Thousands of pieces of hotel history are to be sold at auction, just days after central London’s Savoy closed for a £100m re-fit.

Beds, pink and white signature plates and an oak dance floor are among 3,000 lots to go under the hammer at Bonhams auction house over the next three days.

A 24-light chandelier under which Noel Coward and Anna Pavlova performed is expected to attract the highest bids.

Also under the hammer in a sale which starts today are a piano at which Frank Sinatra sang, a bed slept in at various times by Lauren Bacall, Coco Chanel and Humphrey Bogart and the contents of a suite occupied by Charlie Chaplin.

Overall, the hotel’s history and romance are conservatively expected to bring in anywhere from £600,000 to £1m.

Harvey Cammell of auctioneers Bonhams said: “Stepping into the hotel is like stepping back in time, a time when there was courtesy and manners. People want to buy into that.”

The hotel, which has a distinct art-deco style, will reopen in 2009.

Posted: 12|18|07 at 9:31 am. Filed under: UK News.