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Savoy | The Restoration

£40.00

SIOBHAN DORAN

Siobhan Doran has photographed the ambitious restoration of The Savoy, the world-renowned hotel on London’s Embankment. Built by impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It enjoyed a resurgence of fame during the 1920s with both major art deco redecoration, and guests as varied as Noel Coward, Igor Stravinsky, Josephine Baker and George Gershwin.

The book traces the work through four periods of the restoration project. It opens with the process of stripping out, which in many instances exposed original detail. The two following sections follow the painstaking structural restoration and its progression into the new designs. The final section covers the finishing touches of decoration and furnishing. As the project developed Siobhan Doran became captivated by the hotel’s fifth-floor River Suites with their varied views across the Thames. Revisiting these rooms many times in the course of more than 100 visits to the hotel, she developed the concept of returning and remaking images, which she then expanded to embrace to other areas in the building. This approach also unconsciously reflects the many views and insights that the now-reopened hotel’s customers observe daily – depending on the season in which they visit, the length of their stay, the areas that they frequent and whether it is their first visit or one of many.

Born in Ireland, Siobhan Doran initially trained in architectural technology, and worked in building design for over ten years combining this with her photographic work. In 2003 she began a degree in photography at the University of Westminster where she graduated in 2006. Since 2007, she has focused exclusively on photographic projects working primarily with the design community, photographing interiors and exteriors of recently completed buildings as well as creating commissioned artwork.

ISBN: 978-1-907893-14-8
Clothbound hardback
178 pages, 290mm x 290mm
110 colour plates

A slipcased collector's edition limited to 100 copies is available direct from Siobhan Doran. siobhan@siobhandoran.com