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Hotels

London Hotels in 1900

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Arthur H. Beavan made a brief survey of the finest London Hotels of the day in Imperial London, published in 1901:

Writing on the subject of Metropolitan hotels nearly fifty years ago, Mr. John Timbs observes, "There is no capital in Europe, saving Constantinople, which, until recently, was not better provided with good average comfortable upper and middle-class hotels, than London.

A few private houses, knocked somehow into one, have been thought a large and grand hotel, for it is only within the last few years that the obvious necessity which existed for constructing a building especially for hotel purposes, has been slowly recognized in this country.

This new class of hotel originated with the great railway companies."

Mr. Timbs then proceeds to enumerate the hotels, but even with others - the Langham, etc - added, the total of the principal London hotels did not exceed a round dozen in the year 1855.

In 1901, these figures, at a low estimate, would have to be trebled, if not quadrupled.

On every side are hotels large enough for palaces, gorgeously appointed, and open to receive all comers with well-filled purses; while in the Cecil London possesses the biggest hotel on earth.

With most of the following, visitors are better acquainted than Londoners: the Grosvenor, re-opened under the auspices of the Gordon Hotel, Limited, which serves as it were the Victoria Station; the Charing Cross and the Cannon Street Railway Hotels for the South-Eastern and London, Chatham and Dover Companies; the splendid Midland Hotel; the Euston and the Great Northern Hotels; the handsome Great Western Railway Hotel at Paddington, and the London Bridge Railway Hotel.

All these travellers use more or less.

Amongst the non-railway hotels which cater for all tastes in the matter of locality, and, in a measure, for all purses, are the Alexandra, the only hotel commanding a view of Hyde Park and Rotten Row; Bailey's in Gloucester Road, South Kensington; the Berkeley in Piccadilly; the Bristol in Burlington Gardens; Brown's and St George's (united) in Dover Street and Albemarle Street; the Carlton in the Haymarket and Pall Mall; the Cecil in the Strand; Claridge's in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square; the Coburg, Carlos Place, Grosvenor Square; the Continental in Regent Street; De Keyser's Royal Hotel on the Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars; the First Avenue Hotel, High Holborn; the Grand, Northumberland Avenue; the Avondale, 67a, Piccadilly; the Inns of Court, High Holborn; the Langham, Portland Place; Long's in New Bond Street; the Metropole, Northumberland Avenue; the Westminster Palace Hotel, Victoria Street, S.W.; the Windsor, Victoria Street, S.W.; the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington High Street; the Russell, Russell Square; the Savoy, Victoria Embankment; and the Walsingham House, Piccadilly.

Some of the foregoing are perfectly new hotels, or old ones entirely rebuilt.

Amongst the former is the Russell, opened last year.

Next: London Hotels in 1900: The Great Central Hotel, Marylebone.

1900 London (Home) | History of London