If any of you have ever had the opportunity to spend time at the American Bar in the Savoy hotel, you will know how special this place is. It feels somewhat hallowed, a memory of a bygone era and a step back to the days of the silver screen. It is a place where you feel comfortable in your glad rags, your Sunday best or your best bib and tucker. Those of a certain age will know what I am talking about!

The American Bar has an entrance; not as in a doorway but a way in which you have to enter totally clocked by your fellow drinkers. Everyone watches as you descend the stairs into the Art Deco gem of a bar. This is not a place to be shy and retiring.

Harry - From The Savoy Cocktail Book…do you think he’s mixing up a White Lady in that cocktail shaker?

It is always featured in the top ten bars in the world; every cocktail aficionado worth their salt has been to drink in the atmosphere as well as the splendid cocktails. The cocktails have made this place famous but we also have to thank the bartenders who have put these cocktails on the mixologist map. I don’t expect you to be able to name all the bartenders of the Savoy but I imagine you may know a couple of names. Ada Coleman? Known as ‘Coley’ to her many fans was head bartender from 1903 until she moved over to the Savoy flower shop in 1925 when the American bar underwent extensive renovation. How about Harry Craddock? This name may spark some recognition but if you don’t know him now, a few trips to the Savoy American bar and he will be someone you will never forget.

He was officially the third Head Bartender at the American bar and kept an extensive list of all his recipes but who was he and where did he come from?

Harry was a naturalised American who was originally from Stroud in Gloucestershire. Born in August 1875, he had headed to the States arriving in 1897. I can imagine Harry being dazzled by the fast-paced bar scene in America. He worked his way up the bartending ranks from 1901 to 1911, mostly in luxury hotel bars and became an American citizen in 1916.

Prohibition had a massive impact on life in the USA. Speakeasies and underground bars sound exciting and dangerous but the reality was that bar work dried up. All those young Englishmen who had ventured Stateside to get gainful employment in the amazing bars and clubs at the dawn of the new century were starting to return home to try their hand at working in bars back in Blighty.

Harry Craddock hiding his White Lady Cocktail…it’s never been found since!

Harry Craddock was one of the lucky ones. After allegedly mixing the last legal cocktail before Prohibition kicked in, he came back to the UK and was employed in the Savoy’s American Bar Savoy under Ada Coleman. When the American bar’s renovations started, Harry stepped up as head bartender. Americans would visit London on their Grand tours and head to where they knew they could get a cocktail to rival the memory of their favourite gin joints that had since been closed down.

The Savoy is where Harry really starts to shine. His signature cocktail was the White Lady, a cocktail we make on many of our events and experiences as it is such an important drink and delicious to boot. When the American bar was renovated, Harry Craddock mixed a shaker of this lemony-sharp gin cocktail and placed it in the bar wall. There is photographic evidence of him doing this but no one seems to know its exact location. I am happy to enter the bar with a metal detector and a gin-diviner to locate and solve this mystery once and for all but I am still waiting for the green light.

With the repeal of Prohibition in most states in 1933, Harry was invited back to work in the glamour of America however, Harry had settled back into London and stayed on although he was still an American national. Before the start of WWII, he became the first head bartender of the Dorchester. Harry seemed to have a penchant for burying drinks because in the walls of the Dorchester bar, he hid a shaker of White Lady, and two flasks containing a Manhattan and a Martini respectively.

On the 21st October 1930, Harry Craddock published his now world-famous Savoy Cocktail Book. It is an amazing feat to collate recipes from all around the world as well as his own alleged 240 creations. I always think that the timing was somewhat sad. The 1920’s were the heyday for cocktails and as we turned a corner into the 1930’s, things changed. Economic hardship, unrest in Europe followed by war became their new normal.

90 years on, this book is still vital and important. It has helped preserve so many recipes that would have been lost, it shows just how many recipes came out of this era and just what an impact the London and UK cocktail scene had on the world.

We hope you will join us to raise a glass of your favourite cocktail on 21st October.

Cheers!

To find out more about Harry Craddock, his White Lady Cocktail and other classic cocktails why not consider holding your own virtual cocktail masterclass with us. Full details about ‘The Golden Age of Cocktails - Virtual Cocktail Mixing Experience’ available here.

Harry Craddock and the 90th Anniversary of his legacy, The Savoy Cocktail Book

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