Look closely and you’ll notice a tiny imperfection inside the freshly refurbished Oliver Messel Suite at The Dorchester, on London’s Park Lane. A hairline crack, less than an inch long, is just perceptible in the corner of a mirrored door leading through to the drawing room. But that isn’t because the five-star hotel has scrimped on the restoration work – far from it.
Dreamt up by master theatre designer, Oliver Messel, in 1953, the breathtaking suite is Grade II listed, which means nothing can ever change. Specialist decorators have spent thousands of hours painstakingly refreshing the paintwork, reupholstering the furnishings, and replacing the silk wall-hangings with fabric that matches the designs from over seven decades earlier.
Tearing out an entire mirror, however, isn’t possible. So you’re left to ponder which of the suite’s famous guests could be responsible for this miniature flaw… could it have been Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during a fiery outburst? Or did Kate Moss knock against the door during a wild party in the 1990s?
Whoever it was, it’s a charming reminder of how time has stood still here. And really, that’s the suite’s key draw: whether you’re getting ready for the evening in the gilded bathroom or lying in bed staring up at the yellow canopy, you can’t help but feel like a 1950s Hollywood star.
Messel’s playful design details
You know you’re staying somewhere exclusive when all of the other rooms on the floor are numbered, but your door is embossed with gold lettering proudly announcing The Oliver Messel Terrace Suite. But the most memorable moment comes as you step inside for the first time and catch a glimpse of the Regency-era inspired reception room with its thick red carpet and floral chairs. Beyond it, the long white corridor beckons and you wonder: how big is this place?
Enormous, it turns out. Exploring our lodgings in amazement, we discover the corridor leads to a bright, spacious drawing room. Decorated in shades of green, yellow and pink to mimic an English garden, there are gold details at every turn, an imposing marble fireplace and freshly cut roses in a vase on the mahogany dining table.
Everything has been carefully curated by Messel himself, from his own 18th-century-style landscape paintings that decorate the walls to the playful shelf of leatherbound book spines that turn out to be a mirrored cabinet filled with glassware for entertaining. There are subtle modern additions too, including a flatscreen TV hidden beneath one of the paintings.
The drama doesn’t end there. Curved French doors open onto your own private terrace that wraps around the suite and looks out over the city’s rooftops. Up on the seventh floor of the hotel, it’s so peaceful and quiet that it’s hard to believe the busy thoroughfare of Park Lane is just below. My favourite detail of the space, dotted with pots of flowers, shrubs and garden furniture, is the reclining green wicker chair topped with yellow cushions: you can imagine Marlene Dietrich lounging in the sun here with a whiskey sour.
Hollywood glamour in spades
A knock on the door turns out to be our butler, Richard. Anywhere else this would be completely surreal but here, in this lavish setting, it almost feels as if you’ve been expecting him.
Charming and fun, he instantly puts us at ease, telling us about the suite’s distinguished guests (Whitney Houston, Diana Ross and Prince, to name a few), sharing fascinating historical titbits, and even helping us to open one of the windows. “Every last detail is exactly the same as it was all those years ago,” he says with a grin, and then he leaves as discreetly as he arrived, telling us his team of butlers is at our disposal any time day or night.
By the time we venture into the bedroom, we’re both at a loss for words. Dreamlike and cosy, almost everything in sight is a warm, golden yellow, from the curtain tassels to the imperial yellow Ottoman silk canopy above the enormous (and very comfortable) king-size bed. Framed costume designs by Messel line the walls, and the skirted dressing table is topped with a vintage perfume atomiser with a puffy spray bulb and, of course, a bowl of yellow roses.
The Hollywood glamour spills into the bathroom next door where you’ll find a bathtub with gold-plated taps in the shape of a stylised dolphin, a green marble shower, and a dizzying infinity mirror. You can feel how much fun Messel had here. His trademark mischievous touches are everywhere: the gold Rococo toilet seat shaped like a giant scallop shell is sure to raise a few eyebrows – which is exactly the point.
London is filled with luxury hotels. But this felt different: spending the night in the Oliver Messel Suite isn’t just about extravagance (which it is – very much so!). This is a rare opportunity to step back in time and escape, just for a few hours, into the whimsical world of a stage designer. There is nothing else quite like it.
Irenie was a guest of The Dorchester; dorchestercollection.com