Connaught Hotel

Executive summary by darmansjah

The Connaught in Carlos Place, Mayfair, central London, is a five star hotel.

The hotel first opened in 1815 as the Prince of Saxe Coburg Hotel, an offshoot of a hotel opened by Alexander Grillon in Albemarle Street, Mayfair, and was originally a pair of Georgian houses in Charles Street, near Grosvenor Square. The Duke of Westminster decided to redevelop the area, and the street was changed, becoming Carlos Place. In 1892 Scorrier, the owner, applied to rebuild the hotel although work did not start until two years later, when the original houses were demolished.

In 1897, the Coburg Hotel was reopened. In 1917, during World War I, the decision was made to change the name to the less-German "Connaught". The name chosen was taken from the title of Queen Victoria’s 3rd son, Prince Arthur, the first Duke of Connaught.

In 1935, Rudolph Richard, a young Swiss hotelier, became general manager of the Connaught and ran the hotel almost as an English private house, with the highest standards of comfort and service. In 1956, the Connaught was acquired by the Savoy Group, owners of Claridge's, The Berkeley and the Savoy Hotel in London. In 2005, the Savoy Group, including the Connaught, was sold to Quinlan Private, which sold off the Savoy Hotel and Savoy Theatre and renamed the group Maybourne Hotel Group