Courthouse Hotel
Encyclopedia
Courthouse Hotel. formerly the Courthouse Kempinski
, and prior to the hotel,Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court is a luxury 5-star hotel
in London
, England
. It is located on 19-21 Great Marlborough Street
, in Soho
.
, Oscar Wilde
, Johnny Rotten, Mick Jagger
and Keith Richards
.
In 1835, Charles Dickens
worked as a reporter in the building for the Morning Chronicle
and Napoleon Bonaparte appeared in court as witness in a fraud case between attempts to establish a second empire in France in 1847. In 1895 Oscar Wilde
took the Marquess of Queensbury to court on a criminal libel charge.
The courthouse featured in many of the tabloid stories throughout the 1960s and 1970s in particular. In 1963
Christine Keeler
was taken to court over sex allegations which led to Profumo scandal becoming public. In 1966 Bob Monkhouse
faced a charge of conspiracy to defraud film distribution companies and in 1967 former television presenter Katie Boyle
gave evidence against a man facing careless driving charges after an accident. The building was centre to Mick Jagger
's 1969 court case in which he was fined £200 for drugs charges. Four years later in 1973, fellow Rolling Stones member Keith Richards
was fined £205 for possession of marijuana, heroin, mandrax, a revolver
and an antique shotgun.
In 1970, John Lennon
was taken to court for exhibiting pictures which were too sexually explicit in the London Art Gallery dismissed and artist Francis Bacon
was accused of possessing cannabis. In 1971 songwriter Lionel Bart
was taken to the courthouse charged with drug possession and in 1977 Sex Pistols
singer Johnny Rotten was fined £40 for possessing amphetamine sulphate. The last notable case before it became a hotel was in 1981 when John Miller
, kidnapper of Ronnie Biggs
, appeared in court after being arrested on arrival back from Barbados
.
The bathrooms have marble interiors, shipped from Italy
. The Magistrates Suites are located in the high-ceiling Judges quarters on the first, second and third floor of the original building, and contain the original Robert Adams fireplaces and oak flooring. The worlds only Lalique Penthouse also occupies the entire 3rd floor and includes a living and dining space, kitchenette and 2 bedrooms each with an en-suite bathroom.
routes and derives its culinary influences from India
, Thailand
and China
It is set within the original courtroom number 1 and features a large vaulted glass ceiling, framed by English oak panelling and original stencilling.
The hotel also has a 94 seat private cinema, 5 conference rooms with a capacity for up to 200 guests and the boutique Sanook Spa,which has a gym, dry sauna and a large square heated indoor swimming pool.
Kempinski
Kempinski Hotels S.A. is a luxury hotel group. Kempinski Hotels, the trading name for Kempinski Hotels S.A., is an independent Swiss delisted S.A., which is involved in a number of luxury hotel and hospitality related businesses, including conference, catering and hotel supplies.Kempinski Hotels...
, and prior to the hotel,Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court is a luxury 5-star hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located on 19-21 Great Marlborough Street
Great Marlborough Street
Great Marlborough Street runs west to east through the western part of Soho in London. At its western end it joins Regent Street. Streets intersecting, or meeting with, Great Marlborough Street are, from west to east, Kingly Street, Argyll Street, Carnaby Street, and Poland Street...
, in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
.
History
The Courthouse Doubletree by Hilton Regent Street is located in the old Grade II listed Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court building. As a court it was the second oldest magistrates court in the UK, dating back to the 1800s. The building has a turbulent history from its time as the Great Marlborough Street Magistrate’s Court, which set the scene for many famous cases over the years, involving figures such as John LennonJohn Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Johnny Rotten, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
and Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
.
In 1835, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
worked as a reporter in the building for the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
and Napoleon Bonaparte appeared in court as witness in a fraud case between attempts to establish a second empire in France in 1847. In 1895 Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
took the Marquess of Queensbury to court on a criminal libel charge.
The courthouse featured in many of the tabloid stories throughout the 1960s and 1970s in particular. In 1963
Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
was taken to court over sex allegations which led to Profumo scandal becoming public. In 1966 Bob Monkhouse
Bob Monkhouse
Robert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host...
faced a charge of conspiracy to defraud film distribution companies and in 1967 former television presenter Katie Boyle
Katie Boyle
Katie Boyle is an Italian-born British actress, television personality, and game show panelist, well known for appearing on TV panel games such as What's My Line? and for presenting the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1960s and 1970s....
gave evidence against a man facing careless driving charges after an accident. The building was centre to Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
's 1969 court case in which he was fined £200 for drugs charges. Four years later in 1973, fellow Rolling Stones member Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
was fined £205 for possession of marijuana, heroin, mandrax, a revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
and an antique shotgun.
In 1970, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
was taken to court for exhibiting pictures which were too sexually explicit in the London Art Gallery dismissed and artist Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
was accused of possessing cannabis. In 1971 songwriter Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
was taken to the courthouse charged with drug possession and in 1977 Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
singer Johnny Rotten was fined £40 for possessing amphetamine sulphate. The last notable case before it became a hotel was in 1981 when John Miller
John Miller
-Politics:* John Miller , Governor of North Dakota, 1889–1891* John Miller , Governor of Missouri, 1826–1832; U.S. Representative from Missouri, 1837–1843...
, kidnapper of Ronnie Biggs
Ronnie Biggs
Ronald Arthur "Ronnie" Biggs is an English criminal, known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, for his escape from prison in 1965, for living as a fugitive for 36 years and for his various publicity stunts while in exile. In 2001, he voluntarily returned to the United Kingdom and...
, appeared in court after being arrested on arrival back from Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
Interior
The rooms are furnished in contemporary style with King, Queen or twin beds and range from 25 to 40 square metres.The bathrooms have marble interiors, shipped from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The Magistrates Suites are located in the high-ceiling Judges quarters on the first, second and third floor of the original building, and contain the original Robert Adams fireplaces and oak flooring. The worlds only Lalique Penthouse also occupies the entire 3rd floor and includes a living and dining space, kitchenette and 2 bedrooms each with an en-suite bathroom.
Restaurants and bars
The hotel is served by The Carnaby brasserie style restaurant which offers a Mediterranean- influenced menu featuring grilled meats, salads and casual cuisine, street-side tables line the exterior with view onto the famed Carnaby Street and namesake of the restaurant. The Silk restaurant, is inspired by the Silk RoadSilk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...
routes and derives its culinary influences from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
It is set within the original courtroom number 1 and features a large vaulted glass ceiling, framed by English oak panelling and original stencilling.
The hotel also has a 94 seat private cinema, 5 conference rooms with a capacity for up to 200 guests and the boutique Sanook Spa,which has a gym, dry sauna and a large square heated indoor swimming pool.