floors in the building, each accommodating about sixty or seventy
guests, and to each floor a valet is assigned who performs all the
ordinary duties of such a servant. Shoes are not carried down below to
be mixed and confused with hundreds of others, but are polished by the
valet on your floor. The valet also enters your room during your
absence, removes all the clothes he finds hanging or lying about,
brushes and folds the same and puts them back neatly. It is a
convenience, returning to your hotel late in the evening and in haste to
dress for dinner or the theatre, to find your evening suit nicely folded
and brushed, ready to put on. These and other provisions for the comfort
of guests indicate the general care in management and the close
attention to detail which obtain at the Victoria, and which have given
it its wide reputation. The appointments include a billiard room with
five full-sized tables. Good rooms on fifth floor, a dollar and a half a
day. This includes attendance and lights. Breakfast from two shillings
to three-and-six; table d’hôte luncheon about the same; table d’hôte
dinner, one dollar and a quarter. Manager, Henry Logan.
LONG’S HOTEL.
There is another trio of London hotels that may be grouped together, on
account of their proximity--the Hotel Albemarle (Albemarle street and
Piccadilly), Long’s hotel (Bond street), and the Hotel Bristol
(Burlington Gardens, between Bond and Regent streets). The last two are
but a few yards apart. They are all entirely new buildings, and new also
in name and history, except Long’s, which was erected on the ground
where the first Long’s stood for _two hundred years_. Long’s, though
not of great capacity, has a larger number of richly furnished bedrooms
than the Ponce de Leon, in St. Augustine, Fla. For the beauty of the
exterior and the magnificent surroundings of the Ponce de Leon, as well
as for the Oriental splendor of its public rooms, no words of praise can
be too lavish. But the two hotels, “the Ponce” and Long’s, cannot be
compared; their characteristics are so different. One is like a royal
palace in the country, the other resembles a gentleman’s quiet, city
home. Long’s differs from every other hotel I have seen in this respect,
that all of its bedrooms have rich hangings, and the walls of each are
decorated with works of art. The apartments are not cold and bare, as
are the bedrooms of most hotels; they suggest home-like comforts, and
are furnished in the best taste. The walls of the dining-room at Long’s
are hung with Gobelin tapestry, and on the whole it may be called a
beautifully appointed hotel. H. J. Herbert, manager.
THE BRISTOL.
They have some very attractive hotels in Boston; the Brunswick, for
example, and everybody has heard of the beautiful Spanish hotels in St.
Augustine, and the great Auditorium in Chicago. I have lived at all
these houses, also at the Hotel del Coronado, Coronado Beach, and at
California’s other famous house, the Hotel del Monte, at Monterey, with
its 126 acres for a garden. There are few or none that are more gorgeous
than these, and they always come to one’s memory when discussing the
best hotels, but certainly New York City cannot boast of a hotel
interior that equals in tasteful decorations those of the Bristol in
London. It is a gem in its way.
A veritable bijou of a room is the reception room of the Bristol. It is
minus the onyx tables and costly paintings you see at the Ponce de Leon
in St. Augustine, and the “gold” chairs that dazzle your eyes in so many
American hotels: everything in this room at the Bristol, from the soft
carpet on the floor to the decoration on the ceiling, is rich, but also
quiet in tone--soothing and harmonious. The Royal Academy, the
Burlington Arcade (a fashionable shopping street) and Piccadilly are all
within a few hundred feet of the Bristol. The Bristol is patronized by
such well-known New Yorkers as the Vanderbilts, the Twomblys and the
owner of the New York _World_. Telegraph or write to the Bristol Hotel,
Burlington Gardens, London, W.
THE HOTEL ALBEMARLE.
Although rebuilt and opened as recently as the beginning of 1890, the
Hotel Albemarle has already gained a position and reputation as one of
the most select and fashionable hotels in London. Its situation, to
begin with, has undoubtedly had much to do with its immediate success.
It conspicuously fronts the north end of the celebrated thoroughfare,
St. James’s street, in the centre of the court quarter of London, and
stands at the corner of Albemarle street and Piccadilly. No better
location for a hotel destined to be at once aristocratic and accessible
to the traveling public could have been selected. Towering high above
the surrounding buildings, the Albemarle, with its double façade,
seventy-five feet on Piccadilly and seventy-five feet on the street from
which it takes its name, cannot fail to attract observation. It is built
of terra cotta in the Francis I. style of architecture, and the general
effect is both graceful and imposing.
