only Australian doormen

0:55:220:55:25

because they don't understand snobbery.

0:55:250:55:27

You couldn't educate them to be snobbish. They don't get it.

0:55:270:55:30

So they welcomed everybody. That was our magic formula.

0:55:300:55:33

The Goring Hotel, where Kate Middleton stayed

0:55:410:55:43

for the Royal Wedding, has spent a lot of money

0:55:430:55:46

on recreating its glamorous Edwardian origins.

0:55:460:55:50

It now looks as though it hasn't changed for 100 years. But it has.

0:55:500:55:56

It was the very rich and the elite that used to come into our hotel

0:55:570:56:01

but nowadays it's business people, people who come in for tea, coffee.

0:56:010:56:06

In the morning, our lounge is full of people having small meetings

0:56:060:56:10

and that because they want somewhere to sit and be comfortable.

0:56:100:56:13

It's nearly 50 years since a BBC documentary predicted

0:56:180:56:23

that the writing was on the wall for the luxury hotel.

0:56:230:56:26

They were wrong.

0:56:280:56:30

There are nearly ten hotels opening here.

0:56:320:56:33

There are over 50 hotels opening in New York. Six in Paris.

0:56:330:56:39

And this is during a time of recession. Hotels are huge.

0:56:400:56:45

Once there was a consensus as to what a luxury hotel was.

0:56:480:56:53

It was a Savoy, a Ritz.

0:56:530:56:55

It was butlers and bellboys and glamour and gilt.

0:56:550:56:59

But the movers and shakers of each generation

0:57:000:57:04

have demanded different things,

0:57:040:57:06

so five-star hotels have offered clever variations

0:57:060:57:08

on the luxury theme.

0:57:080:57:11

But luxury has become a much overused word...

0:57:130:57:17

because luxury always needs to outdo itself.

0:57:170:57:20

The Burj Al Arab in Dubai is one of a tiny constellation

0:57:250:57:28

of seven-star hotels.

0:57:280:57:31

Built on its own island, the public are not encouraged to go in.

0:57:310:57:37

This is today's grand hotel.

0:57:390:57:43

A playground for the global super-rich,

0:57:430:57:46

who can pay up to £12,000 a night

0:57:460:57:48

for a suite with a revolving four-poster bed

0:57:480:57:52

and a butler to run them a bath.

0:57:520:57:55

Luxury, it appears, has come full circle -

0:57:580:58:03

with today's super-rich

0:58:030:58:04

as keen as the old aristocrats ever were

0:58:040:58:08

to keep it for the very select few.

0:58:080:58:11

# Living for you is easy living

0:58:200:58:25

# It's easy to live when you're in love

0:58:250:58:30

# And I'm so in love

0:58:300:58:33

# There's nothing in life but you... #

0:58:330:58:36

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