Towering testament to the Swinging 60s
...and just look at that view of Hyde Park!
TOWER block hotels were a thing in the 1960s – but not just because tower blocks were thought to be the future. It was more mercenary than that.
Keen to boost tourism, Harold Wilson’s Labour government offered a £1,000-a-room grant for new hotels, which ignited a sudden rash of development (the steepling Hilton in Park Lane, for example, and the massive Heathrow Post House).
The Rank Group was so excited by the new grant, it immediately decided to change its design for a head office above Lancaster Gate Tube station and make it a hotel. When it opened in 1967, the Royal Lancaster was the embodiment of Swinging London. It was here that they held the after-party for The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine film premiere, attended by the Fab Four themselves and Twiggy.
When they filmed The Italian Job in 1969, it was here that Michael Caine’s character came on his release from prison for a night of passion so inappropriate it would have caused a storm on Twitter had the site existed 50 years ago.
I rather hoped that I might be given Suite 602, the room occupied in the film by Caine, but I was on the floor below in a room that looked as if it might be superior accommodation.
It certainly had a stunning panoramic view over Hyde Park: to Canary Wharf in one direction and Kensington and beyond in the other. Just watching the sunset was a treat.
The Royal Lancaster has just undergone an £80million redesign, yet it still recaptures its Swinging Sixties panache: acres of white Carrara marble mixed with understated elegance. The result is that while you are perched in a room in the heart of London, you get the feeling that you might be in the countryside. The place: Lovely walks in Hyde Park and antique-hunting in Portobello Road. The accommodation: Smart, stylish and comfortable.
The food: Nipa Thai is the hotel’s surprise package: an excellent restaurant in a beautiful room. I recommend the bean curd and vegetables in green curry – as scrummy as a 1960s Mini Cooper.