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00:00Butlers and bellboys, champagne and shoeshine,
00:26to understand luxury, look no further than the five-star hotel.
00:31Hotels are probably the ultimate urban symbol of wealth and power.
00:38They tend to represent the finest that we can produce
00:41in terms of an architectural environment.
00:50No other place so perfectly reflects and defines our changing ideas of comfort,
00:55design, service and glamour.
00:59There's always an energy around a hotel.
01:01There's always a buzz about the hotel
01:03because most people are in there for an occasion.
01:06Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.
01:10Luxury hotels have always been about exceeding expectations.
01:15When people were going to them for the first time,
01:19they expected to enter a different world.
01:23Here we are.
01:25Once it was only hotels that had ensuite bathrooms.
01:29Now we all aspire to them.
01:33The need for innovation in hotels is the insatiable appetite of the customer
01:40for what's new and what's on the bottom.
01:43The precise details of luxury may change, but the definition doesn't.
01:48Luxury hotels are only for the few.
01:51Their story is a very select one.
02:03The luxury hotel is around 150 years old,
02:08a product of the age of empire when Britain ruled the world
02:12and the aristocracy ruled Britain.
02:15Their clients were a tiny, wealthy elite
02:18who had huge houses run by servants.
02:21So that's what they expected from a hotel.
02:34A luxury hotel experience is all about taking out the worry,
02:39the hassle and the problems of life.
02:43For example, you could ring the bell
02:45and somebody would come and draw your bath.
02:48You would perhaps have one or two or three butlers there,
02:52one to unpack your bags,
02:54another to make sure that they took everything away.
02:58Titled travellers, Victorian business barons,
03:01American millionaires,
03:03this high society crowd could afford to pay
03:06for what the hotels offered.
03:08The grand hotels of the past exuded total glamour
03:12for a very exclusive small group of people
03:15who travelled from one grand hotel to another
03:17and often did a circuit.
03:18So there'd been Paris, Monte Carlo, Cannes
03:21and a wonderful lifestyle.
03:23But it was for just a few,
03:25because travel was just for a few.
03:29The grand designs of hotels
03:31mimicked the importance of their guests
03:33to give the nobility and millionaires a suitable setting.
03:37They are built to look like palaces.
03:41They're built to look like a new, new version of a palace.
03:45And they were often called the royal this, the imperial that.
03:49So it's a palace for a plutocrat rather than a king.
03:53One could live in grand style in a large building
03:58with exceptionally high standard of service,
04:03every whim catered to, constant amusement,
04:06good food available at any hour of the day or night.
04:10By the 20th century, the names of our grandest hotels were famous.
04:16The Savoy, the Connaught, the Ritz and the Dorchester,
04:20the Grosvenor, Claridges.
04:22These were strung like pearls around Mayfair and Strand.
04:27They'd be all home away from home.
04:31Somewhere respectable,
04:33where good people, nice people could go and could meet.
04:38In the first era that was really lacked chaperones.
04:44And young ladies who hadn't been able to really been seen in a public place.
04:48They were an area of freedom.
04:53They were also, of course, immensely more comfortable
04:57than any of the aristocracy's creaking stately homes.
05:02When you had hot water, a lift,
05:07I mean, here it was known as an ascending room.
05:13From their earliest days,
05:15these hotels were more innovative than almost any other buildings of their time.
05:22As much as hotels might have an aesthetic
05:24and be remembered for their aesthetic,
05:26in practice they're highly refined machines.
05:30They were really ahead of their time
05:32and they were really not just laboratories for life
05:34but laboratories for technology.
05:37They were the places that first tested out the intercom to the front desk,
05:42telephone, even light bulbs.
05:50All mod cons were necessary for the smooth running of the deluxe hotel,
05:55which in turn made life more comfortable for the guests.
05:59Technology made the incredible cleanliness of hotels
06:02tremendously important and much easier, much simpler.
06:06when there was running water, when there were electric sockets
06:09that would support vacuum cleaners and other modern appliances.
06:13Oh, boys, try not to be so noisy tonight, won't you?
06:15All right, OK.
06:17The grand hotels were little microcosms.
06:24They had their own laundries, printing presses.
06:27The Savoy even had its own electricity plant.
06:31An entire world was within their walls.
06:34And the staff were a fundamental part of the machinery.
06:38Well-trained, at your service, and free to every guest.
06:55But because those who eat the honey don't need to meet the bees,
07:00most of the staff were hidden away.
07:07There would be entirely separate communication corridors and stairways
07:11so that staff were never seen unless they were actually required
07:16for a particular service.
07:23This notion of keeping the hotel free of any evidence of work
07:29was important to the notion of leisure
07:32that was embodied in the design of these buildings
07:35and the notion that people should be entertained the whole time.
07:39Work was not part of that equation at all,
07:42and so it needed to be hidden, to be concealed.
07:50These hotels did not allow just anybody in.
07:54They were private clubs where rich women felt protected
07:57and rich men could meet in convivial surroundings.
08:02In the derelict remains of the Cavendish in St. James's,
08:06a former guest recalled the hotel's role in its heyday.
08:13What secrets this small garden could tell?
