THE QUEEN’S FAVOURITE HOTELIER
David Morgan-Hewitt has a personality as big as his waistline and he has turned The Goring into one of the most famous five-star establishments in the world
N HIS 26 years there, including the last 11 as managing director, MorganHewitt has overseen its rise from a dated four-star establishment with an antiquated dining room into the first hotel ever to be granted a Royal Warrant by the Queen.
That accolade came a year after The Goring played a starring role in the 2011 wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. The future Duchess of Cambridge chose to spend her last night as a single woman there after Morgan-Hewitt asked the Royal Family whether there was “anything we could do to help”.
“I was thinking of perhaps putting up a few royal guests for the night,” he once explained whimsically, “but in the end the entire hotel was taken over from the morning of the Thursday to the Saturday.”
The Middletons even held their reception there for those not invited to the Buckingham Palace bash a stone’s throw north across the palace gardens. The announcement of the high-profile block booking crashed The Goring’s website, which received five million hits in a fortnight.
The upshot of this was that an estimated 2.2 billion pairs of eyes were trained on the Edwardian façade of the last family-run fivestar hotel in London on the day of the royal wedding thanks to 300 photographers and television cameras stationed at either end of Belgravia’s Beeston Place.
Never one to miss a PR opportunity, Big Dave, who dropped out from a law degree at Cambridge before studying history and starting his career in public relations, treated the press with infinite courtesy. Throughout the day he sent out teams of liveried waiters with trays of biscuits and cups of coffee. Overnight, The Goring was reborn as an international brand.
“I do now say that one of my greatest achievements is putting The Goring on the tourist bus tour,” says Morgan-Hewitt. “I’m never happier than when I’m in [a] lobby. I love watching the staff, I love watching the guests and getting the feel of the place,” says the honorary catering adviser to the British Army.
His most recent refurbishment saw £100,000 lavished on each room including playful touches described by him as “a serious streak of fun from an ‘Ooh!’ TOP-NOTCH: Kate and David, right mood-lighting setting in the bedrooms to fluffy sheep footstools served up with a cheeky grin”.
Indeed. The master shower in the Royal Suite, where Kate’s parents stayed in 2011, features a life-size portrait of Queen Victoria protected by aircraft glass – after a previous guest tried to rip it off the wall.
Most recently, a clutch of dishy footmen have been brought in to add a touch of glamour to the iconic hotel. “Any household can have a butler but only the very grandest have footmen – they really are an extravagance,” he says.
No wonder his Twitter biography simply states: “I have the best job in the world.” BACK on the red carpet courtesy of her lead role in the latest Star Wars movie, Daisy Ridley, pictured, enjoys pointing out her great-uncle is late Dad’s Army regular Arnold Ridley.
The latter memorably played the doddery Private Godfrey, also pictured, in the hit comedy series. A veteran of the First World War, the actor died in 1984 eight years before Daisy’s birth.
His son Nicolas has remarked: “If Daisy had asked my father about a career on the stage I think he might have advised against it because he knew how tough it could be. But he would be delighted to see her enjoying such richly deserved success.” ABBA songwriter Benny Andersson fondly recalls the moment he and collaborator Björn Ulvaeus realised their wives’ vocal talents could make them all stars.
Remembering how singers Agnetha Fältskog and Frida Lyngstad first came on board, Andersson explains: “Björn and I made a record called Lycka, which in English means ‘happiness’. For one song we asked our wives to come in for backing vocals and all of a sudden, ‘Wow! They sound good, we don’t!’”
Bjorn and Agnetha later split in 1980 while Benny and Frida were divorced the following year.
FORMER prime minister Stanley Baldwin, who died 70 years ago today, led the nation at the time of Edward VIII’s abdication from the throne in 1936.
He refused to grant permission for the king to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, telling the monarch: “I think I know our people. They will tolerate a lot in private life but they will not stand for this sort of thing in a public personage.”
After Edward subsequently gave up the throne, Baldwin addressed the Commons prompting MP Harold Nicolson to write in his diary: “We have heard the best speech we will ever hear in our lives. No man has dominated the House as he dominated it today and he knows it.”
Baldwin stood down as PM the following year, shortly before his 70th birthday.
GLAMOROUS heiress Jemima Goldsmith, 43, identifies the good folk of Darlington as her favourite UK residents, announcing: “I’m partial to Northerners generally but I have an unquestioning love for anyone from Darlo.”
With London-born Jemima, pictured, rumoured to be single (ex-boyfriends include southerners Hugh Grant and Russell Brand) surely dashing suitors from Darlington should be forming an orderly queue?
HARRY POTTER author JK Rowling, who arrived at Buckingham Palace this week to be made a Companion of Honour, has an estimated fortune of £600million after creating the lucrative wizard franchise.
This makes her richer than the Queen whose wealth has been calculated to be about £415million.