The Dorchester, Claridge's, Savoy and the Ritz (aka the big four) were always of course fabulous, but not exactly happening. And Anouska Hempel's hip hotel innovations - she was hiding celebs away in sexy black bedrooms at Blakes 30 years ago, and soon after making waves at the high design of
The Hempel took place on the periphery.
It really took two outsiders hotel design maven Christina Ong, who bought cool, modern, style to Park Lane hotels in 1997 with the Metropolitan, and the Jewish Ian Schrager, who made the boutique hotel an art form in New York and then took on London at the turn of the millennium with St Martins Lane and the Sanderson - to really shake up London wedding Hotel Scene.
Since then, the competition has expanded to include Tim and Kit Kemp, with their Charlotte Street/Covent Garden/Soho Hotel boutique empire - each with its buzzy bar - and suddenly London hotels are the coolest on the planet.
Whether its Leonardo Vicario and Richard Gere out Armani'ing the Armani`d doormen at the Metropolitan (home of Nobu), or Amy Winehouse falling, bruised, out of the Sanderson, celebs are giving the new generation hotels the cred that their neighbours in Mayfair- with the possible exception of the perennially A-list Ritz and Claridge's have ever had.
The result is a rush of activity to refurbish some of the older places and infuse them with the hot colour and cool bars with have made destinations out of place like the Light Bar at St Martins Lane Covent Garden.
The Intercontinental Park Lane has just spent £76 Million attempting to un-bland itself, having already made a coup in landing Theo Randall (formally of the River Cafe) as its signature chef. "Our aspiration is to be in the know" says General Manager Roland Fasel, acknowledging the hotel's need, as part of an international chain, to stand out from a crowd. As part of the strategy the hotel became the trendy official pit stop for sips of champagne and quick changes during the last
London Fashion Week.
Mandarin Oriental faced the same challenge when it took over the old Hyde Park Hotel, which Madonna chose as the base of her comeback tour long before she moved here.
Finally, consideration has to be given to Browns which despite its own expensive refurbishment remains low-key and though resolutely unhip, quite extraordinarily elegant.
Weddings here as with so many top venues include the services of a dedicated planner, and really special party favours for the couple choosing to spend their post-nuptials night in-house.
Not only will they find their bed scattered with rose petals, the present of a monogrammed set of fine Egyptian cotton bed linen to kick of their bottom draw. Rocco Forte certainly knows how to make an offer that few newly weds could refuse.