08:16And all the Prime Ministers were here at one time or another.
08:19Even Sir Anton Eden as a young man.
08:21It was here that the Times newspaper was sold by Lord Astor to the rising Lord Northcliff.
08:28That was only one of the big deals that went on in the discreet surroundings of the Cavendish.
08:33Discretion was all part of excellent service.
08:37Staff were told to turn a blind eye to anything or anyone their guests might care to do.
08:42The bedrooms you can well imagine would have some stories to tell.
08:48One at any rate can be told about this room,
08:51because it was here on the notorious tiger skin rug
08:55that the passionate love affair between the lady novelist Eleanor Glynn
08:59and the Marquess Curzon, Viceroy of India no less, took place.
09:02Here, before this fireplace on the rug.
09:07Oh no, there completely is a connection between hotels and scandal.
09:11I think it's because hotels are this strange space between public and private space.
09:19They're somehow outside of the normal rules of society.
09:23If there is a do not disturb sun on the door, whatever you are taking to the room, you must not knock or open or go in.
09:33At the Hotel Maurice in Paris, Salvador Dali drew on the walls of his room,
09:38while his pet ocelots pooed on the carpets.
09:42At the Savoy, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas carried on their illicit affair.
09:48Things go on in hotels that you would never know, and it's the job of the staff never to let on.
09:53It's best to not softly.
09:54Throughout the early 20th century, the private lives of luxury hotels remained invisible to the public eye.
10:05With the growing popularity of the cinema in the 30s and 40s, however, they began to be revealed.
10:12Boys, I want to see every eyelid snap.
10:16Yes, sir!
10:17Hollywood exploited the Grand Hotel for glamorous settings, drama and fun.
10:23It found character in the ranks.
10:25Good morning, Mr Hammerstein.
10:28There was the spectacle of the hotel lobby and ballroom,
10:32and the rubbing together of the classes fed the American dream
10:36with working boy often winning rich girl guest.
10:39He could name mine any time.
10:42Hollywood also staged lavish cabaret on a grand scale.
10:49Gradually, the Grand Hotels began to ape these films.
11:07They began to put on cabaret based on the fictional version of themselves.
11:11It's the witching hour of midnight, and we're watching the dancers trip the light fantastic to the music of Billy Gerhardy and his band.
11:19To pay for this, the wealthy public was admitted to swell the numbers.
11:23It made financial sense, and hotels began to have a more public face.
11:34The great room in the Grosvenor house, I think, used to be an ice skating rink originally.
11:39Did you know that? Yeah, that's what I was told.
11:43The hotels were the places that had these incredible shows,
11:46and I guess you could argue something like Vegas is more tacky,
11:49but it's a modern version of the Grand Hotels.
11:51I think a lot of these hotels did that way back when it was part of their appeal, a part of their attraction.
12:02A hotel is a business, and if a business doesn't generate cash and make profit, it can't survive.
12:09You have to get a return on investment, so it's all about square footage and making sure it works for you.
12:15These grand hotels, of course, had huge public space.
12:21And these spaces were ideal venues for the partying sixties, when Britain had plenty to celebrate.
12:31If you've got money, you don't expect to have to fight your way into the door system, unless you're so famous that you can't move your army of fans.
12:40This was when luxury hotels established themselves as focus points for public occasions.
12:48It was the era of the gala dinner, the charity ball, the award ceremony.
12:52The great and the good from all walks of life mingled in the spotlights.
13:00It was like Olympic rings of social circles.
13:02And then as now, the royalty in the aristocracy was completely fascinated to meet the theatrocracy.
13:12It was a marriage made in heaven.
13:15The hotels all sparkled, and everyone was a star for the night.
13:19I think there was a great quote from Michael Caine, talking about when you first arrived, it's like you're the first person on stage.
13:27And there's that sense of being walked to your table and that sense of occasion.
13:32You'd probably put your best suit on or your little black dress or whatever.
13:36It's an exciting evening for you. The anticipation is there.
13:38Good evening from the Dorchester Hotel in London on what is television's biggest social occasion of the year.
13:44There's something that runs parallel with the hotel industry, which is the theatre.
13:51I always sort of feel that when you have a lunch or a dinner service, it's kind of like getting ready for curtain up.
14:00I think cinematic, actually, more than theatre, because they can be completely immersive.
14:12Done well, they can be completely immersive. Actually, done badly, they can be completely immersive as well.
14:16But, yes, because you're in somebody else's world. I mean, you don't have control over that world.
14:20So, yes, you are part of somebody else's narrative, for better or worse.
14:24TV cameras and press photographers were granted greater access to record this parade of prestige.
14:33The irresistible rise of the media spread the glamorous images far and wide.
14:39But they were missing a far more interesting story that was playing in the grand hotels.
14:44Backstage, it wasn't great expectations. It was Bleak House.
14:50There was never any money spent on staff feeding or locker rooms.
15:00There was a lot of fighting that went on. I mean, fist fights and so on. A lot of theft.
15:07Back of the house, it was completely ghastly.
