All my editors love The Dorchester.
My editors at big tabloid newspapers love it. My editors at trend-forward design publications love it, too. What’s not to love? Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp and Britney Spears all agree, there’s nothing nicer in all of London than curling up in a fluffy white bathroom in your suite at this historic and always fashionable legend. General Eisenhower, after all, checked out of Claridge’s to get a room here.
This September, there’s going to be even more Dorchester to love….just down Park Lane from the original. 45 Park Lane is opening on September 1 in an intimate 45-room building overlooking Hyde Park. Designer Theirry Despont (another editor’s heartthrob and the talent behind the Statue of Liberty’s artful makeover) has imagined a refined and retro space with mahogany, clean lines and accents of camel and aquamarine. The 30’s feel is so right for London, a city that often feels as if it’s still got one foot in that stylish era.
Despont has topped his confection with a cherry-luscious suite that features a wraparound balcony with Vista Vision views of the city. The hotel also premieres Wolfgang Puck’s first restaurant in Europe, Cut at 45 Park Lane. With a name like that it would have to be the home of a lot of prime beef and Puck’s meat will be complimented by what is sure to be one of the best wine cellars in town.
And if the property looks familiar to some of the gentlemen out there, it’s because it is housed in the former London Playboy Club which offered up bunny love here from 1966 to 1982. No word yet on whether Hugh Hefner has booked a single or a double.
