Dukes Hotel, now known just as Dukes, is a luxury 90 room/suite hotel at 35 and 36 St James's Place, London, founded in 1908.[1] Previous guests have included the composer Edward Elgar, the author Ian Fleming, and various members of the British royal family.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the hotel is "reassuringly old-fashioned".[1]Jack Brooksbank, Princess Eugenie's husband, is reported to have told Richard Eden, the Daily Mail's royalty editor, that there is a secret tunnel from the nearby St James's Palace to Dukes Bar.[5][6] From the hotel itself, Dukes Bar is accessed via "a small, unmarked door".[7] The clientele were once described as a typical Mayfair set: "wealthy, tawdry, and slightly disreputable" but fading into the background after a couple of the bar's martinis.[8]
Guests
Past guests have included the composer Edward Elgar, who often visited,[9] and the James Bond author Ian Fleming who frequented Dukes Bar where he decided that Bond's favoured drink would be a vodka martini, "shaken, not stirred".[9][6] The Vesper Martini is the Dukes Bar "signature drink" and includes five shots of gin, with a two-drink limit; any attempt to purchase a third one will be declined.[9][6]
