Magazine AD : A cult palace on the edge of Hyde Park
The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, one of the most luxurious establishments in Europe, reopens in majesty after several years of colossal and meticulous work.
We have rarely seen such a sumptuous building. Imagine, on the edge of Hyde Park, five stories above the eaves scalloped with turrets and arches designed by an architect whose Edwardian personality had nothing against Flemish harshness – all these bricks and all these angles will remind you of the posh corners of the Flat Country. Originally, it was a gentlemen’s club, obviously very private and very stuffy, a culture of self-esteem whose establishment, over its long history, has never been too departed. Today, he officiates under the Mandarin Oriental banner. After a long renovation of tens of millions of pounds sterling, it is once again shining brightly.
So you have to see the debauchery of marbles – gray, pink, white, black – which the lobby is adorned with: it is to make you shiver. So you must revel in these Art Deco coquetries that dot the rooms: let’s touch these duck blue or bottle green headboards, so sensual, in quilted leather, leaf through a book in the light of these spherical suspensions which act as lamps bedside or we curl up in these wingchairs while listening absently to the falling rain. Joyce Wang, the interior decorator, got it right by avoiding the pitfalls of coldness or did you see me, while the Vinci group, expert in motorways and airports but not only, assured, under the brand Plendi by Vinci Construction, the good performance of the works.
