The Hotel Café Royal is a five-star hotel at 68 Regent Street in Piccadilly, London. 
The hotel was founded in 1865 by Daniel Nicholas Thévenon, a French wine merchant who had fled to London after declaring bankruptcy with only five pounds to his name. Under his new name, Daniel Nicols, he transformed a modest site into what was once considered the possessor of the world’s greatest wine cellar.
 
Frequented by notable figures including Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, and Diana, Princess of Wales.
 
Interesting facts..
The venue was the site of a fateful meeting in 1895 where Frank Harris advised Wilde to drop his libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde refused, leading to his eventual imprisonment, and it is rumored he famously hallucinated while drinking absinthe in the rooms, claiming to see “young girls picking tulips”.
In 1973, David Bowie famously retired his “Ziggy Stardust” alter ego with a celebratory party held at the venue, marking a major cultural shift in music history.