The Berkeley

The Berkeley Hotel
Location within Central London
General information
Location	Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′7.2″N 0°9′21.96″W / 51.502000°N 0.1561000°W / 51.502000; -0.1561000

The Berkeley is a five star deluxe hotel, located in Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London. It is managed by Maybourne Hotel Group, who also manage Claridge's and The Connaught in Mayfair, London.

Located on the corner of Piccadilly and Berkeley Street, it was the base for the drivers of mail coaches travelling to the West Country, and hence named the Gloucester coffee house. As a result, it started to expand, and became a hotel for travellers both to and from London who were travelling on the mail coach services.

With the coming of the railways, in 1897 the building was formally renamed The Berkeley Hotel, a location trusted by the parents of debutantes to keep an eye on the reputation of their daughters.

In 1900 Richard D'Oyly Carte bought the hotel, and his family remained in control for the next century. In the 1920s The Berkeley became one of the first London hotels with air conditioning, and in the 1930s double glazing. Ferraro, the maitre d'hotel of the Berkeley, was a fixture of London nightlife in the 1930s, and appears in several novels of the period, such as Dennis Wheatley's 'Three Inquisitive People' (written 1932, but not published till 1940).

In 1972, the hotel moved to a new building designed by British architect Brian O'Rorke on Wilton Place, Knightsbridge. Incorporating restored features from the original building, it is also unique in that it boasts London's only rooftop swimming pool. Although the Savoy Hotel in the Strand also has pool open to the sky, that pool is located in an atrium on the third floor.