The Mayfair Suite
Picture the scene. It s 20 April 1931, and Lady Astor is cutting the ribbon to open the capital s newest and grandest hotel: The Dorchester. The Terrace is humming with liveried waiters sharpening carving knives and sniffing corks, while Jack Jackson and his orchestra (The Dorchester s resident swing band) provide a background serenade. The moment is instantly iconic. When Sir Robert McAlpine conceived this soaring landmark on Park Lane, constructed in steel and concrete (unlike the other London landmark hotels, which were made of Victorian brick and Portland stone), it represented sheer extravagance, 1930s hubris, Mayfair gone mad.
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The hotel hit the big time in the war years, when it became the social nexus of the capital, with Cecil Beaton commenting on the mixed brew who moved in; from government ministers to General Eisenhower (who used it as his wartime base). Lord and Lady Halifax (who relocated from Belgravia and took nine suites, convertin