Stephen Alden is a man of passion. The Chief Executive of Maybourne Hotel Group is standing in the lobby of the recently re-opened Connaught, explaining how the task of renovating this grande dame was undertaken. “The staircase is an icon that everybody cherishes, remembers, loves, so it is very important that we used the best craftsmen available to restore it.

“When people walk in and expect to see something different, they are reassured because they see the staircase and it has never looked better. Then they begin to look around and there is more reassurance,” he says. But in fact, quite a few changes have been made to bring the hotel up to date. “What most people don’t realise is that there was a wooden floor here before and now it is marble,” points out Alden.

There is more – and from surprisingly eclectic sources. The patterns on the staircase carpet are taken from a Venetian palace and the slightly oversized 16th century fireplace in The Gallery is from a Swedish castle. Where the staircase banister had been closed in with wood panelling, thanks to some arcane 1950s fire regulation, it is now open to show off the décor behind. Opening up the public areas has been a major feature of the project and The Connaught has filled a space above the basement to build The Gallery, a café conservatory which brings a flood of light into the hotel.

“People remember the Connaught as being very dark, tired, a little dated as well,” says Alden. “Now, the daylight shows off the architectural details.”

The redesign was undertaken by Stephen Sills of Sills Huniford. How would you choose a designer for such an important task? “I was a fan of theirs when I was in New York. I looked at one of their books to see what they had done and of all the people they thanked for allowing them into their homes, 60 percent were Connaught guests. So if anybody understood the aesthetic our guests would like, it was them.”

The hotel was closed for eight months during the renovation and unusually, the hotel retained all staff during that period. Again, it was about balancing the new with the old. “We felt that coming into the hotel, it is important to recognise familiar faces because that is part of the legacy as well and makes guests feel comfortable,” says Alden.
The Connaught has lost nothing of its understated elegance in the transformation but it has also never been better equipped to take on the 21st century. Timelessness is the trick and as ever, the devil’s in the detail. All the pictures hanging now were already in the hotel but none of them is in the same place as before. “We decided to put some logic into how they were arranged so that we could talk about them.”

There is an equestrian painting in the corner of the first turn in the staircase – and one in that spot on each floor. Also on the stairs, there are portraits of people associated with the hotel and their position, too, is echoed all the way up.

Stephen Sills did not make the mistake of conforming to tradition, as the décor in the Georgian Room shows. The mahogany table and leather-clad chairs may speak of tradition, but architectural details picked out in silver sparkle with a seductive modern touch. “You can definitely feel that the room has been re-done recently,” says Alden. “Those are little whimsical details that feel more contemporary but are by no means detracting from the original craftsmanship.” Indeed not.
Other quirky details catch the eye. Leather in the floor of the Penthouse Suite, for example; and chinoiserie cabinets that date back to the hotel’s original days are all mirrored on the inside and turn out to be the elegant cocktail cabinets, where most other hotels would have a minibar. Bathrooms are white marble with nickel details, bed linen is a bespoke pattern by Pratesi and is the highest cotton count. Of course.

The bedrooms, it turns out, were designed by Guy Oliver, one of four designers involved in the rejuvenation of The Connaught. Four designers? Isn’t that like having four chefs in the kitchen? Either brave or foolhardy, depending on your thresholds.

Alden is the consummate diplomat. “We don’t take the simple approach,” he says. “It is more challenging but it is very satisfying, very rewarding – and I think it is brilliant. I adore interacting with designers because we deal with the designers themselves – if we are talking about Guy Oliver working on a space, we talk to Guy Oliver himself; India Mahdavi brings the team that works on the project with her. If we talk to Sills Huniford, Stephen Sills will call me.” The fourth designer is David Collins, who recently completed the overhaul of The Connaught Bar.
“It is always challenging when you try to bring together different emotions, different design aesthetics under the same roof but if you started with a vision, you have a role to manage and work with the designers to make sure that what you end up with is harmonious – and not boring because you have taken out any creativity.

“There is no point in taking some of the best minds and then limiting them because you are afraid of how this may contrast with that,” he says. “It does need to be balanced but we strive for that and we deal with it every single day.” And as Alden points out, it works.

Stephen Alden is a hotelier through and through. He went to hotel school in his native Malta and then, aspiring to an international career, graduated from the Centre Internationale de Glion in Switzerland. He is in London for the second time, having embraced Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, New York, Paris, Milan, Venice, Florence and New York again en route.

