Savoy Hotel grand sale

It's the end of an era down on the Strand. Next month The Savoy will close its doors for an 18-month, £100 million refurbishment. Time Out takes a look around the historical hotel before it sells 3,000 items in an auction held by Bonhams

Value for Monet: the contents of the suite where the French artist stayed and painted his famous Thames scenes will be auctioned in lots 1,857-1,880

London has its fair share of grand hotels with illustrious pasts and lavish interiors – Claridge's, The Ritz and The Dorchester, for example. But none has quite the heady glamour, sense of drama or quirky charms of The Savoy. Perched elegantly on the banks of the Thames – with a view famously immortalised by Claude Monet – it's been the scene of some of the city's most spectacular parties, scandalous affairs, and even a murder. Next month it will be possible to bid for a little (or large) portion of The Savoy's glamorous history in a massive sale which takes place from December 18-20. Doors will be flung open for the public to visit and salivate over the contents from December 16-17. Feature continues

The Savoy's refurbishment is not simply a case of a smart new coat of paint and a few shiny bathroom suites, but a complete overhaul inside and out. 'So many people have a very fixed perception of what The Savoy means, and for that reason they are very forgiving of what it is… but we do need to update it and auction off an amount of the contents,' says the hotel's general manager, Kiaran MacDonald. Fairmont, the American hotel group that took over management of The Savoy in 2005, has enlisted architects Reardon Smith Associates to deal with practicalities like stabilising the structure of the riverfront elevation. Parisian design firm Pierre-Yves Rochon has been commissioned to restyle the interiors, working the most most iconic items – such as the grand-arching art deco mirrors in the Thames Foyer – into a plush new hotel that can compete with other revamped classic luxury hotels in London such as Brown's and The Berkeley.

Lamp and mirror from the Harris Suite

Cataloguing the 2,998 items that will be auctioned has proved a Herculean task. Charlie Thomas, Bonhams' specialist-in-charge of The Savoy Sale, has been working on the project for almost a year, estimating values on every item from the opulent pair of painted tole-and-ceramic chandeliers (lot 68) in the Thames Foyer, which he predicts will fetch £10,000-£15,000, to the handsome birch and satinwood art deco infinity mirrors (lot 145) estimated to sell for £600-£800. Plus, 181 of its custom-made Savoir beds will be sold complete with springbox, headboard, duvet and linen at an estimated value of £200-£600 each, depending on which room they were in. But for the real bargain hunter there will also be smaller souvenirs like asparagus tongs, chrome ashtrays and silver butler's plates which could sell from £20. 'There are no reserves so it's unpredictable,' says Thomas. That means if not many people are interested in one particular item, you'll be able to buy it for a very low price. But while the more everyday items like the silver tableware or tea saucers adorned with the 'S' logo are all well and good, it's the items with starry links that will be the hottest lots.

While it's almost impossible to say whether Marilyn Monroe's behind graced this chair or Winston Churchill stubbed a cigar out in that ashtray in the sale, it's probable that the rooms with the grandest histories will garner the most attention and the items from them the highest prices. 'It's difficult to link a specific piece of furniture to someone,' says Savoy archivist Susan Scott. 'We don't have a picture of Winston Churchill sleeping in any specific bed – although we know he loved the art deco aluminium wastepaper baskets.' (Sadly, among the few items not for sale.)

George III chest from the Harris Suite

'Some items are genuinely good antiques, others have little monetary value… but providence is enough,' adds Thomas. Personally, he's mad about the wooden parquet dancefloor inset with fairy lights in the Lancaster Ballroom (lot 152 at an estimate of £400-£600).

In room 610/611, the gloriously light-filled Monet Suite, most things will be for sale. 'A lot of this stuff isn't hugely academically important but it's just fascinating because it's attached to this suite, one of the most important in London,' says Thomas. Sadly there aren't any original Monet works but The Savoy is selling a large print of his Thames view in a gilt frame from its art collection (lot 2,981), which is estimated to reach £200-£300. Up a floor in room 758/759, the atmospheric suite where the late actor Richard Harris resided, is one of Thomas' favourite items: an exquisite George III mahogany serpentine chest that's estimated to sell for £3,000-£5,000. Down in room 408, where Alfred Hitchcock stayed when he was in town, is a particularly fetching chest of drawers and a fine Victorian Chesterfield sofa.