15:10When I worked at the Barclay, we had to take all our clothes off, apart from our bra and neckers, put them, lock them all away, put on our whites, and we were searched before we left the hotel in case we'd stolen any food.
15:27I think it says a lot about what the economic situation was.
15:32Staff could be dismissed with a day's notice.
15:36Wages were below average. Waiters and kitchen staff worked long, hard hours.
15:42And the kitchen was like rowing on a galleon. You know, people shouting, heat was huge, it was enormous. It was thoroughly unpleasant.
15:53For years, this story had remained hidden. Staff put up with it as part of the job.
16:00Then, in 1963, the BBC were allowed into a luxury hotel to make a documentary. Going in behind the velvet curtain, they produced what must be one of the first examples of the TV exposé.
16:17Service trolleys like this can travel many corridor miles per day. It's as if this place was a hospital where the staff or the doctors dispensing charm and tranquilizers.
16:29How are you, sir? Fine, thank you. Ah, my dear. Breakfast is here.
16:34Coming.
16:36Many floors below the splendour are the quarters of the staff. There's something archaic, almost medieval, about the contrast.
16:42This was the enlightened sixties, a time when trade unions were demanding a fairer deal for workers. The documentary questioned the whole idea of the luxury hotel.
16:55Is this yesterday's culture? The diners here, the food they're eating, the music they're hearing, the staff that's serving them, seems sometimes to exist only in a timeless international limbo that has hardly changed for 40 years.
17:06Despite the fact that after the war many people were asking, just how long can all this last?
17:13Remember people came back from the war wanting to put things right forever.
17:19What are those extraordinary Edwardian and Victorian mock palaces doing here?
17:28They don't make any economic sense and they're just a great affront.
17:31Aesthetically, they are always interesting. They tend to represent the finest that we can produce in terms of an architectural environment. Morally, they're another matter. They are there, as William Morris said, to cater to the swinish luxury of the rich.
17:51The film was shot at the Savoy, but it could have been any grand hotel of the time. The management tried to get an injunction but failed. And the programme went out, pulling no punches and showing the gulf between the rich and the rest.
18:09Here, a client may pay 3,000 pounds for a ball. A washer up keeps his family on this sum for seven years.
18:18Could this mean that the luxury hotel will flounder? The hoteliers themselves seem to think that however society may change, there'll still be people who are able to buy what they are selling.
18:30In the Herald newspaper the next day, its TV critic wrote, this cool-eyed documentary would have coaxed revolutionary sentiments out of the mildest of country rectors.
18:44But they were all underestimating the powerful pull of luxury. This was the beginning of the consumer age. And rather than wanting to destroy the palaces of pleasure, lots of people aspired to stay in them.
19:01MUSIC PLAYS
19:18An awful lot of people were going to hotels for the first time. People who weren't used to being served and didn't know quite how to respond to it.
19:29Here we are. Room 1520. I put you right next to the lift. It's very convenient.
19:37Oh, good. That is kind of you.
19:40Here we are.
19:42These were the days when many people considered any hotel to be posh. Meaning, not for the likes of us.
19:49If you think of the psychology of the doorman in his uniform, the epaulets, the big hat, he towers over the door of the taxi, the car, and you step out.
19:58It's intimidation, the big entrance. And if you're not confident or used to it, this is very threatening.
20:05Good night, madam.
20:06And often they were being served by people who, on the face of it, were miles smarter than they were. So the whole thing must have seemed rather intimidating.
20:13They were very bad, historically, about being snobby about the guests.
20:20Your luggage, madam. I believe I've got everything.
20:25Not good enough. You know, they're not for us. And I think, who are you to make that choice with?
20:30Uh, thank you, madam.
20:33Fred, him bringing in our luggage. Look more as though he was delivering the groceries.
20:42I bet you tipped him.
20:44Only half a crown.
20:45Half a crown? For five minutes' work? That's £2.10 an hour.
20:49I only get £10 an hour, and I'm the first-class tradesman with seven years' apprenticeship.
20:54Yes, but you have to do things right when you stay in a place like this.
20:58Well, tell him to take the ruddy lot down again. I'll bring it all up for a tenner.
21:02Oh, don't be mean, love. I mean, after all, we've got to pay, so we might as well enjoy it.
21:06I am. I'm letting the hot water run. I'm not putting the plug in.
21:11I have a good mind to let it run all night.
21:15The ultimate testament to the pull of posh was to be found hundreds of miles away
21:22in the proletarian, egalitarian Soviet Empire.
21:25The old spa town of Carlsbad in Communist Czechoslovakia had grand hotels of the most palatial kind left over from its imperial past.
21:45In the 60s, the Communist Party saw them not as places the workers could aspire to,
21:51but as a way of tempting foreigners to come and spend their money.
21:56Foreigners like Alan Wicker.
22:01Austrian Emperors, German Kaisers, Russian Tsars all strolled through these quiet colonnades.
22:09The local hotel registration books read like a roll call of the famous.
22:14And, remarkably, the place has changed very little since those illustrious guests strolled this way.
22:23Take this hotel, the largest social centre in Central Europe, with 800 rooms.
22:28Today, it's casting seductive eyes towards those banished aristocrats who happen to have hard currency.
