Claridge’s taps jubilee spirit with rose cocktail from 1953
CLARIDGE’S is celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with the return of its 70-year-old Windsor Rose cocktail.
The drink, which was first served at the hotel to mark the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, is among five special cocktails that will be poured in both the Fumoir and Claridge’s Bar over the bank holiday to mark Her Majesty’s seven decades as the British sovereign.
In addition to reintroducing some of their former drinks, the hotel – so favoured among royals that it is sometimes called the “annexe to Buckingham Palace” – has curated a modest royal exhibition that will be available for guests to view in the lobby throughout next month.
It will feature “never seen before items from the Claridge’s archives”, a hotel spokesman said.
Kate Hudson, a Claridge’s archivist, said: “This is such a perfect moment to showcase our archives for the first time.
“We have so many treasures that reflect our relationship with royalty over the past two centuries that include entries in Queen Victoria’s diaries, fans created by the hotel to celebrate the coronation in 1911, photographs, original menus and letters.”
The front of the hotel will also look a little different on the day as all of the flags – including the EU and US flags, as well as the Claridge’s flag – that usually adorn its entrance will be removed to give pride of place to the Union flag, bringing a sense of pomp and ceremony to Brook Street.
The tradition of Claridge’s as the “royal hostelry”, which began with the Queen’s great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, has been upheld.
During the funeral of the Queen’s father, and then for both her wedding and her coronation, the hotel was described in the press as Britain’s “Little Europe”. More than a dozen kings, queens and heads of state stayed at Claridge’s on these occasions.
After the war, in 1947, just before the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth, a diplomat telephoned Claridge’s and asked to speak to the king. “Certainly sir,” was the response, “but which one?”