Fans of the hit American series Gossip Girl will already be familiar with the old world glitz and glamour of Manhattan’s New York Palace Hotel, temporary residence of the show’s impossibly beautiful Serena van der Woodsen and her fabulously rich family. The characters spend so much time flitting about its sweeping staircases, Michelin-starred restaurant and GILT Bar that the hotel should get a cast credit. (In the real world, the hotel was also once home to Leona Helmsley, whose unusual views on 'little people' and taxes transported her to the less salubrious surroundings of a federal prison.)
The New York Palace was built in the 1880s for financier Henry Villard in the neo-Italian renaissance style by debauched architect Stanford White, and its restored golden walls, ceilings and staircases are a titillating tribute to America’s Gilded Age of design. Today part of the Dorchester Collection, the original Villard Mansion stands proud on the corner of 50th and Madison Avenue and acts as the entrance to The New York Palace’s 55-storey tower and subsequent 813 rooms and 86 suites.
Beyond the front door, a grand lobby opens out into a gold- and mahogany-clad communal area that buzzes with the chatter of Manhattan’s elite. The hotel’s open-plan American brasserie, Istana, is always busy and it’s tempting to stop awhile instead of passing through it on our way to our room in The Towers.
The Towers area of the hotel takes up the top 14 floors and offers luxury worthy of a van der Woodsen or Helmsley (dedicated concierge, separate reception and elevator) as well as the most gobsmacking views of the city. Walking into our suite was a lesson in how to remain cool under the watchful eye of a bellboy, as its huge windows meant that the lights of Manhattan were spread out before us. I had to refrain from yelping with glee when I spotted the Rockefeller Centre’s ice rink as well as the spotlit splendour of St a Patrick’s Cathedral.
The suite itself was just as spectacular, with its own kitchen, living room, marble-clad bathroom and bedroom that combined to make it larger than most London flats. The next morning we were still so seduced by the space that we found it hard to leave. But when you’re located within walking distance of Central Park and so close to the shops of Fifth Avenue that you can practically hear them calling your name, it would be churlish not to explore.
After a day of ice skating and shopping, we headed back across the hotel’s courtyard, by now lit with fairy lights wrapped around its surrounding trees, and enjoyed several award-winning cocktails in GILT Bar and some absurdly delicious truffle fries. After a couple of hours spent rubbernecking the comings and goings of glamorous Upper East Siders as they dropped in for evening drinks, it was time to call it a night and respond to the siren call of our suite where, in blissful opulence, we ordered another portion of truffle fries.
New York Palace, 455 Madison Avenue at 50th Street, New York (+1 (212) 888 7000; newyorkpalace.com). Prices from £242, based on two sharing.
WAY TO GO
BA flies to New York (JFK and Newark). Visit ba.com.