22:34And much is being done to lure them back to the patrician surroundings that they once knew so well.
22:39But, perhaps, to solve its Communist conscience, the Hotel Moscow Poop leaves by every bedside a brochure in which it says,
22:49How many famous and more or less important people from all parts of the world this hotel has welcomed within its walls since its foundation.
22:57But, for a long, long time, it did not consider those through whose work, drudgery, privation and sweat this proud enterprise was created.
23:06The simple working classes. The heroes of the commonplace everyday life.
23:11Today, however, the Grand Hotel Moscow belongs to them, the true rulers of this country. Belongs to them.
23:20They can't actually come in here, of course. It's far too expensive and it's reserved for foreigners.
23:26But, it belongs to them. Come the revolution, you'll all have hotels.
23:31In a strange way, he was right. The hotel revolution was on its way. Back in Britain, the Grand Hotels were about to face their first serious challenge.
23:44London's new landmark, the Hilton Hotel, 30 stories of it high over once-a-date Park Lane, to say nothing of four more stories underground.
23:58If you head for heights, there's a grandstand view from the rooftop restaurant with that controversial view of Buckingham Palace and the Queen's once-private garden.
24:06This was the first international hotel coming over from America. And having an American company come in with its systems, with its different approaches, was a big, big occasion.
24:23It was a determined statement of American cultural imperialism. It was huge. It was brash. It was modern.
24:33At a time when there were virtually no tall buildings in London, that one towered over everything else.
24:46It gave people an image of the future. I mean, obviously, the 60s was doing that in so many other areas and hotels do manifest what's going on in other parts of society. That's the point of them.
24:57The Park Lane Hilton was a luxurious home away from home for travelling Americans. But what they took for granted was a revelation to the British.
25:09It was air-conditioned. There were very few hotels air-conditioned. I mean, you didn't have air-conditioning at the Savoy or the Ritz or anywhere.
25:17You got lots of lifts and the lifts were faster. I mean, these were things that people went, my God, you know.
25:23It wasn't just the technology that was innovative. It was the Hilton style of service, too.
25:30Grand hotels were about paying attention and being servile, standing to attention and receiving orders.
25:37The American service ethic was far more upfront and in your face.
25:44This is where America scored.
25:49The Americans do smile and say, hi, how are you, and hello.
25:53And I think that people within the travelling public, when I say people, enjoyed that, enjoyed that difference.
26:02In 1963, 12 Hilton hotels opened around the world. Modern mansions built for the 60s plutocrat.
26:19Mr Hilton, why are all your hotels so alike, so American?
26:23I don't believe that they are so alike. I believe they're all different. And that is something that we have thought of a long time.
26:33We do not even call our hotels a chain. We call them a system of hotels and they are all different.
26:41But the whole point was standardisation. From Park Lane to Addis Ababa, you always knew what you were getting.
26:48The campaign was, wherever you landed, you just said, take me to the Hilton.
26:53And, of course, you could get a BLT and a club sandwich and a burger.
26:58You wanted to know that you could get international standards, meaning American standards, everywhere.
27:06And you wanted to know that it was hygienic. Is it safe to drink the water?
27:11Hilton water was different from everyone else's water. Not only was it safe, it was cool.
27:19Well, let's talk about it just for a second. Do you know what that was? Iced water.
27:24Wherever you went, you got iced water. Tell me when you get iced water now.
27:29You don't go into a hotel or a restaurant, anywhere, and get iced water.
27:33And yet, in those days, that's what you got. Iced water.
27:37Brethren, in the beginning, there was darkness upon the face of the earth, and there was no iced water.
27:47And Hilton said, let there be iced water.
27:51And in every bathroom, pipes ran with plenteous iced water, and Hilton saw that it was good.
27:56Then he said, let there be music.
27:58And in every lobby, single studio parlour, double French bedroom, and luxury suite.
28:03Nay, in every elevator, other pipes gushed with plenteous candid music.
28:08And Hilton said, let the earth bring forth Hilton's yielding fruit after their kind.
28:14And the El Paso Hilton begat the Beverly Hilton, which begat the Puerto Rico Hilton, which begat the Istanbul Hilton,
28:23which begat the Panama Hilton, which begat the...
28:27I think what Conrad Hilton wanted to do was to establish a standard worldwide
28:32so that people who travelled could always be confident of a standard of comfort.
28:39In a funny way, he was the first person trying to homogenise the world.
28:43And on the seventh day, he rested.
28:47But real luxury isn't off the peg.
28:54If luxury were a town, it would be twinned with exclusivity.
28:59So the super rich flew off in search of something new.
29:03Somewhere they could mingle with members of their own elite group.
29:07On the Caribbean island of Jamaica, they found it.
29:11Frenchman's Cove, the most expensive hotel in the world.
29:19And Alan Wicker was on hand to sample it.
29:23At last I made it.
29:26This is the place where my every wish can be satisfied.
29:30I've been looking for this kind of place for years.
29:33Only a tiny number of people could afford to stay here,
29:39in the private purpose-built villas scattered around 45 acres of tropical paradise.
