18 | Hospitality Today
| Winter
REFURBISHMENT
OF THE
YEAR 2020
The Strand
Palace Hotel
and Haxell’s
restaurant
One of this year’s biggest
refurbishments/relaunches was the
Strand Palace hotel – one of London’s
landmarks both for its enviable location
opposite the Savoy, and for its sheer
scale at 785 bedrooms. However
this ‘grande dame’ of the Strand
had suffered for years with under-
investment, and for quality that failed
to match its position and potential.
That has now been rectified with a
refurbishment programme that has
raised the hotel to four stars, and added
a new restaurant.
In 1907, J. Lyons & Co gained permission
to build a ‘grand’ hotel in the Strand.
Two years later the Strand Palace was
built. However the hotel, on the corner
of Exeter Street and the Strand, was
much smaller then than it is today. In
1922, Lyons acquired the neighbouring
Haxells family hotel, making the Strand
Palace one of the biggest hotels in
London with those 785 guest rooms.
So reviving the historic “Haxells” name
seemed right to the current owners for
the launch of the new art deco style
restaurant and bar at Strand Palace
earlier this year. The 240 cover Haxells
restaurant does all-day dining, serving
guests breakfast, lunch and dinner –