Iconic Luxury Hotels is the umbrella brand for five of the UK’s most storied hotels.
Representing the best of city, country and coastal locations, Iconic Luxury Hotels includes 11 Cadogan Gardens in Chelsea and The Mayfair Townhouse in London; the historic Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds; Cliveden House in Berkshire; and Chewton Glen in the New Forest, close to the south coast. Whichever you stay at, each hotel occupies a sublime location, each has a distinctly individual personality, and each offers effortless comfort and a truly authentic experience.
In 2021, some of the hotels navigated the pandemic restrictions to stage live events during a period when joy was somewhat thin on the ground. Chewton Glen launched Summer Vibes, inviting non residents to join in for evenings filled with food, fizz and friends in the walled garden – a roaring success to be continued in summer 2022. The Lygon Arms also hosted Broadway Unplugged, a free acoustic music event inviting the local community and guests to come together and enjoy local music al fresco in its beautiful Cotswolds grounds.
Meanwhile, 11 Cadogan Gardens was playing a central role in a number of charity initiatives, particularly those spearheaded by the community support group Kensington & Chelsea Foundation. Last year, the hotel hosted mock interviews to help people prepare for a return to work, as well as raising funds for Give Where You Live, a campaign to support disadvantaged and vulnerable people in its community, for which guests were invited to add a donation to their bills. It was also the primary fundraiser for Christmas in a Box, a charity collaboration that provided over 8,000 boxes of Christmas lunch and gifts to families or older people who may have been struggling. The hotel was again to be found packing the boxes for people in need at Christmas 2021.
The Iconic hotels have come through a challenging period for the hospitality industry with armfuls of awards, including an AA rosette for culinary excellence at 11 Cadogan Gardens, a best new hotel on Condé Nast Traveller’s hotlist for Mayfair Townhouse, Travel + Leisure World’s Best awards for Chewton Glen and a Forbes Travel Guide recommendation for Cliveden. The Lygon Arms was named as The Good Hotel Guide’s Editor’s Choice in the historic hotels category for 2021. All the hotels, recognising the need to support hospitality professionals whose livelihoods were disappearing, joined in with Hospitality Action’s fundraising Invisible Chips initiative, which gathered funds for workers in the sector.
The Lygon Arms, notwithstanding its historic status, is leading the way with modern sustainability initiatives. It has installed four Easee EV chargers to encourage a new generation of eco-conscious guests, while its own carbon footprint is minimised by sourcing 80 per cent of its produce from local artisans within a 50-mile radius – the shape of how luxury will be defined in the future, perhaps.
As Executive Director Andrew Stembridge sums up: ‘Luxury is created by multiple layers of craftsmanship, authenticity, innovation, service and passion. With a palpable sense of positivity in the air, we can all start planning to enrich our lives once more.’