29:46Throughout the 60s, Frenchman's Cove attracted people like the Queen and Prince Philip,
29:52the Aga Khan, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton,
29:55and of course, a certain reporter.
29:58My desires will come to you
30:04And you wish upon a star
30:09Makes no difference who you are
30:14Right.
30:15Well, now I'm entitled to order anything I want in the world.
30:19And I do mean anything.
30:21Magnums of champagne, mountains of caviar, lashings of smoked salmon.
30:24I can telephone my second cousin in Australia.
30:30I can call for a Cadillac and chauffeur.
30:33For a boat to go out marlin fishing.
30:37For an aircraft to fly me down to Montego Bay for golf.
30:40All this, and it won't cost me a penny.
30:49That's to say, it won't cost me a penny more.
30:52Frenchman's Cove was an all-inclusive package holiday.
30:56In 1966, it cost 700 pounds a fortnight to stay here.
31:01Over a year's pay for a trained chef at the Savoy.
31:05The owner told Alan how real luxury worked.
31:08For instance, it's an established procedure of the hotel that the chef interviews each guest twice a day.
31:14Once for his lunch and secondly for his dinner.
31:18This gives us time to cook everything specifically to order.
31:21But the interesting point is that we end up by having no trouble at all.
31:25Because when the average human being is confronted with an unlimited number of choices like that,
31:31he immediately lays himself back in our hands and says, what do you have?
31:35So we end up by giving everyone baked beans for dinner.
31:46The driving force behind the spread of luxury hotels throughout the 60s was the rise of a new group.
31:52The international business executive transported by jet travel.
32:04As busy businessmen thronged through Heathrow, a new crop of hotels sprang up to accommodate them in the modern grand style.
32:11What these hotels offered was cut price variations on the Hilton Hotel.
32:18Room service, one of the hallmarks of luxury, was reduced to this.
32:28All these hotels were built in response to a government initiative that was itself responding to a crisis in Britain's hotels.
32:36The Labour government decided that there weren't enough hotels and that they would offer a grant.
32:47Not a loan, a grant.
32:50And believe it or not, it was £1,000 a room.
32:54So all the property companies, not hotel companies, property companies, said whoopee.
33:00And so 27 major hotels opened in 1971 in London.
33:07One that was a bed factory.
33:10However, there seems to have been no planning to coordinate the arrival projects.
33:14And the hotels have realised only now just how many rooms are waiting to be let.
33:18In 1971, David Levin flew in the face of the corporate scramble.
33:32Using a government grant, he built a small, bespoke hotel in Knightsbridge.
33:37I said that I was going to build a grand hotel in miniature.
33:43I had to say miniature because we only had 50 rooms.
33:49The capital offered five-star service and accommodation, but not according to the rule book.
33:56A five-star location.
33:57The concept was that you had to be on the Rue Rivoli.
34:02You had to be on the Champs-Élysées.
34:04You had to be on Park Lane.
34:06Or else you were a dud.
34:08There was an American man that said, position, position, position.
34:12That were the three most supports.
34:14Conrad Hilton.
34:16I don't believe that.
34:18And I said, it's not a back street.
34:20There's no such thing as a back street in Knightsbridge.
34:23Having worked in hotels all his life, David Levin had firm ideas about what he wanted to create.
34:32Where he could see the need for innovation in the 70s was in the hotel restaurant.
34:38You need to understand that the world did not go to a hotel to eat.
34:48The world came to a hotel to stay and there would be what was called a dining room, not a restaurant.
34:53I mean, if I tell you that the Automobile Association, that was really the only hotel restaurant guide,
35:01demanded an establishment to have five stars.
35:05It required one fresh vegetable on the menu.
35:09The rest were tinned or frozen.
35:12And I just felt the standards, particularly in this country, were so low
35:15that it would be a joy to improve them.
35:22He took on a chef called Richard Shepherd and their fresh approach to hotel dining made headlines.
35:29We had a wonderful write-up in the Evening Standard and it was written by a man called Quentin Crewe,
35:37who absolutely closed restaurants.
35:39I mean, he was so sort of difficult.
35:41Quentin Crewe said, I ate a scallop moose spiced with sea urchins and my friends had lobster bisque.
35:50It was so fresh and pure of taste that it seemed as if a wizard had just spoken sharply to some lobsters and they'd turned into soup.
35:58But we were full that night the Evening Standard came out.
36:04That was how desperate people were to find good food.
36:08In 1974, the Capital Hotel restaurant was awarded a Michelin Red Star for excellence.
36:15But the guide was less impressed by some of our other more famous hotels.
36:22We can't see you very well because you don't want to be recognised in restaurants and hotels.
36:27What would you like me to call you?
36:29C'est monsieur Dupont. Being French, Dupont is quite a good name.
36:34The criteria by which you judge hotels and restaurants presumably haven't changed over the years.
36:38But the 25 stars in this edition go to restaurants which you call are good in their class.
36:47Yes.
36:48But the world famous restaurants like the Ritz, the Savoy Grill, not good in their class?
36:52Well, maybe not regular enough as far as we have.
36:56I think 474.
36:58Is that all there is?
37:02Is that all there is?
