Home to Shakespeare's grandson?
The Milestone takes its name from the old cast iron milestone that stands in its original position beside the hotel.
The original dwelling on this site was Kensington House, built around 1689 and first occupied by Foot Onslow, a Commissioner of Excise under William III. His son Arthur Onslow (1691-1768) was Speaker of the House of Commons for thirty years. He sublet the property to George Davenport, an officer in the Royal Bodyguard who claimed Shakespeare as his grandfather.
From George Davenport, Kensington House passed onto Lady Susan Belasye, who in her youth had been a mistress of James II. For a few years in the mid 18th century it was occupied by Count Peter Grigorevich Chernyshev, the Russian Ambassador to London, whose daughter Natalia lived to the age of ninety-six and achieved immortality as the prototype for the Countess in Pushkin's Queen of Spades. Later, Prince Charles Victor de Broglio ran Kensington House as a Jesuit school, which numbered the future King Louis Philippe as one of its ushers.
From 1830 Kensington House became a private lunatic asylum before being replaced by a second mansion called Kensington House, constructed by the notorious company promoter, "Baron" Albert Grant, the founder of Leicester Square. Grant's shareholders invested the then colossal sum of £24 million in his projects, and never saw the majority of their investments again. Finally, in the 1880's the two houses we see today replaced Grant's white elephant.
The making of today's Milestone
The first house, No. 1 Kensington Court, was erected between 1883-1884 to designs by JJ Stevenson and passed into hotel use around 1922, to be joined by No. 2 Kensington Court in 1925, constructed at the same time as No 1 to designs by TG Jackson.
In August 1986 the Milestone was badly damaged in a fire. The blaze took three hours to bring under control. The reason for the fire remains a mystery but sent the hotel spiralling downwards into a sorry state of disrepair. In October 1998 the Milestone was rescued by the Red Carnation Hotel group. By September 1999 the Milestone had been fully restored to its original architectural splendour as a unique five-star hotel with 45 luxurious bedrooms, 12 sumptuous suites and 6 two-bedroom apartments.
Recent awards
Over the subsequent years the Milestone has been widely lauded with awards and accolades. The Milestone was recognised as No.1 in the world for service by Travel and Leisure Magazine 2008. Other recent accolades include topping the 2009 Condé Nast Travelers' Gold List ‘World's Best Hotels' and being Voted No. 1 in the British Isles in their Travelers' Gold List 2008.
The Milestone Hotel was voted No. 1 in Travel and Leisure's 500 World's Best Hotels List.
With its unequalled attention to service and resplendent, bespoke rooms it is easy to see why the Milestone is top of the hotel world!
