The Savoy: A landmark of luxury - UK, Travel - The Independent: "The original isn't always the best. Cars, computers, songs by Bob Dylan: so many good ideas have been taken and improved by others. When The Savoy opened in 1889, it was London's first luxury hotel, offering hot and cold running water, 24-hour room service, electric lighting and 'ascending rooms', or lifts, as we now say.There were even telephones in the bathrooms. Indeed, the design included so many en suites that one builder enquired if they expected the guests to be amphibians. For a public used to chamber pots, such luxury was unimaginable. The Savoy has been a byword for style and glamour ever since.
Today, it takes a little more to impress, and the question is whether, after a three-year refurbishment programme, The Savoy can be both the first and last word in luxury. The answer is a defiant 'yes'."