37:05Is that all there is, my friends?
37:11Some of what was on offer in Britain's five-star hotels seemed little different from a B&B,
37:18apart from the theatres surrounding it.
37:22Room service.
37:24It wasn't just food. It was standards generally, and the problem was widespread.
37:32Why did hotels lose their way in the 70s?
37:36They were mediocre.
37:38They just didn't seem to be driven by people with passion.
37:41I think they just rested in their laurels.
37:45And then one day realised that they had empty dining rooms.
37:48They wakened up one day and said, what are we going to do?
37:50We are dying.
37:52It looked as though luxury had lost its lustre.
37:55But each decade somebody comes along and shines it up again.
38:01I think the hotel world, like everything, is a combination of the established companies who have a great deal of money and access to marketing and connections and the machine, basically.
38:18And the innovators, who are invariably on the outside. I mean, innovation always comes from the outside. It never comes from the middle. That's just a fact of life in everything.
38:29I think I was running a strange little life between Portobello Road and being a sort of strange actress.
38:41And I was talking to people and coming across from Italy. They're coming across from LA. There's nowhere to stay between a bed and breakfast dump and the Ritz or the Dorchester or anywhere. There wasn't an in-betweeny.
38:54There wasn't that old thing that I started, a home away from home. And that's how I got started.
39:06The 70s saw a new group join the ranks of the rich. Young millionaires from the music and creative industries. They were sophisticated, well-travelled and knew what they wanted.
39:18And Anoushka Hempel gave it to them with Blake's, a whole new kind of hotel.
39:33Hotels up to that point had not been fun and young. The young weren't really acknowledged.
39:38So what Anoushka Hempel did was to create this very funky hotel. And it was really decadent. And that suited the age because it was naughty.
39:53It was very ahead of its time. It was very sexy. It was very glamorous. It wasn't about business. It was about affairs and fabrics and souffles with gold leaf.
40:07And it was expensive. And it was a jewel. And I loved it.
40:11It became synonymous with sort of sex, basically. And with a very sort of international jet set slash rock and roll crowd. That was its mythology.
40:29Anoushka Hempel had created one of the first small, stylish independent hotels that later became known as boutique.
40:42She recognised that there was a new, more informal, more design-educated kind of customer there who absolutely didn't want to stay
40:52with geriatric Americans in a city centre hotel.
41:03Rock stars belonged to an elite, but they weren't the elite.
41:07That accolade belonged to the sheikhs of the Middle East, whose oil had propelled them into the Premier League of Wealth.
41:14We think the British had invaded us some time ago. We are giving you back a touristic invasion, economical one, so England is gaining twice.
41:31There were very opulent times. They definitely were in another league as far as spending is concerned, and what they wanted.
41:39The Arabs arrived in the mid-70s and embraced everything that Britain had to offer.
41:57My children, actually, they enjoy staying here in London because they have a lot of things to do.
42:01What sort of things?
42:04I've been going to the zoos, going to the museums, going to Brighton, to the beach.
42:12They love our weather, and I know that sounds extraordinary, but during the summer months in the Middle East,
42:19if you have an average of 45 to 50 degrees centigrade, wouldn't you want to come here to London and enjoy the beautiful weather that we have?
42:28They just adore that.
42:35This wealthy group stayed in the best hotels and flushed the cash.
42:40And in hotels, that gets you a lot of service.
42:43They love hotels.
42:44I remember when I was a young manager, and the first Middle East guests arrived in abundance.
43:01I was the only one who didn't end up with five gold watches.
43:04I must never have been in the right place, but all the staff would go, I've been given another Rolex.
43:10Arab guests didn't just stay in hotels, they bought them.
43:15Most famously, the Dorchester in Park Lane, for nine million pounds.
43:20Why are the Arabs particularly interested in a hotel which is something of a British institution?
43:26I think that is why they are interested in it.
43:29They want a hotel which is essentially British, with all the tradition that goes with it.
43:33Tourists with money to spend knew what they wanted from the UK, tradition, and what was left of our aristocratic past and its luxurious trappings.
43:50The owners of grand hotels realised they were perfectly positioned to get in on the act.
43:57In 1981, the new owner of the Ritz gave it an extravagant facelift.
44:07Four million pounds was spent on restoring the hotel to deluxe splendor.
44:17And the BBC were allowed in to make a documentary.
44:21They found the Ritz flogging heritage tourism at £4.50 a head for tea.
44:28Tea at the Ritz is now one of the things to do on the European tour.
44:32You can sit next to a pop singer, a politician, or the princess, Helena Mutafia.
44:37What is it about the Ritz that attracts you?
44:42Well, it's quite dignity, really.
44:45The surroundings are very gracious and it is quiet.
44:49And I don't know if a place like the Ritz gives that particular atmosphere.
44:56Everybody should enjoy what is beautiful in life.
45:03And this place is truly beautiful, so let people enjoy it.
45:08There are probably not many people in England today who can afford to enjoy it.
45:17Yes, I agree, but they can always come to tea.
45:20To stay at the Ritz in 1981 cost about £200 a night.
45:28That included breakfast.
