The hotel was built on a plot of land, next to the Savoy Theatre, that Carte originally purchased to house an electrical generator for the theatre (built in 1881), which was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The construction of the hotel took five years and was financed by the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, particularly from "The Mikado". It was the first hotel in Britain lit by electric lights and the first with electric lifts. Other innovations included private, marble, en-suite bathrooms in the majority of its 268 rooms; constant hot and cold running water in each room; glazed brickwork designed to prevent London's smoke-laden air from spoiling the external walls; and its own artesian well.