Belmond has added a wholly new chapter to its storied British Pullman with Celia, a private carriage conceived by the filmmaker Baz Luhrmann alongside the Oscar-winning costume and production designer Catherine Martin. Set within an original 1932 Pullman carriage and running as a self-contained space complete with its own stewards, it is one of the most intimate ways to experience one of Britain’s most storied trains, and the chance to create bespoke events this summer.

The carriage folds a dining area, lounge, cocktail bar, pantry and kitchen into a single moving venue for up to twelve. A private chef, on request, will design menus around British seasonal produce, and the layout can shift from a formal dinner to a setting for performance or a small dance floor. Each journey starts at London’s Victoria Station before heading out across the country.

“Celia gives travellers the rare opportunity to inhabit the nostalgia of another era. The carriage offers the ultimate luxury, the time and space to truly connect with the journey itself, and it allows the mind to decelerate, opening the possibility of deeper connection not only to oneself and to others, but also to new cultures, new perspectives, and different ways of seeing the world. Onboard I imagine people eating, dancing and falling in love, taking photographs, celebrating life’s great moments and adventures, all within a world that offers a pause from the chaos of everyday life. Celia offers a moment of respite. A moment of celebration. A small, luminous bubble of light and love.”

Catherine Martin, Costume & Production Designer

They aimed to create a space where guests step into a scene of their own making, having 1930s West End theatre, vintage cinema, and the great British countryside as the inspiration, with a fictional muse whose story runs through the details.

Operating independently within the train, the carriage gives guests the run of their own space for celebrations and milestones aboard one of the country’s best loved services. It will appear across all British Pullman journeys, with scope to personalise both the onboard hours and the experiences waiting at either end of the line.

The space is built to change character through the evening. A lavish dinner can give way to a round of milestone toasts, a cocktail hour or a performance, each moment unfolding like a sequence of scenes from a film.

A muse named Celia

The design follows the story of Celia, a West End leading lady conjured from Luhrmann’s imagination. As the tale goes, she was gifted her own Pullman car in 1932 in honour of her era-defining turn as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“For Catherine and I, creating Celia was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, allowing us to push the boundaries of creativity, luxury, and uniqueness. Stepping inside the carriage is like being transported into another world, and one in which guests are invited to become part of the story. Celia, at its heart, is a magical mystery tour, a traveling dining experience for friends or an intimate celebration, filled with food, music, wine, laughter, and performance. All of this unfolds as you drift through the countryside, feeling as though you’ve stepped inside A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a playful and exceptionally unique way to explore the UK, at your own pace and according to your own rhythm and story.”

Baz Luhrmann, Filmmaker and Co-Creator, Celia

Every detail weaves her life together with Shakespeare’s fantastical world, set to the flamboyant flair familiar from a Luhrmann production. The effect is dreamlike and cinematic, an invitation to imagine one’s own story playing out alongside the make-believe.

The makers’ touch

Catherine Martin drew on long-standing Belmond collaborators including the marquetry artisans Dunn & Son, the bespoke furniture designer Bill Cleyndert, the Tony Sandles Bespoke Glass studio, the embroiderers Hand and Lock, and J.K Interiors. The historic bone china house Duchess China shaped the tableware, while David Mellor supplied the cutlery and Tom Dixon the glassware.

Texture and material run through the carriage. An elaborate fabric ceiling crowns veneered marquetry and custom timber parquetry, brought to life by layers of thick velvet upholstery. Floral motifs, a nod to British flora, run across the oak-wood marquetry against a palette of rich greens, yellows, reds and purples.

Heavy theatre-style curtains divide the interior into pockets, each pulled back to reveal a fresh dreamscape etched into the carriage. The separate powder room continues the theme, its mosaic and hand-painted ceiling and walls decorated with flowers and mystical motifs.

A storied line

Celia joins a service with form for this sort of thing. The British Pullman runs from February to December across ten lovingly restored 1920s and 30s carriages, each named and carrying its own history, with capacity for 220 guests in all. Day excursions reach Oxford, Canterbury, Bath, Blenheim Palace and Highclere Castle, alongside trips to Goodwood Revival and the Grand National and the train’s immersive Moving Murder Mystery lunches and dinners.

Film fans already know Cygnus, the carriage designed in full by Wes Anderson, where bold modern lines sit beside period craft. As the sister train of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the British Pullman has long carried a guest list ranging from British royals to stars of the screen, and Celia gives it a fresh headline act.