London’s first luxury hotel, the Savoy Hotel, which hosted luminaries from Marlene Dietrich to Claude Monet, has been renovated from top to bottom in a mammoth project costing £220 million (€250 million).

The Prince of Wales reminisced on Tuesday night about cocktails and lunches at the Savoy Hotel as he officially opened the iconic establishment.

Prince Charles was given a guided tour of the building’s sumptuously decorated public spaces and private dining rooms.

The hotel has been a byword for style and sophistication for much of its 121-year history attracting the famous, the infamous and royalty from across the globe.

In the Beaufort bar, designed with a black and gold colour scheme and decorated with £38,000 worth of gold leaf, Prince Charles chatted to bar staff about one of his favourite drinks.

The drinking spot is sited on the hotel’s old cabaret stage where jazz composer George Gershwin gave the British premiere of his piece Rhapsody In Blue.

The heir to the throne revealed how he enjoyed a cocktail – aptly named the Prince of Wales – made with “strawberries and champagne” saying it was “absolutely fantastic”.

The drink was created by Joe Gilmore, former head barman of the Savoy’s famous American Bar, to mark the investiture of Charles as the Prince of Wales with the full recipe also containing lemon, cherry brandy and a teaspoon of sugar.

During the visit the prince was shown the Spanish mahogany wall panels and the plaster frieze titled An Idyll Of A Golden Age by Bertrand Pegram that decorate the foyer.

The number of rooms at the hotel has been increased slightly to 268 but there is a new royal suite running almost the length of the fifth floor with views of the River Thames costing £10,000 a night.

Actor and comic Stephen Fry was the first guest welcomed to the hotel last month.

The Savoy was closed for almost three years from December 2007 while it underwent the major facelift, which involved structural upgrades and behind-the-scenes work, as well as plush interiors in the Edwardian and Art Deco styles of the hotel.

Originally scheduled to be finished in early 2009, the project ended up being delayed by 18 months and costing more than double its estimated £100 million budget.

Tony Cortegaca, 50, one of a number of doorman at the Savoy said his job was one of the easiest in the world.

He added: “I’ve been working here 20 years in that time we’ve had a lot of famous people from Frank Sinatra to Pavarotti and Richard Harris, who would sometimes ask if I would go for a beer with him.

“We’ve even had Take That here recently, anyone who’s anyone has been here.”

The prince was joined during his tour by Prince Alwaleed, a member of the Saudi royal family, whose company Kingdom Holding owns 50 per cent of the hotel, while Lloyds Banking Group owns the remaining percentage.

The Prince’s Trust charity, established by Prince Charles, will be working with the hotel, which will provide work placements for disadvantaged youngsters.

During a short speech the heir to the throne praised the “Attention to detail by designers... and craftsmen which so brilliantly brought this hotel back to life.

“All I can say is my darling grandmother, were she alive, would be so pleased. She used to come here for little luncheons and dinners.

“In the days when I used to go to hotels, more regularly than I do now, I used to come here.”