The main entrance is in Albemarle street. The interior of the hotel is
furnished and decorated in a variety of styles of the Renaissance
period. The furniture and decoration of the dining-room, ladies’
drawing-room on the ground floor, the fitting and decoration of the hall
and staircase, are treated in the style of Francis I. The style of Henri
II. has been adopted for the first and second floors; the third floor is
in the style of Louis XV., and the fourth in that of Louis XIV. Special
mention must be made of the “Rubens Room,” furnished and decorated
effectively in the Louis XV. style. This apartment derives its name from
a fine painting which adorns the ceiling, and which is believed to be
from the brush, either of Rubens himself or of one of his pupils.
The furnishing, fitting and decorating of the Hotel Albemarle were
effected by the well-known London firm of Shoolbred, after designs from
a famous French artist. The building being of such recent erection, it
is scarcely necessary to state that none of the modern improvements has
been neglected in its construction. The most careful attention has been
paid to sanitary arrangements, and the hotel is lighted throughout by
electricity. In the two years which have elapsed since it was opened, it
has quickly become renowned for the excellence of its cuisine and
service. Its wine cellar is one of the choicest in London.
Royalty, the nobility, and visitors of the highest fashion patronize the
Hotel Albemarle. During the London season, in particular, its rooms are
crowded with distinguished guests. To Americans, especially, it should
prove a most attractive resort, if only on account of the brilliant and
aristocratic neighborhood in which it is situated. St. James’s Park, St.
James’s Palace and Marlborough House are near at hand. Hyde Park, with
its “Drive” and “Row,” is within five minutes’ walk. The Art Galleries,
the theatres, the Opera House, the Houses of Parliament, the clubs,
Westminster Abbey, and several of the principal museums are within the
compass of a shilling cab fare. The best and most fashionable shops in
London are situated in the near vicinity, in Piccadilly and in Bond and
Regent streets, while Oxford street, where many of the cheaper shops are
to be found, is but a short distance off--in short, it may be said that
the Hotel Albemarle stands almost in the centre of the fashionable life
and business of London.
Interest attaches to Albemarle street itself as an historical
thoroughfare. During the last century it enjoyed peculiar reputation as
a place of residence at the west end of the metropolis, and not a little
of this old-time prestige clings to it still. The Prince of Wales,
afterwards George the Second, once lived in Albemarle street, and when
Louis the Eighteenth of France was in England in 1814 he made it his
place of stay, and held, at the now defunct “Grillon’s Hotel,” his
receptions of the leaders of the English nobility. The famous publishing
house, Murray’s, through whose doors have passed such celebrities in the
world of letters as Byron, Scott, Southey, Crabbe, Hallam, Tom Moore,
Gifford, Lockhart, Washington Irving and many others, is situated
immediately opposite the entrance to the Hotel. You would never imagine
that it was a publishing house or business house of any kind. It looks
like an ordinary private dwelling, and the only sign on the building is
one small, dull brass plate on the front wall upon which is engraved
“Mr. Murray.”
The proprietor of the Hotel Albemarle is Mr. A. L. Vogel. He is to be
congratulated on the rapid success he has met with in his efforts to
establish one of the best of London hotels. Mr. Vogel has purchased the
freehold of property adjoining the Albemarle Hotel, and a large addition
to the hotel will be erected presently, thus affording room for a new
_salle a manger_ and some thirty more bedrooms.
Mr. Vogel issues as a “Guide to London” a comprehensive and, in its way,
a complete little book of fifty pages, illustrated and prettily bound in
cloth. It is sent free to any address in the world on application.
Address The Albemarle, Albemarle street, Piccadilly, London.
THE BURLINGTON HOTEL.
The Burlington is in Cork street, a select, and fashionable business
thoroughfare between Bond street and Regent street. In this immediate
locality are also to be found Long’s Hotel, the Bristol, Almond’s Hotel,
patronized by Chauncey Depew and his family, and Brown’s Hotel in Dover
street. The last-named house affects not to desire American patronage.
