The site now occupied by The Ritz at 150 Piccadilly has previously been home to several similar businesses.

The Old White Horse Cellar was once one of the most famous coaching inns in England, later the site was occupied by the Bath Hotel and then the Walsingham House Hotel, which was demolished to make way for The Ritz.

Construction of The Ritz began in 1905 and the building was completed remarkably quickly, in large part due to the efforts of Swedish engineer Sven Bylander who designed its steel frame, something of a rarity in European buildings at the time.

The actual design of the hotel is the work of architects Charles Mew's and Arthur Davis. Mew's, a Frenchman and London born Davis had worked with C'sar Ritz before on the Hotel Ritz in Paris, and The Carlton in London.

For The Ritz London they drew up a stunning French chateau-style masterpiece with a wealth of clever details; light wells allowed rooms with no outside windows natural light, projecting dormer windows and tall chimneys broke the skyline. Some of the details are less functional; the copper lions on the corner of the roof are purely decorative.

Inside, the French theme continues; Mew's designed the interiors with a single Louis XVI theme incorporating all of C'sar Ritz's many requirements like double glazing, a sophisticated (for the time) ventilation system, a bathroom for every guestroom.

Leading off the lobby is the Long Gallery, a vaulted space that runs almost the whole length of the building. The absence of walls or doors means it's possible to see down its whole length, through The Restaurant and out over the hotel's Italian Gardens and across Green Park.

Off the Long Gallery are many of the hotel's key rooms, all with their own fascinating histories: The Restaurant, often described as one of the most beautiful dining rooms in Europe features so many chandeliers the ceiling had to be specially reinforced to cope with their weight.

During the Second World War, The Marie Antoinette Suite, a smaller private dining room was used as a venue for Summit Meetings by Churchill, de Gaulle and Eisenhower.