Ritz Club London Permanent Closure.

Members of the Ritz private members club and casino have informed us that they have received an email this week telling them the club will be closing its door permanently.  We have been sent a screen shot of the email, and been give permission to share it with you.

We have to say, this decision does not come as a massive surprise to us.  The blog londonlovesbusiness reported that the entire enterprise has been loss-making for some time, predominantly due to the casino side of the business consistently loosing money.  This story can be found here. 

Our own insight on this matter is bleaker still.  Any lover over luxury at any level should have been able to see from a visit to the Ritz Club that it was severely in need of an overhaul it cannot afford.  Undoubtedly the Ritz is a remarkable property, with an unmatched heritage in respect of luxury, no doubt the hackneyed cliche will be rolled out by many that "the term Ritzy comes from that", and as dry as a comment that is, it's entirely true.  

However, there are two problems with the Ritz and it's glamour.  the first is that time moves on, and concepts of luxury change,  the second requires an appreciation of what the Ritz's glamour really meant, and that in fact, it never really was what it claimed in the first place.

Addressing the first;  The more traditional idea of luxury was that of a palace, a glittering gilt edged thing, where royalty live, vast estates of massive scale.  The modern concept of luxury is clean sleek minimalism, and the opulent gaudy Ritz type luxury is not "in" any longer.

But this doesn't really fully address the true issue with the Ritz.  Anyone who spends time in the old worlds Jetset environments  of Biarritz, Monaco, Gstaad, Chamonix etc will be familiar with the true opulent luxury of the Belle Epoque style properties that become "home" on their travels.  The difference is however, these are mostly actual palaces that became hotels.   This is perhaps the most fundamental problem with the Ritz London, that it is really all it's cracked up to be, and never was.  

The Grand Dame hotels around the world began existence from a desire of the wealthy traveller to have a home from home, the Savoy is a prime example of this, being the seat of the House of Savoy before being turned into a hotel.  The people visiting there would be staying somewhere that they were used to.  Cesar Ritz, a former manager of the Savoy, after success with the Ritz Paris converted the Old White Horse Cellar, a coaching inn, into the Ritz.  It was and has always been a bit of a sham, the gilt work slightly off, the tables a little cheap, and especially in the Ritz Club, where we personally have visited and noticed that the 'gilt' tables are made from gold coloured plastic.

In conclusion, the Ritz Club is closed, bit that's ok, it's ok because the nature of luxury has changed, and it's ok because, although there's still a place for grand old world luxury, the Ritz, and certainly the Ritz Club, was never anything more than a facade.  We hope that the replacement is more authentic to  what it purports to be than the original.