45:30Lord Carnarvon, now 83, has been coming to the Ritz for 60 years.
45:39In the 20s, his lordship got free Borden lodging in exchange for encouraging his wealthy friends to stay here.
45:45Now he has to pay his bill with the best of them.
45:49Two of cocots, I think.
45:51Thank you very much, sir.
45:52Well, I'm ready whenever you are.
45:53Thank you, sir.
45:54Coffee?
45:55Coffee.
45:56That's right.
45:57Well, pour it out there, would you mind?
45:58Pour it out there.
45:59Put the coffee in there.
46:00Right, sir.
46:01Do as I tell you.
46:02And then bring, I want a saccharine, do you see?
46:05Right, sir.
46:06A lot of sugar.
46:07That's right.
46:08That'll do.
46:09Milk, sir?
46:10That'll do.
46:11Is it milk?
46:12No, no milk, always black.
46:13Here's your toast, sir.
46:14Put the toast down.
46:15I want some butter.
46:17And then hurry up the eggs, because that'll obviously be all night.
46:20Right, sir.
46:21Right, you are.
46:22Thank you very much.
46:23You must get on with it.
46:24They take about three quarters of an hour to bring anything.
46:27But there you are.
46:28That's life.
46:29I think something's arriving.
46:31Good boy.
46:32That's right.
46:33Pop him down.
46:34Thank you very much.
46:36There's soup.
46:37All right.
46:38I want the marmalade and the butter.
46:41That's right.
46:42Thank you very much.
46:44And the marmalade.
46:45I think we're all set now.
46:46Thank you very much indeed.
46:47Thank you very much indeed.
46:48Thank you so much.
46:50And freeze the butter with balls and pencil.
46:57However, never grumble about anything in life.
47:02That's a great motto.
47:04The new look Ritz was not all to Lord Carnarvon's taste.
47:10The makeover had got rid of some traditional luxury touches he'd once enjoyed.
47:15I miss one thing only here.
47:21And that is the baths.
47:23They used to be huge, great, wonderful baths.
47:27But I quite understand the reason.
47:29Americans, for instance, they're used to taking showers.
47:34And they don't like these big, old-fashioned baths like I used to like so much.
47:39And the staff didn't like the changes either.
47:42These bathrooms were really beautiful before.
47:46They had lovely battersea glass tiles and beautiful porcelain baths.
47:53They sparkled, yes.
47:56Just kind of a bath man would like.
47:59Said he could swim in it.
48:02They had to use a sledgehammer to break them up, to take them out.
48:07I thought the end of the world had come.
48:19For a certain way of life, the end of the world had come.
48:22Lord Carnarvon and his ilk were finding it financially tougher than in the old days.
48:28High taxation had seen many of the aristocracies struggle to keep their country houses running.
48:34So many of them had begun to let in the hoi polloi.
48:38By opening their houses as museums, or filling their gardens with lions.
48:44Some had even turned them into luxury hotels.
48:47Country house hotels were run in a very personal way.
48:53Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't.
48:56They would have six wonderful bedrooms, and fifteen dreadful bedrooms,
49:05because they were originally for staff.
49:07But they would tend to employ local people, and they would tend to do the things that they liked.
49:13The aristocracy liked.
49:16A fire burning in the bedroom, you know, because that's the way we were used to.
49:23Well, I have to tell you, that's quite dangerous.
49:26Breakfast would be laid out on a sideboard with a hot plate, and it would just be wrecked.
49:33I mean, because they would do it at eight o'clock, and you came down at ten o'clock.
49:38So there were just all these little foibles that were unprofessional.
49:42It was quite amateurish.
49:44But they shot up in popularity.
49:51From the ages on, wealthy city folk went off for the weekend to get a slice of country living.
49:56However, the landed rich weren't used to serving other people.
50:00So what the city guests wanted, and what they got given, were two different things.
50:07There was a feeling, you're kind of lucky to be coming to stay with us.
50:10And don't worry too much about the odd bit of peeling paint,
50:13or maybe the beds aren't quite as comfortable as you would have hoped,
50:16because you're in this wonderful building built in whatever century made of whatever,
50:20and, you know, someone very famous has probably said something here,
50:24and isn't this a wonderful historical stay you're having.
50:27Well, actually, no.
50:28They often weren't fantastically well run.
50:31And they often weren't, didn't have, you know, the food was often very cliched.
50:36And they talked all the time about the food.
50:38You know, there'd be somebody who would come to your table and tell you about the food.
50:41You know, leave it out. I don't want to know.
50:44I just wanted to put on my jeans and throw a bag in the back of the car
50:47and race down to somewhere, and I didn't want to put on a jacket
50:51or have a sommelier overwhelm it with a ten-page wine list.
51:00It took a city type to change the country house hotel.
51:04In the 90s, entrepreneur Nick Jones had set up Soho House,
51:09a private club in London that catered for creative and media types.
51:14Now he began looking around for a country house to turn into a hotel.
51:19And found Babington House in Somerset.
51:23Nick Jones, along with friends like the actor Neil Morrissey, saw the potential to innovate.
51:30Do you like it?
51:31I love it. I love it.
51:33This is a perfect bar area.
