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For more than 100 years, patrons have been drawn back to the timeless elegance of London's Cadogan Hotel, this most charming of small hotels just off Sloane Square. At this exclusive SW1 hotel, 65 rooms and suites recall their flirtations with some of London society's most pivotal figures. For it was here that England's future King, Edward, would liaise with close friend Lillie Langtry, the famous British actress. And here that playwright and society figure Oscar Wilde sipped hock and awaited his arrest in room 118.
Beyond the walls nearby the chic shopping district, the names are less historic, more iconic. Indulge yourself at Dior, Valentino, Hermes, Prada, Jaeger, Harrods and Harvey Nichols. Feel the pull of the King's Road, birthplace of the Swinging Sixties, and the pulsating playground of the West End. Or enjoy the serene beauty of early-morning Hyde Park.
A recent refit has brought the Knightsbridge hotel's history back to life and brought about a dramatic renaissance. Relax and be pampered among velvet-edged bouclé bedspreads, cotton-twill upholstered chairs and the rich tapestry of colour. Sit serenely in the hotel gardens. Keep the fires of industry burning in the business centre. Build up an appetite in the fully equipped fitness studio, then let your palate tingle in anticipation of the creative menu options at inventive Langtry's restaurant.
The Cadogan Hotel, built in 1887 in London's SW1, off Sloane Square, was soon to find itself at the heart of Victorian society's most infamous indiscretions. Within the walls of this most stately of West End London hotels, some of society's pre-eminent figures came together in a tumult of controversy.
Society beauty, courtesan and actress Lillie Langtry lived at 21 Pont Street from 1892 to 1897. Even after she had sold the house, Lillie would stay in her old bedroom, by then a part of the hotel.
It was at The Cadogan Hotel that Lillie would court Edward, the future King of England. Meanwhile, in 1895, Victorian society was rocked by the arrest of playwright Oscar Wilde at the hotel. The incident, in room 118, was immortalised by John Betjeman in his poem, "The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel"
Today, there's a quieter rhythm to life at The Cadogan Hotel. The drawing room and inter-connecting private dining rooms smack of elegantly modernised Edwardian beauty. The hotel gardens offer a leafy and serene escape. The Cadogan sits apart from its homogenised West End contemporary hotels: a hotel noted for calm demeanour from an altogether more-genteel age.
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