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Wellington Hotel & Spa Madrid
Madrid, Spain · Independent · Core Luxury
Baltasar Ibán, a transport magnate who bred fighting bulls, opened the Wellington on Calle Velázquez on 19 April 1952, and the toreros never left. The Bar Inglés is the one room still exactly as it opened, the roof carries the only vineyard in the city, and the Retiro is across the way.
- 237 rooms
- Opened 1952
- Neighborhood: Salamanca
- Rooms from 269 sq ft (25 m²)
- Architect: Luis Blanco Soler (commissioned 1944; opened 1952)
- Interiors: Vasco Aragão (2020 renovation)
About Wellington Hotel & Spa Madrid
- Ricardo Sanz Wellington, the Japanese and Mediterranean room attached to the hotel, has held a Michelin star since 2009 and three Repsol Suns; Sanz was the chef who first crossed sushi with Iberian ingredients.
- The 1976 extension at Velázquez 6 stands where Ramón Gómez de la Serna kept his Torreón, the cluttered tower study in which he built his literary world, until July 1936.
- Luis Blanco Soler took the commission in 1944 and delivered 160 rooms around a large open core with no interior light wells, a deliberate break with Spanish hotel practice. The house now holds 237.
- A cow the size of a small car stands at the door: Verónica, sculpted by Pilar Oñate, the taurine queen of Calle Velázquez.
- The 2020 renovation, led by Portuguese designer Vasco Aragão, pushed the hotel back toward its 1950s self.
History
The Wellington opened on 19 April 1952 at Calle Velázquez 8, the five-star dream of Baltasar Ibán Valdés, a Madrid transport businessman who also founded the fighting-bull ranch that still carries his name. He had commissioned the architect Luis Blanco Soler in 1944, and the building that resulted was unusual for its day: 160 rooms in three types, arranged around a single large open core. The first Spaniard to sign the register wrote that he did so with great satisfaction, the hotel having been placed among the first in the world. The building is now listed and protected as part of Madrid's architectural heritage. Ibán's other life decided the hotel's character. From the beginning the Wellington was the house of the bull world, and it still is: matadors, breeders, managers and cuadrillas gather in the hall through the San Isidro feria, and the hotel's own directors put the share of Las Ventas headliners who dress here at around ninety percent. Paco Camino, Jaime Ostos, Rafael de Paula, Manuel Benítez El Cordobés, Ortega Cano, César Rincón, Espartaco, Finito de Córdoba and Sebastián Castella all pass through the guest list, and the matadora Cristina Sánchez among them. The oak-and-dark-leather Bar Inglés, which once showed Ibán's cattle brand on the wall, is the only space left exactly as it was conceived in 1952. Demand pushed the hotel into an extension in 1976, opening a second entrance at Velázquez 6. In 2020, close to seventy years after the opening, the Portuguese interior designer Vasco Aragão led a full renovation that deliberately recovered the 1950s spirit of the original rooms. Today the Wellington counts 237 rooms and suites, a wellness club and spa, a rooftop with the only urban vineyard in Madrid, and the Michelin-starred Ricardo Sanz Wellington, the restaurant long known as Kabuki Wellington.
The setting
The hotel sits at Velázquez 8, in the middle of the Salamanca district that the Marqués de Salamanca laid out from 1857 on land so far from the Madrid of the day that people doubted anyone would live there. They were wrong, and it has been the city's most expensive address for a century. The Retiro is across the street, the boutiques of the Golden Mile along Serrano and Ortega y Gasset are a few minutes away, the restaurant crowd on Calle Jorge Juan is closer still, and the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofía sit at the bottom of the park. Las Ventas, the bullring that makes the hotel what it is, is a short ride out along Alcalá.
Restaurants and bars
- El Brunch del Wellington — Restaurant
- La Terraza del Wellington — Restaurant
- Hall del Wellington — Restaurant
Amenities
- Personalised event service
- Solarium area
- Linen Sheets
- Private Parking
- Concierge & guest relations
- Room service 24h
- Laundry Service
- Airport Transfer
- Pets Welcome
- Event Rooms
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