If you learn anything today, you’ll learn just how significant Oscar Wilde is to the hotel industry. He is almost certainly the most celebrated guest of all time. These hotels are the proof.
By Mark Fedeli
Marketing and Editorial Director, Tablet Hotels
There are a handful of celebrities and dignitaries who, when they’ve stayed at a hotel, usually become a focal point of the hotel’s marketing. Elizabeth Taylor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, JFK, Queen Elizabeth, to name a few. But one name stands above them all.
Despite missing out on the entire 20th century, Oscar Wilde spent time at a surprising amount of hotels in our selection. We know this because the hotels tend to dedicate sections of their websites and press materials to promoting his visits. There’s something reassuring about a long-deceased writer and poet being lionized more than famous actors, athletes, and musicians.
It’s not just that Wilde stayed at so many of our top hotels. Major moments in his life seemed to regularly occur in them as well, including his downfall, arrest, detainment, prosecution — even his eventual death in 1900. It defies belief how often we come across Oscar when researching hotels, and that’s without mentioning all the interior designs he’s helped inspire in recent years.
Below, we tell the story of ten hotels that were the backdrop for some significant occasions in Wilde’s life. Then, a look at five newer establishments with designs inspired by him. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Let’s talk about Oscar Fingal O’Fflahertie Wills Wilde.
Old Parsonage Hotel
Oxford, UK
While a student at Oxford, Wilde’s outrageous behavior earned him an unpopular reputation among university authorities. It was one factor that led to his suspension in 1877, and the loss of his room at the school. It’s during this time that he’s thought to have taken up temporary residence at the Old Parsonage. Today, Old Parsonage bills itself as a 17th-century boutique hotel, which is as apt a description as any.
The Langham, London
London, UK
It was at the Langham that one of literary history’s most famous dinners occurred. On August 30th, 1889, publisher JM Stoddart brought together Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde to discuss potential stories for his literary journal, Lippincott’s. The meeting led to Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (and to a plaque on the street that commemorates the dinner). For its part, the Langham is a luxury icon recently restored to its former glory.
Hotel Café Royal
London, UK
It’s not a stretch to say that Oscar Wilde helped put Hotel Café Royal on the map. He spent countless hours holding court in the grill room — as did a century’s worth of statesmen, royals, and theater stars — but, to further drive home the point of this article, it’s Oscar the bar is now named after, not them. Today, the Café Royal is one of the city’s most luxurious hotels, the crown jewel of an ambitious multi-use development.
The Mayfair Townhouse
London, UK
Mayfair Townhouse is located in the very same spot, on London’s Half Moon Street, where the first act of Wilde’s most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is set. This is where Algernon Moncrieff, the play’s main character, had his apartment. The hotel makes much of the connection; there’s the playful and flamboyant Dandy Bar, and interiors packed with whimsical art and design objects we think Oscar would approve of.
Kettner’s
London, UK
Kettner’s is another establishment that was a favorite hangout of Oscar Wilde, especially the restaurant’s private rooms, where he enjoyed spending time with his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (more on him later). In its present incarnation, Kettner’s is a members’ club with lodgings in addition to the dining room. When not fully booked by members, it’s open to bookings by overnight guests who earn the benefits of membership during their stay.
Grand Hotel Timeo
Taormina, Italy
Sicily’s Grand Hotel Timeo has been a haven for writers for most of its long history. It’s said that everyone from DH Lawrence to Tennessee Williams to Truman Capote to, yes, Oscar Wilde were inspired to pen some words while overlooking Taormina from the hotel’s appropriately named “Literary Terrace.” A recent renovation has retained the splendor of the public spaces, while adding a modern pool and fitness center, and updated guest rooms.
The Savoy
London, UK
It was in rooms 360 and 362 at the Savoy where Wilde’s then-scandalous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas led to his eventual demise. A period of epic hedonism at the hotel served as all the evidence Lord Alfred’s father needed to begin his campaign to have Wilde’s life and reputation ruined. None of that should be held against the Savoy, which is arguably the original luxury hotel, or at very least the original London luxury hotel.
The Cadogan
London, UK
Wilde had a pied-à-terre at the Cadogan, room 118, which is now part of the Royal Suite. But his association with the hotel ends on a darker turn. It was here in 1895 that he was arrested for gross indecency, for homosexual acts that were a criminal offense at the time. And while the restored Cadogan takes its inspiration from its 19th-century beginnings, its designers have infused it with a contemporary atmosphere that’s timeless rather than timeworn.
NoMad London
London, UK
Before it became NoMad London, the old Bow Street Magistrates’ Court had seen some history, including Oscar Wilde’s detainment and prosecution on the gross indecency charge. In fact, his hearings took place in the hotel’s ballroom, which was then the Magistrates’ Courtroom. Today, the interiors pay tribute to the patron saint of dandies with vibrant, romantic, bohemian designs by boutique-hotel heroes Roman and Williams.
L’Hôtel
Paris, France
Perhaps the most famous of the Wilde-related hotels, L’Hôtel, then known as Hôtel d’Alsace, is where the author spent his final night on November 30, 1900. The apartment he passed away in has been immortalized at L’Hôtel as the Oscar Wilde Suite, giving you the opportunity to sleep there yourself and try out some of the legendary phrases associated with Wilde’s last days, like “I’m dying beyond my means” and “Either this wallpaper goes or I do.”
The Mont Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
The Mont Dublin is a stylish, modern boutique hotel just off Merrion Square, across the road from the house Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde grew up in. Modernist and industrial influences are visible in the rooms and suites, as well as in the common spaces — the Sin Bin bar serves light fare as well as drinks, while the restaurant, Speranza, is named for Lady Jane Wilde’s revolutionary pseudonym.
L’oscar
London, UK
Oscar Wilde’s influence in the hotel world is far reaching. Look no further than L’oscar, which is completely inspired by the author, as seen through the filter of interior designer Jacques Garcia. Both Wilde and Garcia are known for decadence, in different ways, and L’oscar is nothing if not decadent. The rooms and suites are decorated in hyper-saturated jewel tones, with plenty of Art Deco elegance and a pervasive birds-and-butterflies motif.
The Dorian
Calgary, Canada
The Dorian is just about as modern and as stylish as Calgary hotels get. The name is indeed a nod to Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray; presumably there’s an image of a far less attractive hotel locked away somewhere on the premises. The style is an eclectic blend of Deco-inspired elegance and flourishes of Victoriana, plus knowing references to Wilde himself.
The Wild Oscar
Mexico City, Mexico
Wild Oscar is unique. It transitions fluidly between being businesslike but also stylish, combining exec-chic with nods to the decidedly un-corporate works of Oscar Wilde. Rooms and suites come in four varieties of décor — “The Happy Prince, “The Lord Savile,” “The Dorian Gray,” and (naturally) “The Oscar Wilde” — each an exercise in the utmost privacy, a priceless commodity in this sprawling capital city.
The Madrona
Healdsburg, CA, USA
The Madrona is heavily inspired by the Aesthetic Movement of the late 19th century, when the mansion was built. The movement’s most famous practitioner? You guessed it. Oscar Wilde. Standing in stark contrast to the Tuscan and Provençal pretensions of so many other wine-country hotels, the Madrona’s interiors are eclectic, incorporating period elements as well as modern interventions, a very fine art collection, and a boatload of antiques and curios.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.