Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.

In 1953, the Dorchester Hotel, London asked Messel to design a suite of rooms he would like to live in himself. The luxurious suite of rooms and penthouse became known as the ‘Oliver Messel Suite’. The suite and penthouse were restored in 1981 and continue to be in demand.

For the sitting room, Messel mixed seventeenth and eighteenth century antique furniture with his own designs inspired by period style, including a carpet depicting Leda and the Swan. Sekers, the silk manufacturer, produced floral chintz upholstery to his designs. The double bedroom has luxuriant yellow silk wallpaper, and is hung with original costume designs for Messel’s ballet Sleeping Beauty (1946). Flamboyantly, the mirror-lined bathroom features a shell-shaped gold lavatory cover and fittings. The fabrics were replaced by Fortuny fabrics during the 1981 restoration.