London's fabled Savoy Hotel slated for renovation

LONDON -- French impressionist Claude Monet, actor Charlie Chaplin, and U.S. President Harry Truman all stayed in the same fifth-floor suite at London's famed Savoy Hotel.

Frank Sinatra delighted guests by playing on a white grand piano in the restaurant. And the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth II have danced on the ballroom's oak parquet floor.

Yet, after 118 years as the hotel of choice for many celebrities and visiting Americans, the Savoy needs a face lift. Starting today, the furnishings in Monet's suite, the piano Sinatra crooned from, and even the tiles of the Lancaster Ballroom floor will be put up for auction as part of an unprecedented renovation that has seen the hotel close for the first time.

The hotel is eager to soothe the concerns of some Savoy regulars that the auction or the $200 million, 16-month renovation could ruin the antique charm of the hotel, whose blend of Edwardian-period and art-deco style once earned it the moniker of "The Palace by the Thames."

The Savoy stayed open during the World War II blitz and survived it, as did guests who took refuge in its bomb shelter. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had war-cabinet meetings there. After the war, the Savoy hosted the most lavish coronation ball for Elizabeth when she became queen on June 2, 1953.

Kiaran MacDonald, the hotel's general manager, says the hotel will keep its "family jewels" — items such as Kaspar, the legendary statue of a black cat — while more artfully rearranging its hodge-podge blend of decors and upgrading heating, lighting and other infrastructure that had grown a bit musty over the years.

"It will continue to be the Savoy, but to a higher level of elegance," he says.

MacDonald says the hotel decided to sell some items that might not have much historic value, but could have sentimental meaning to people who wanted some of the "spirit of the Savoy."

Among items that will go to auction:

•Prints hanging in the Monet suite of two of the artist's paintings he did from the windows in Rooms 512 and 513: Waterloo Bridge, Overcast Weather and The Houses of Parliament. Each is estimated to go for $400 to $600, according to Charlie Thomas, who catalogued the Savoy's property for the sale for the auction house Bonhams.