The family hotel where Kate Middleton spent the night before her wedding.
Hidden on a quiet street a few minutes from Buckingham Palace, The Goring does not shout. There is no flashing sign, no famous rooftop bar. Yet for more than a century it has been the hotel the Royal Family and their guests quietly choose — and it is still run by the family whose name is over the door.
Hotelier Otto Richard Goring opened the hotel on 2 March 1910. It was the last great hotel to open in Edwardian London, just months before King Edward VII died — and it claimed a world first: every room had its own private bathroom and central heating.
From the start, its closeness to the Palace shaped its story. During the First World War it served the Allied forces, and contact with President Woodrow Wilson was made from the hotel. In 1919 Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill’s mother, moved in.
The Goring has passed from father to son ever since 1910. Otto’s son, Otto Gustave, trained at the famous hotel school in Lausanne before taking over; today his great-grandson Jeremy Goring is the fourth generation to run it. It is the only five-star luxury hotel in London still owned and run by the family that built it.
That continuity shows in the details — the hand-painted lobby wallpaper, the long-serving staff and an afternoon tea famous across London. Its restaurant, The Dining Room, holds a Michelin star.
The Goring’s royal connections run deep. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was a regular visitor, and in 2013 the hotel was granted a Royal Warrant by Queen Elizabeth II for hospitality services.
Its most famous moment came on 29 April 2011. Catherine Middleton and her family stayed at The Goring in the days around her wedding to Prince William, and she spent the night before in the Royal Suite. Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched her leave the hotel’s front door with her father for Westminster Abbey.
With only around 69 rooms and suites, The Goring feels more like a private house than a hotel. Buckingham Palace, St James’s Park, Victoria Station and the shops of Belgravia are all within a short walk.
Heathrow is about 45–65 minutes by car, Gatwick about 60–80 minutes. The train is fine if you travel light — but with luggage, children, a late flight or an arrival at Gatwick or London City, most guests prefer a private transfer straight to the door.
See your fixed price at the top of this page, or open the Heathrow to The Goring and Gatwick to The Goring pages.
More than a century after Otto Goring opened his doors, the same family still welcomes guests to the same quiet street beside the Palace — a rare thing in modern London.
Sources: Wikipedia · The Guardian — royal wedding · Luxury London — history
One fixed price for the car to The Goring, driver waiting inside arrivals with your name, flight tracked. Heathrow is about 45–65 minutes by car, Gatwick about 60–80 minutes.
Get my fixed price ↑Facts checked against the sources listed above, November 2026.
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