stars of five

The Langham, London was built between 1863 and 1865 at a cost of £300,000. It was then the largest and most modern hotel in the city, featuring a hundred water closets, thirty six bathrooms and the first hydraulic lifts in England. The opening ceremony was performed by the Prince of Wales. After the original company was liquidated during an economic slump, new management acquired the hotel for little more than half what it had cost to build, and it soon became a commercial success. In 1870 a former Union officer named James Sanderson was appointed general manager and the hotel developed an extensive American clientele, which included Mark Twain and the miserly multi-millionairess, Hetty Green. It was also patronised by the likes of Napoleon III, Oscar Wilde, Antonin Dvorak, Arturo Toscanini. Electric light was installed in the entrance and courtyard at the exceptionally early date of 1879, and Arthur Conan Doyle set Sherlock Holmes stories such as A Scandal in Bohemia and The Sign of Four partly at the Langham. The hotel was hard hit by the Great Depression and the owners attempted to sell the site to the BBC , but Broadcasting House was built on the other side of the road instead. During World War II, the hotel was used in part by the British Army and then damaged by bombs and forced to close. After the war, it was occupied by the BBC as ancillary accommodation to Broadcasting House, and the corporation purchased it outright in 1965. In 1980 the BBC unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to demolish the building and replace it with an office development designed by Norman Foster.

In 1986 it was sold to Ladbroke Group for £26 million, which purchased the non-US Hilton business in 1987 and eventually reopened the hotel as the Langham Hilton in 1991 after a £100 million refurbishment. New owners extended the hotel and carried out other refurbishments between 1998 and 2000. Now, it is part of Langham Hotels International (based in Hong Kong), and is the flagship hotel of the group. A further round of refurbishment, costing £80m was completed in April 2009. The reconfigured Langham now has 380 rooms, down from 425, a restored Palm Court which has been serving afternoon tea since 1865, a new business centre and 15 function rooms including The Grand Ballroom which holds up to 375 guests for a reception. The new spaces join the Artesian bar, The Landau restaurant and the private dining room, Postillion, created by designer David Collins.