On 15 May, a twelfth carriage joined Belmond’s British Pullman. Interiors by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. They have called it Celia.
The British Pullman runs day trips out of London Victoria across the south of England, drawing carriages from the 1920s and 1930s with hand-restored interiors and the gold lining of their first life. The new one is a 1932 Pullman, stripped and remade over two years. Twelve seats. One Shakespearean fantasia.
Bar at one end. Lounge in the middle. Dining room at the other. A small bathroom that Luhrmann calls a jewel box. The whole carriage can be booked exclusively or shared with eleven strangers for a day, and on either basis it works as mobile theatre.
Celia
She is a 1930s West End actress, fictional, conjured by Luhrmann while he was rereading A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In his version of the story, Celia is playing Titania, courted by an American admirer of considerable wealth who surprises her with a private carriage. The name, Luhrmann says, belongs to someone he and Catherine hold dear. He will not say who.
The reference points stack. A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the marquetry along the dining-room walls. 1930s West End theatre for the velvet curtains that divide the carriage into acts. Jazz Age glamour for the bar. A programmable ceiling moves the room from noon brightness through dusk to a moonlit blue. You can board at ten in the morning and dine at midnight.
Celia is a room that performs — Luhrmann took the Pullman’s existing romance and pushed it one degree further, into a carriage where the bathroom alone is worth the seat.
Juliette Marchand, The Splendid EditThe makers
Catherine Martin holds four Oscars for production and costume design across Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby and Elvis. She is also Luhrmann’s wife and creative partner of three decades. The method is unchanged. He sketches. She makes it beautiful. He calls his own sketches “crappy” on the record.
The interior work runs through British workshops. Marquetry by Dunn & Son. Bespoke furniture by Bill Cleyndert. Glass by Tony Sandles. Embroidery by Hand and Lock. Fit-out by JK Interiors. Each detail credited, each hand visible in the finished room.
Marquetry, Celia carriage, British Pullman
The journey
The British Pullman runs Sunday lunches to Bath, black-tie murder mysteries through the Home Counties, Cotswold loops and Canterbury runs for autumn. Celia goes wherever the train goes. Twelve seats per departure fill on advance booking. Most journeys leave Victoria’s Platform 2 in the morning and return by early evening.
Luhrmann’s reference was Laurence Olivier’s private Pullman, the one Olivier kept in the 1970s for the London to Brighton commute. That carriage is gone. Celia is the descendant.
The verdict
Celia is a room that performs. Luhrmann took the British Pullman’s existing romance, the gold lining and the silver service and the velvet, and pushed it one degree further. The bathroom alone is worth the seat. Book a Sunday in June and bring a date.
Exclusive use starts at £15,000 per journey, transfers within Greater London included. Eleven friends, twelve seats, the rest of England slipping past the windows in afternoon light.
Celia is bookable on all British Pullman journeys from 15 May 2026. Day trips depart from London Victoria and return the same evening. Book through belmond.com.
Photography by Ludovic Balay