The Dorchester hotel in London has offered a sneak peek of the landmark property’s interior redesign and architectural transformation, under the tutelage of Pierre-Yves Rochon. Enhancements cover the hotel entrance, The Promenade, new Cake & Flowers boutique, along with guest rooms and suites. The Dorchester has also enlisted the Martin Brudnizki Design Studio to redesign the hotel bar.
With decades spent fine-tuning a tradition of placing guests at the centre of everything, The Dorchester has found a way to be true to its celebrated past whilst becoming fluent in what matters in an ever-changing world. By cultivating and encouraging sophistication without snobbery, style without excess, and curiosity without judgement, this remarkable hotel embraces its next chapter as the London home from home for those who make the world turn.
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Pierre-Yves Rochon’s vision presents light, fresh and thoughtfully composed rooms and suites designed in varying colourways inspired by an English garden, from pale leaf green and rose fog pink, to heather blue and lemon yellow. New signature and junior suites will be introduced, allowing for spacious and more residential style accommodation for guest comfort.
The Dorchester’s famous façade has been a prominent landmark of Mayfair for over nine decades. New lighting will rejuvenate the exterior, creating a welcoming glow across Park Lane. Guests will arrive onto an enhanced forecourt, featuring a beautiful green granite underfoot and a landscaped, verdant garden area located underneath the renowned plane tree.
The arrival experience will extend into an open lobby, flooded with natural light and bookended by two imposing artworks. Both are truly distinctive, yet each work connects with the other through their celebration of The Dorchester’s prized position, anchored in the landscape since 1931.
The Promenade will capture guests’ imagination as they move beyond the lobby into the heart of the hotel and the setting for vibrant dining experiences, including The Dorchester’s afternoon tea. A new destination will be unveiled towards the end of The Promenade, a glamorous and sparkling area for fun and frivolous evenings of Champagne, seafood and entertainment.
An original collection of contemporary artworks by British artists will be revealed throughout The Promenade. The pieces, uniquely individual and crossing a range of diverse media and techniques, all offer a new take on nature and have been created to evoke the sensation of strolling through a perfectly curated and cultivated British landscape.
Martin Brudnizki is redesigning the hotel’s legendary cocktail institution. Here guests will encounter a bar with movie star looks and a supporting cast of talented bartenders ready to curate evenings of mature fun.
The bar’s new layout allows for a dedicated Park Lane entrance and an outside terrace with views towards Hyde Park. Ornate design runs throughout the bar, including a 1930s Palladium leaf ceiling creating a warm effect as Martini hour transitions into the evening.
A series of Cecil Beaton pieces will hang within the bar to honour a long-standing connection between the photographer and designer and the hotel, and to remind guests of this glamorous decade. Some of Beaton’s original drawings and celebrity photography will be brought together with work by contemporary artists, such as Rosie Emmerson, who were inspired by both Beaton and the energy of that time.
With its own entrance on the Deanery Street corner of the hotel, Cake & Flowers, is an entirely new offering to entice the curious and sophisticated. Feature windows will come alive with captivating masterpieces that showcase the passion and mastery of in-house designer florist, Philip Hammond, and executive pastry chef, Michael Kwan. Within, shelves and cases will be filled with lively delights; signature pastries and cakes to take away, uniquely presented gift hampers, floral bouquets and a selection of Champagnes and artisan chocolates.
The Dorchester will be ready to reveal its new interiors as of early September 2022. The hotel remains open for guests throughout the renovation with its popular afternoon tea served in the beautiful Orchid Room and a Mediterranean concept at The Dorchester Rooftop throughout the summer.
As The Grill, Alain Ducasse and China Tang completed refurbishments in recent years; they will continue to remain open as normal, as will The Dorchester Spa.
See dorchestercollection.com/en/london/the-dorchester/new-beginnings/
Lead image: Dorchester suite render – Pierre-Yves Rochon