Back in 2016, when many Americans started to realise Donald Trump might actually become their President a half-joke internet campaign encouraged Her Majesty The Queen to take back control of America and ‘make America Great Britain again’.
Obviously, the campaign didn’t work.
But if it had, would Her Majesty call The White House her official American residence? Unlikely for many reasons. Firstly, The White House is a cosy suburban, detached property in comparison to the cavernous, monstrous and looming Buckingham Palace.
The White House is a cosy suburban, detached property – so the Queen would probably shun it for the Hay-Adams if she ever took back control of America for Britain, writes William Hanson
But secondly because just across the way from America’s most iconic political landmark is something a little more stately and fitting for a monarch.
America does not have palaces, which is perhaps why so many transatlantic tourists flock to Britain each year to marvel at our almost embarrassing excess of historic houses, but if it did have palaces the 124 bedroom Hay-Adams Hotel would most certainly be one.
Opened in 1928, the Hay-Adams has been Washington DC’s go-to hotel for world leaders, diplomats and global icons for many years, and only last month it re-affirmed its favourable position by being voted the fifth best hotel in America by readers of Condé Nast Traveller magazine.
It’s welcomed presidents past, present and fictional.
The Obamas stayed at the hotel ahead of President Obama’s first inauguration (Blair House, which is next door, had been double booked by George W Bush’s staff… apparently).
Opened in 1928, the Hay-Adams has been Washington DC’s go-to hotel for world leaders, diplomats and global icons for many years
Many former presidents call in for events, to stay or dine, and the hotel has most recently been seen in the latest series of Netflix’s House of Cards.
Although the hotel is perhaps most accustomed to looking after those visitors to DC who are there on political business, it is by no means an inappropriate choice for those who wish to tour the museums, museums and monuments that the nation’s capital has to offer.
It’s very much at the epicentre of Washington DC life and the unstuffy concierge are quickly able to advise on activities and excursions for leisure guests and provide complimentary bikes for those who want to see it all whilst satisfying the cardio gods.
The hotel’s marketing cleverly boasts that ‘nothing is overlooked but the White House’ and this is geographically no word of a lie.
Many former presidents call in for events, to stay or dine, and the hotel has most recently been seen in the latest series of Netflix’s House of Cards
You can roll out of your 400 thread count Italian linen bed at the Hay-Adams and be within spitting distance of The Donald’s house
You can roll out of your 400 thread count Italian linen bed and be within spitting distance of The Donald’s house.
And once you’ve finished there, you are but a short, flat walk away from all the other major landmarks and sights.
Back at the hotel the sage-green accented bedrooms were redesigned last year by local interior designer Thomas Pheasant.
His traditional, patrician décor may not be to a modernist’s taste, but those with techno tendencies will be able to readily charge their phones and tablets with ample USB points, stream their laptops onto the 50-plus-inch smart TV and enjoy quite possibly the fastest complimentary wifi I have ever experienced in any hotel.
No wonder that the hotel’s 2011 vertical extension is so popular with TV news crews, who now are able to rent part of the hotel’s top floor (dubbed ‘Top of the Hay’) for their outside broadcasts in need of a White House backdrop.
Everything works here, which – if The Queen were to take back control of America and use the Hay-Adams as her base – may well be a shock to her majestic self, being more used to rickety, faltering British wiring and amenities.
Younger, more feral children may not feel as welcome here – there is a definite grown-up vibe throughout the hotel that would be ruined by some free-range tyke storming through the wood-panelled, floral heavy lobby — but those with more controlled children with illusions of grandeur would easily cope and feel at ease.
It may not have the high-security presidential bunker or vast events space that the Washington Hilton up the road has, but it is easy to see why so many heavy-weight stalwarts of international political life keep returning to the hotel, which subtly reinvents itself to always adjust to the zeitgeist but without compromising on quality service, traditional values and its Albion palatial atmosphere.