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Savoy fun facts

• Savoy Court, the short drive leading from The Strand to the hotel entrance, is the only road in all of Great Britain where one drives on the right.
• Monet and Whistler both painted their famous river scenes from rooms at The Savoy.
• Giuglielmo Marconi made the first wireless (radio) transmission to the U.S. from a room at The Savoy.
• Peach Melba was invented by Savoy chef Escoffier for visiting Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba (Escoffier also assisted Madame Ritz in creating Melba Toast).
• Young elevator boy Guccio Gucci was so inspired by the refined styles he witnessed at The Savoy that he returned to his native Florence to start a luxury leather goods company.
• The Savoy was one of the Luftwaffe's Top Ten Targets in London during World War II, but was never destroyed. (Though one night a bomb blast that hit the Strand did knock down the band leader, prompting guest Noel Coward to take to the piano and sing his own songs to soothe the other, rattled guests.)
• Guest Bob Dylan was always refused entry to the restaurants because he refused wear a tie.