The crew of more than 100 firefighters had barely rolled up their hoses when Amanda Hyndman, the general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, hatched her plan.

She knew that the charred hotel – which had been mere days away from revealing a £100 million ($186 million) renovation – would need to close for quite some time while the damage from the multi-storey fire in June 2018 was repaired. But she was loath to make redundant one of the most skilled groups of staff in London.