A Victorian heavyweight, Richard D’Oyly Carte was a hotelier, composer, talent agent (he managed Oscar Wilde) and music impresario. This is a guide to Richard Doyly Carte London: the man whose management skills led to the birth of the Savoy Theatre, the Savoy Hotel and the Palace Theatre. He also bought and refurbished Claridge’s, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand and The Berkeley. Today he may not be on the tip of every Londoner’s tongue, but without him there might never have been a Gilbert and Sullivan.
Richard Doyly Carte London: from Soho to the Savoy
Richard D’Oyly Carte was born in Soho on 3 May 1844. Initially he worked for his father, whose company made musical instruments. He composed for a while before going solo in 1870, organising lecture and concert tours. By 1875 Carte was producing an Offenbach production at the now defunct Royalty Theatre in Soho. During this time Gilbert and Sullivan walked into his life, a fruitful partnership which would go on to transform London’s architectural and musical landscape.
Talent agent to Oscar Wilde
Carte ran a talent agency, counting Charles Gounod, Jacques Offenbach, Adelina Patti and Clara Schumann among his clients. Wilde was his most famous and infamous client. Carte organised and managed Wilde’s American lecture tour, which brought both men a pretty sum.
On 20 February 1885 Carte organised James McNeill Whistler’s Ten O’Clock, an hour-long lecture given at Prince’s Hall in Piccadilly. Oscar Wilde was in the audience as reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette.
Gilbert and Sullivan: the birth of the Savoy Theatre
When W. S. Gilbert (librettist), Arthur Sullivan (composer) and Carte (manager) came together, little did they know they would go on to become one of the most successful partnerships in musical history: the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore were only a few of the operas Carte managed for them.
The profits of this partnership paved the way for the Savoy Theatre, which opened on 10 October 1881 and was built specifically to stage Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas. It was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.
Palace Theatre: the Royal English Opera House
Carte built the Royal English Opera House at Cambridge Circus, which opened in 1891 with Sullivan’s Ivanhoe. The opera house is now known as the Palace Theatre, musical home to Les Misérables for many years and now to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Richard Doyly Carte London: the Savoy Hotel
With groaning pockets, Carte turned his head to the hotel business. He envied the grand hotels of the Continent and wanted to bring some of that glitz and glamour to London. And what better place to open a hotel than next door to his successful Savoy Theatre?
The Savoy opened its doors to the Victorian public in 1889. It boasted electric light, electric lifts (known as ascending rooms) and bathrooms with hot and cold running water, a luxurious novelty at the time.
Carte hired two Frenchmen: César Ritz as hotel manager and Auguste Escoffier as head of the kitchen. Guests included the Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt and Dame Nellie Melba, and Escoffier would create Fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt as well as Melba toast and Peach Melba for the two stage stars. Oscar Wilde conducted his affair with Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas at the hotel, where he would enjoy “clear, turtle soup” and “heavy amber-coloured, indeed almost amber-scented champagne.”
Claude Monet stayed at the Savoy in the early 1900s, painting his famous views of Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament from his room. Whistler also stayed here in 1896, working on a series of river view lithographs.
The Carte hotel empire and personal life
In 1893 Carte bought Claridge’s and hired C. W. Stephens (the architect behind Harrods) to rebuild it. It re-opened in 1898 with electric lifts and en-suite bathrooms. He also bought Simpson’s-in-the-Strand and The Berkeley.
Richard D’Oyly Carte by Spy, “Men of the Day” No. 498, Vanity Fair (National Gallery)
Carte married twice (his first wife died) and had two sons. He lived in a magnificent apartment near Aldwych, hiring Whistler to decorate some of the rooms. He also bought a private island near Weybridge called Folly Eyot and renamed it D’Oyly Carte Island. He died in 1901 aged 56 and is buried in St Andrew’s church in Fairlight, East Sussex.
Visit Richard Doyly Carte London
You can follow the Richard Doyly Carte London trail by strolling down Savoy Court to see the hotel’s Art Deco entrance, taking in a show at the Savoy Theatre next door and stopping at the Palace Theatre on Cambridge Circus. For another much-loved Londoner, read about AA Milne London.