The sale has kept Scott busier than ever checking facts and origins of items. 'I just found Dame Nellie Melba's guest card,' she says. 'It's really challenging. I'm trying to put together a list of names of people who stayed here. She stayed in room 308/309 for 50 nights from November 1919 to January 1920. But I only found that out this morning. After 11 years I'm still finding out things I don't know – it's brilliant.' Scott is remarkably calm about the sale of so much of The Savoy's history. 'I'm not neurotic because furniture starts off front of house and then it gets retired and then it goes into a skip and The Savoy has always done that historically. It's interesting because we are doing it again,' she says, although she does admit she'd rather like a chrome luggage buffer with a large 'S' logo as a souvenir.

A Savoir bed

One of the significant upsides to the cataloguing process was that some lost treasures were found, including the original illustration of the famous 1905 'Gondola party'. The scene depicts the most spectacular party The Savoy has ever witnessed, thrown by American millionaire Mr Geo A Kessler, for which the old courtyard of the original hotel (on which the Lancaster Hall now stands) was flooded.

'In the middle they built a big, big boat with spaces for just 24 people,' explains Scott. 'They dyed the water blue and they put some fish and a few swans in, but the dye disagreed with some of the fish and they died. I think a swan might have bitten the dust, too!' A Venetian scene was painted around the edges and the Pavarotti of the day, Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, was a guest and the after dinner entertainment. The brains behind the operation, Henry Pruger, general manager at the time, even borrowed a baby elephant from London Zoo on which a five-foot birthday cake was presented after the meal. 'It was ridiculously extravagant for not very many people,' says Scott. 'But that's one thing the hotel is really good at doing – putting on a great show.'

So, when the final guest checks out on December 15, The Savoy will be turning its attentions to putting on the sale of the century. 'I do think it's going to be such a blast,' says Scott. 'Just don't expect a late check-out on that day!'
The Savoy Sale will take place at The Savoy, Strand, WC2 on Dec 18, 19 and 20. To bid you'll need to register and buy a catalogue (£33), which will admit two adults to the sale and preview. Viewings are on Dec 16 and 17. For info ring 020 7468 8200 or visit www.bonhams.com.

The decadent 1905 'Gondola party', which saw the courtyard flooded (illustration by Matania, archives of The Savoy, A Fairmont Hotel)

A brief history
Theatrical impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte opened the Savoy Theatre on the Strand to showcase Gilbert and Sullivan's operas in 1881. Such was its success that he decided to open a hotel nearby for theatre-goers from out of town, and in August 1889, The Savoy, London's first luxury hotel, boasting 67 fully plumbed bathrooms (about one for every three rooms), opened its doors. It was the first hotel in London to have electricity throughout and 'ascending rooms' (lifts).

The Swiss hotelier César Ritz was its first manager and opened The Savoy restaurant (before he went on to launch The Ritz) and it became famous for creating many English dishes like Peach Melba after guest Dame Nellie Melba, the Australian opera soprano. The restaurant's maître-chef, the Frenchman Auguste Escoffier, was the inspiration behind the word 'scoff'.

Music – most notably opera and jazz – was an important part of The Savoy from the beginning and was provided in all public places. For this reason it was a magnet for some of the world's best musicians and performers from Puccini to the Beatles and Bob Dylan. But it attracted artists and writers too: Oscar Wilde famously conducted his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas here (in rooms 346-362). So intrinsic was the hotel to Wilde's life that he even references The Savoy in his original transcript of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', which was released the same year, whereby a solicitor turns up to serve a writ on Mr Ernest Worthing for a debt of more than £700 being owed to The Savoy. It is often written out because the scene requires two extra members of the cast and has no real bearing on the main plot.

The Savoy has remained the place of choice to stay for the A-list from Fred Astaire, who danced on the roof; to Marlene Dietrich ,who apparently made love in the Lancaster ballroom (five times!); to Elizabeth Taylor, who spent her honeymoon there with Nicky Hilton (son of Conrad, who later set up the Hilton chain of hotels). More recently, singer Amy Winehouse entertained guests on the piano in the American Bar along with Jamie Cullum and Michael Ball before she was turned out for being too rowdy.

Maggie Davis. Photgraphy Rob Greig, Tue Nov 6 2007