The Burlington has enjoyed for over a century a truly unique reputation
and position in London. The hotel, as seen from the Burlington street
side, has a dignified exterior. It was erected in the year 1723, after
designs by Kent, by Richard, third earl of Burlington, but the Cork
street side was added to the old hotel in 1828.
It contains about one hundred and fifty rooms, and among these are as
fine apartments as may be met with in any hotel in the world. The hotel
entrance and the staircase are strikingly attractive, and the galleries,
opening from the staircase to the first floor, have a most charming
effect. Pretty alcoves occupy the ends of the gallery, and on the side
opposite to the colonnade, which looks on to the staircase, is a richly
ornamented doorway leading to the drawing-rooms. The latter possess
curiously decorated ceilings, painted in oil, with vases, birds,
foliage, etc., the work of an Italian artist of the eighteenth century.
The bedrooms are also interesting, as they retain their original carved
wood mantelpieces and doorways. There are several noble old rooms on
the ground floor with tastefully designed mantelpieces, panelling,
cornices, doorways and richly painted ceilings, which might have served
for the background of one of Hogarth’s pictures.
In the halls are fine, delicately carved benches by Grinling Gibbons. In
their time the old frescoes have been admired by many famous celebrities
who have sojourned at the Burlington. “Kitty,” the celebrated Countess
of Queensberry, friend of Gay, dispensed her well-known hospitality at
this hostelry, and Florence Nightingale occupied a suite of apartments
there for some months after the Crimean war. Here, too, Macaulay wrote a
portion of his famous history.
Coming to more recent times, there is scarcely a well-known face in
London that does not know this aristocratic hotel. Lord Beaconsfield,
when he was plain “Mr. Disraeli,” was president of a committee which met
there weekly for the purpose of erecting a statue to the memory of the
late Earl of Derby. The ex-premier, Mr. Gladstone, and his family have
patronized the Burlington for the past fifty years. The Marquis of
Salisbury may be occasionally passed in the corridors on his way to the
royal apartments of King Leopold, and the Prince of Wales arrives
unattended to visit august relatives, who patronize the Burlington.
Henry Irving gives his delightful dinner parties there, and the Royal
College of Physicians have dined there monthly since 1830. Among
distinguished Americans whose names are on the books, may be found
George Peabody, the philanthropist, who resided there for eight months,
also Jefferson Davis, John Jacob Astor, Mr. Bancroft, General Schenck
and General Sandford. Henry M. Stanley also is on the cosmopolitan list
of celebrated guests of the Burlington.
The Burlington, as well as the Buckingham Palace Hotel, opposite
Buckingham Palace, has for many years been managed by Mr. George Cooke,
who is one of the proprietors, and under whose administration both
hotels have acquired a reputation second to none in Europe. Electric
light, new sanitation and every other modern improvement have been
introduced, and both the British public, as well as American visitors to
London, have been quick to appreciate Mr. Cooke’s effort to make his
hotels real London homes for people of taste and refinement.
THE SAVOY.
A London hotel that has, so to speak, jumped into popularity is the
Savoy Hotel. It is a new house, on the Victoria embankment, with the
Strand at its back, the public gardens in front and the Thames at its
feet. It lies between Charing Cross and Waterloo Bridge, and for a
“finger post” it has Cleopatra’s needle. There is an entrance for foot
passengers from the Strand and a carriage drive from the embankment
directly into the courtyard, like that of the Palace Hotel in San
Francisco, the Grand Hotel in Paris, and the Grand in Brussels. In fact,
the Savoy is more like a continental than an English house, and the
owners call it “the Hotel de Luxe of the world.” Luxurious in site, size
and appointments, the Savoy certainly is. It is not continental,
however, in its system of charges. Nor for that matter is it like any
other London hotel, its system being American. In all Parisian hotels
candles are a separate charge: in nearly all European hotels attendance
is a separate item, and in most hotels in the civilized world you must
pay extra for baths. Not so at the Savoy. When you are told the rate for
an apartment everything is included--everything of course but
meals--bedroom, lights, attendance and baths. There are sixty-seven
bath rooms in the house, and beneath it there is an artesian well four
hundred and twenty feet deep. The boiling water, as well as the cold,
like Jacobs’s bottle, is inexhaustible, and you can bathe to your
heart’s content. You can hire a room for two persons for two dollars a
day, or you may engage a suite at twenty dollars a day.