“I think I am becoming a specialist on renovation projects,” he smiles. “We renovated the St Regis in New York, the Grand in Rome, the Europa Regina in Venice, the Excelsior in Florence – but I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a project as much as I have The Connaught. This has been a once in a lifetime opportunity, to be dealing with a hotel that started in 1897, that has accommodated some of the world’s most famous personalities – and you have to relaunch it for the next 100 years. It is a very special feeling and a very important responsibility.” Alden’s speech never loses momentum for a minute, the words driven by his passion.

Quinlan Private bought The Savoy Group in April 2004, quickly selling The Savoy and Simpson’s In The Strand to HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Abdulaziz al Saud the following January.  The Maybourne Hotel Group was launched with the remaining properties – The Connaught, Claridges and The Berkeley, with Stephen Alden becoming chief executive shortly after.

His enthusiasm for the group’s other properties burns no less brightly than for The Connaught. David Linley recently redesigned 19 suites at Claridges and the Fumoir has just been restored and relaunched. “We decided that if we continue to call it the Fumoir, people will remember its history but it has also always had unique pieces of Lalique crystal, which is part of the collection Lalique kept in its museum. We worked with them on the renovation,” says Alden. “It is doing well, we are very pleased.”  There is constant activity in the hotels and The Berkeley is now due for some attention. Following earlier room updates by Dan Hopwood and Helen Green, designs for a new incarnation of the suites by New York based Alexandra Champalimaud are approaching completion, and the reception area has just been renovated.

Further down the line, there are significant architectural changes in the offing. In November last year  planning permission was secured for a phased series of enhancements at Claridge’s, including the addition of 40 new rooms and suites, a new spa, health club and swimming pool, and enlarged retail space as well as improved infrastructure. 

Maybourne has also bought the building adjacent to The Berkeley and has gained planning approval for an extension to be designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners (formerly Richard Rogers Partnership). “The idea will be to introduce The Berkeley Residences into that space, as well as additional guest rooms; and to be able to put in a new restaurant to overlook the park,” says Alden.

Ah, yes, restaurants. The departure of Gordon Ramsay protogée Angela Hartnett from The Connaught received adverse publicity surrounding her alleged refusal to provide room service. “That was not true,” he says firmly. Following our conversation, there are further developments in the ongoing Gordon Ramsay Holdings – Maybourne saga when Petrus, the two Michelin-starred restaurant at The Berkeley is renamed ‘Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley,’ following a well-publicised spat between Wareing and his mentor. 

Regardless, the Hélène Darroze restaurant which has replaced Angela Hartnett at The Connaught was due to open four days after we spoke, following numerous dress rehearsals. “There are 66 covers and we have just over 30 chefs in the kitchen and probably another 35 staff in this restaurant. It is a very intensive process, very personal,” he says. The chandelier is eye-catching and individual, as befits the 21st century Connaught. “It was designed for us and we would not want it to be reproduced anywhere else,” says Alden. “But the wall lights are original and date back to the beginning of the 20th century.” Chairs are also a feature of the Coburg Bar, harvested from the old-style suites and re-upholstered in velvet-rich colours. Darroze will also be designing a separate menu for the bar.  And in The Gallery: “We wanted to create something more café-like but in a very elegant way, so it isn’t all gold leaf and wood panels but the idea was to be able to look in from outside,” he says.
 
With so much happening, these are exciting times for Maybourne. What of the future? “Our plans are ambitious,” says Alden. “We have taken the past two years to get our house in order but I think we have developed a very special expertise when it comes to operating hotels at this level and that is something I believe we can take internationally.
“We are having discussions and looking at new hotel projects worldwide. Some may be through acquisition and some though management agreements, I think we will keep a fairly flexible, dual approach. I think it will be modest, one or two hotels a year over the next ten years, in cities like Milan, New York, Paris, Dubai – where our guests tend to travel.” Alden has in mind 25 to 30 hotels in all. “That is where we would feel we had entered into enough markets to have a synergistic operation,” he says.

For all the talk of synergies, acquisitions and management contracts, it is the human rather than the corporate aspects of hospitality that appear to drive Alden and his business: “We spent a day discussing the company’s overarching philosophy,” he says of a recent senior management trip to Wentworth. “It is about having an uncommon passion and I think that is what separates us from many others,” he says. “That permeates all the way down from our investors through to our staff on the front door.” And Stephen Alden epitomises that passion.

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