51:35This is a long bar down here.
51:38They knew what they wanted because they knew what they didn't want.
51:43What we're trying to do here is create something which is totally different
51:48from what else is out in the country at the moment,
51:51which is like the typical country house hotel, which is full of chints and full of restrictions.
51:56And, you know, as soon as you walk in, you feel like you've done something wrong
51:59or put your foot in the wrong place, etc.
52:02People love the country and people want to come to the country,
52:05but they don't come to the country because of the complete country restrictions
52:09which are imposed on them.
52:11And I think what we're trying to do here is bring a bit of London,
52:14a bit of urbanised way of life to the country.
52:20The task of remodelling the country house hotel in a more creative way
52:25was given to Ilsa Crawford.
52:28It was a brilliant house and it was a house that had been in the same family for generations
52:33and they'd lost it in the Lloyd's crash.
52:36And certainly for me the most important thing was to make it into this house
52:40where people really felt that they could enjoy the whole house,
52:43let's say your mythical mate's place,
52:45where the parents had gone away for the weekend
52:47and left the keys to the drinks cabinet.
52:49This new take on the country house hotel
52:52had the moneyed media set piling down to rural Somerset to relax.
52:58It was Notting Hill goes to the country.
53:01So everybody knew everybody and it had a spa.
53:04And the most important dynamic of the last few years,
53:08which you never had in the 60s or 70s, was the spa.
53:13They knew who their guests were and they provided what they wanted.
53:20And then the idea that you would then go down to a country house
53:23and dress up and whisper.
53:26Finito.
53:31Babington House played into the boutique hotel explosion of the 90s.
53:35This was all about defining a niche market
53:38and then designing a hotel that could serve it.
53:44They were responding to the idea of clubability,
53:47that you would meet other people like yourself there.
53:54Your hotel says more about you than cash ever can.
53:56It's all about fashion.
54:01Just the same, the way you wear your clothes
54:04and the different style of clothes that you wear.
54:07Hotels have to be relevant and up to date.
54:11Anoushka Hemphill, who'd done so much to kick-start the boutique habit
54:15with Blake's Hotel, rang the changes with the Hemphill.
54:21I'm sort of giving you the maximum in a minimalistic way.
54:26You've got posts on the bed that go up into infinity
54:28to make it very tall and very peculiar and funny to sleep in.
54:32All the rooms have got their own uniqueness.
54:33They've all got their own strangeness.
54:36What's this big hole above our heads?
54:38Hole?
54:40This is an atrium.
54:41Come and I'll take you into it.
54:43I'll stand you here and you too can fly.
54:45It's not just bed and board and a base for being in a town
54:54or any of those very fundamental human needs.
54:57It's something to blow your mind aesthetically.
55:00It's an experience.
55:05Gordon Campbell Gray created one Aldwych in Piccadilly
55:10with a hotel bar designed to tempt outsiders in.
55:15I wanted to create a snob-free zone where everyone was treated the same,
55:18which was quite new for a five-star hotel.
55:21So I hired only Australian doormen
55:25because they don't understand something.
55:26You couldn't educate them to be snobbish.
55:28They don't get it.
55:29So they welcomed everybody and that was our magic formula.
55:33The goring hotel where Kate Middleton stayed for the royal wedding
55:44has spent a lot of money on recreating its glamorous Edwardian origins.
55:50It now looks as though it hasn't changed for a hundred years.
55:54But it has.
55:55It was the very rich and the elite that used to come into our hotel.
56:01But nowadays it's business people.
56:03People, they come in for tea, coffee.
56:05In the morning our lounge is full up with people just having small meetings and that
56:10because they want somewhere to sit and be comfortable.
56:12It's nearly fifty years since a BBC documentary predicted that the writing was on the walls for the luxury hotel.
56:28They were wrong.
56:31There are nearly ten hotels opening here.
56:34There are over fifty hotels opening in New York.
56:37Six in Paris.
56:39And this is during the time of recession.
56:43Hotels are huge.
56:48Once there was a consensus as to what a luxury hotel was.
56:52It was a Savoy.
56:54A Ritz.
56:55It was butlers and bellboys and glamour and guilt.
57:01But the movers and shakers of each generation have demanded different things.
57:04So five-star hotels have offered clever variations on the luxury theme.
57:13But luxury has become a much overused word.
57:16Because luxury always needs to outdo itself.
57:19The Burj Al Arab in Dubai is one of a tiny constellation of seven-star hotels.
57:32Built on its own island, the public are not encouraged to go in.
57:36This is today's Grand Hotel.
57:37A playground for the global super rich who can pay up to £12,000 a night for a suite with a revolving four-poster bed and a butler to run them a bath.
57:54Luxury, it appears, has come full circle.
58:01With today's super rich, as keen as the old aristocrats ever were, to keep it for the very select few.
58:09A-list guests, an A-list chef and everything you'd expect at a hotel for the super rich and famous.
58:25And Giles Corrin and Monica Galletti in Samaritz at the Grand Dame of amazing hotels.
58:30All there for you on BBC iPlayer.
58:33There's nothing in life but you.
58:41I never...
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