As to table, you may live economically at the Savoy, or you may live
like a prince--a rich prince. Here are the definite and fixed rates at
the Savoy:--bedrooms for one person, from seven and sixpence (nearly two
dollars) per day; for two persons, ten-and-six; suites of apartments
containing sitting-room, bed-room, dressing-room and private bath-room,
from thirty shillings per day. Breakfast from two shillings to
three-and-six; luncheon, four shillings; dinner, seven-and-six; dinner
served in private rooms ten-and-six. Guests’ servants are boarded at six
shillings per day; price of room according to location. If you want to
live in style and enjoy, at its best, life in London, engage a suite at
the Savoy, including parlor and bath-room, with private lobby and
private balcony overlooking the Thames. It makes no difference what
floor you select: there are “lifts” in the house, so large and luxurious
as to be justly called “ascending rooms:” they run day and night. The
rooms on the top floor are equal in height of ceiling to those on the
lower floors, and the furniture is of the same quality throughout the
house. General manager, C. Ritz; acting manager, L. Echenard.
HOTEL WINDSOR.
The Hotel Windsor is in Victoria street, only five minutes’ walk from
Victoria Station, two minutes’ walk from the American Legation, a few
steps from Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, the Houses of
Parliament, St. James’s Park and the Home Office. The dining-room of the
Windsor is an especially cheerful apartment and it overlooks the pretty
garden of a church. The great plate glass windows in this dining-room
are larger than the windows in any other hotel, so large that they are
only moved up or down by ropes to which handles are attached. They let
in plenty of daylight, almost as much as streams freely into the
dining-room of the Hotel Pasaje, Havana, which opens on the street, and
which is not encumbered with windows at all.
The Hotel Windsor is not only kept by a “proprietor” in the accepted
American use of that term, but the furniture, the building and the
ground on which it stands are owned in fee (“freehold,” as English
people call it), by two men, J. R. Cleave and V. D. B. Cooper, the first
named being the actual and active manager of the house, who makes it his
home, the title of the firm being J. R. Cleave & Co. The premises
include fifteen thousand square feet of ground, which, without the
imposing ten-story stone structure upon it, is valued at forty-five
thousand pounds sterling--not far short of a quarter million dollars.
The Windsor is fortunate in its location. A shilling cab takes you to
any theatre or to the shopping centre, and ’buses pass the door every
minute for Charing Cross, Trafalgar square and the Strand. Time, ten
minutes; fare, two cents, inside or out.
There is a lift at the Windsor of modern style; the house is lighted by
electricity; there are Turkish and swimming baths on the lower floor; to
avoid disagreeable odors the kitchen is at the top of the house; the
bedrooms are scrupulously clean, the _cuisine_ and wines are of the best
quality, and the charges moderate. You can live at the Windsor, if you
prefer it, on the American plan--rate, about four dollars a day. The
European plan is also moderate in price for rooms and meals--a
delicious lunch for sixty cents: choice service.
If this is the description of a model hotel, worthy in every respect of
the best patronage, “that,” as humorist Gilbert says, “is the idea I
intended to convey.” The Windsor was built about twelve years ago.
Address, J. R. Cleave, manager, Victoria street, Westminster, S. W.
BAILEY’S HOTELS.
Americans going to London for business, intent upon shopping,
theatre-going and a round of sight-seeing, find hotels in the Strand, or
hotels near Trafalgar square, very convenient. Reference is made to the
Grand, the Métropole, the Savoy, and the Victoria, in their alphabetical
order. The Langham, in Portland place, and those select houses near
Burlington Gardens and Piccadilly--Long’s, the Bristol, the Burlington
and the Albermarle, are also central, convenient, and in a fashionable
district.
