London Marriott Grosvenor Square Celebrates 25 Years with £19M Refurbishment and Gordon Ramsay’s Maze Grill

Urban luxury

A multi-million pound investment and a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant are helping the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square celebrate its 25th anniversary

Marriott International, Inc. is a leading worldwide hospitality company. Its heritage can be traced to a soft-drink stand opened in Washington DC in 1927 by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott. Today, Marriott International has nearly 2800 lodging properties in 70 countries and territories around the world, with nearly 60 operating in the UK & Ireland.

Fusing contemporary chic with classic luxury, the five-star London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square is located in fashionable Mayfair, just seconds from Park Lane and Oxford Street. April 2009 was a significant month for this particular hotel, as it marked the completion of a £19 million pound major refurbishment programme, which took the hotel in an ultra-luxurious and contemporary direction.

The project included the creation of 45 club rooms and suites (12 with a private garden); 92 standard deluxe and superior bedrooms; an exclusive Club Lounge; four new meeting rooms and a new restaurant – maze Grill – created by Gordon Ramsay and Jason Atherton, complete with three elegant private dining rooms.

The new maze and maze Grill restaurants differ from each other slightly. The Michelin starred maze serves French food, but breaks the formal traditions of French cuisine by adopting Asian influences in tasting-sized dishes. Customers can order individually or sample many dishes to create an innovative dining experience. maze also offers a private dining option, where three rooms offering maze menus are available – the Hampton and Somerton seating 40 guests each and the Dalby seating ten. Inside the restaurant, maze View overlooks the kitchen and also seats ten guests.

Available for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the maze Grill: Steakhouse takes its inspiration from the informal style of New York’s grill restaurants, and features an exquisite selection of different breeds and cuts of beef cooked over coal, alongside a number of other grilled meat and fish dishes. The beef on the menu includes Casterbridge grain fed, aged 21 days, Hereford grass fed, aged 25 days, Aberdeen Angus grass fed, aged 28 days, Creekstone prime USDA corn fed, aged 35 days and Wagyu ‘9th grade’ Gold style – allowing diners to specify their preference and enjoy a meal cooked to their exact tastes.

The hotel’s major refurbishment was undertaken under the watchful eye of United Designers who took all aspects of the hotel forward to the modern day with sensitivity and style in a bold design statement for a branded hotel group.

Originally built as a stately townhouse, and inspired by the grand residences of Mayfair, the London Marriott Grosvenor Square has been recreated as the epitome of Englishness – but reinterpreting these aspects for the modern day with unique features such as fireplaces, four poster beds, rose gardens and oak floors. The project has also maximised the limited space of the building’s footprint by housing new meeting rooms, Club Lounge, gymnasium and cloakrooms in a disused basement car park. A new striking double-entranced marble staircase now leads down from the lobby to this reclaimed space.

As a result of this innovative approach, the London Marriott Grosvenor Square has some of the largest pillar free meeting space in London: The Westminster Ballroom can accommodate up to 1000 guests for a reception or 900 for a meeting, offering 765 square metres of uninterrupted space and can be divided into three sections for the ultimate flexibility.

The Mayfair Suite is located on the lower ground floor and is connected to the main conference level by the double marble staircase. Suitable for independent events or in conjunction with the Ballroom, this versatile space comes complete with its own pre-function area and can seat 160 guests for dinner or 200 conference delegates. This area comprising 300 square metres can also divide into four individual rooms for smaller meetings.

The finished result of the multi-million pound investment is a hotel that offers guests striking contemporary interiors that are paired with modern comforts – rooms with plush duck and goose down bedding, WiFi connectivity and the latest technology come standard throughout. In addition, the Club Level offers a range of rooms and suites that have raised 31the bar to heights previously unheard of in urban
luxury living.

A year after its refurbishment and the hotel is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the appointment of three new executive personnel – John Hazard who has taken on the role of general manager, Georgina Evagora as director of sales & marketing and Moira Azzopardi who is as the new director of revenue strategy.

Prior to joining the London Marriott Grosvenor Square, John held the position of general manager for the Bristol Royal Marriott where he showed impressive sales leadership during the economic downturn. John has also worked with other leading hotel brands such as Comfort Inn, Choice Hotels and Premier Lodge. John has taken up his new position as general manager and his broad knowledge of the hotel industry will be greatly welcomed in this new role.

Commenting on his new appointment, John said: “I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to join one of London’s leading hotels as the new general manager. I hope that the hotel will benefit from my previous experience and I look forward to working alongside both Georgina and Moira during my time here.”