If, however, a family is going to London for a protracted stay and the
desire of their hearts is to be in an ultra-fashionable locality, where
the aristocracy reside, and where quiet and selectness reign and
salubrity is assured, then Bailey’s Hotel, on the corner of Gloucester
and Cromwell roads, is recommended and recommends itself. If you are in
haste and do not care for a cab, the “underground” will take you from
“the city” or from Charing Cross to Bailey’s Hotel in fifteen minutes,
fare five cents, third class; fifteen cents in a first-class carriage.
When you reach Gloucester Road Station you are at Bailey’s Hotel, and
within a few minutes walk of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Cromwell
Gardens, Stanhope Gardens, Queen’s Gate Gardens, etc., etc. Near at
hand are the Albert Memorial, Albert Hall, and South Kensington Museum.
Not only is Bailey’s Hotel in the heart of this fashionable locality,
surrounded by the residences of members of the nobility and others, but
the hotel itself is under royal patronage, and has entertained the
Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Connaught, the
Princess Marie, the Princess Louise, and other members of the royal
household.
The hotel, which stands on the property of Lord Harrington, who owns all
the land hereabouts, was built in 1875. It is a brick building, six
stories high--a modern hotel with modern improvements, and all possible
safeguards against annoyances and dangers. There are accommodations for
two hundred and fifty guests. In the rear of the house is a beautiful
garden.
The decorations and furnishings of the apartments are in admirable
taste, and display an individual and artistic sense of fitness. The
style is especially English, but also especially beautiful--there is no
gaudiness, but neither is there dinginess. Unlike American hotels,
little space is given to halls, bar-room, etc., but there is a cosey,
homelike atmosphere, which is enhanced by the rich and substantial
surroundings. Because the bar, with its glitter of glass and brass does
not obtrude itself, let it not be supposed that wine is eschewed. On the
contrary, the wine cellar is a feature of the house, and the stock of
wines is valued at ten thousand pounds. As to the quality of the wines,
and, by the way, that of the cuisine, they are unsurpassed in London.
The sanitary arrangements bear the closest inspection. Some of the very
old and small London hotels are not to be trusted in case of fire.
Bailey’s Hotel is American-like in the particulars of fire-escapes and
preparations for extinguishing a fire.
There is no attempt to lead people to believe that very low prices
prevail or that Bailey’s is a “cheap house” in any sense of the term.
On the contrary, you pay for the best, and you get it. You can live at
Bailey’s Hotel on the European plan at about the same rate as at an
American hotel of the first-class. Single rooms rent at about one dollar
per day; double rooms from a dollar and a half; suites from four dollars
and a half upward. These are the winter rates. They are a trifle higher
during “the season.”
As at all English hotels, breakfast varies in price from fifty cents to
seventy-five cents; luncheon from sixty cents; table d’hôte dinner, one
dollar and twenty-five cents. Of course it is English, and there are
some extras. It is a rule at every English hotel, except the Savoy in
London, to make a separate charge for “attendance,” about thirty-five
cents per day for each person, and Bailey’s conforms to the rule. No
American likes it and it seems odd, but it is the custom in England, and
when in Rome---. Four dollars per week is the charge for each member of
the canine race.
So much for Bailey’s Hotel proper, but the same proprietor, Mr. James
Bailey, is also proprietor of the South Kensington Hotel, and, strange
to say, the two hotels are distant from each other only five minutes’
walk, the South Kensington being in Queen’s Gate Terrace.
Being in the same locality, and having the same proprietor, the above
remarks and particulars will apply, almost word for word, to both
houses. Americans who prefer a quiet, aristocratic quarter, and
especially those who have children, will make no mistake in applying for
rooms at either hotel, each with its surrounding parks and gardens being
particularly adapted to families. For the South Kensington, address
Queen’s Gate Terrace, London, S. W.
IN JERMYN STREET.
A couple of small, quiet hotels in Jermyn street--a street which runs
parallel with Piccadilly--may be found pleasant by families or by ladies
without escort. They lack that bustle and noise to which some people
object, and they are not “company hotels,” that is to say the head and
front of each is always visible and approachable. Mr. Rawlings is
proprietor of the Rawlings Hotel, and Mr. Morle with his family keeps
and manages the house which bears his name.
While Jermyn street is narrow and its two hotels are quiet, plenty of
life and gayety are to be had near at hand. Bond street and Regent
street, two of the most fashionable shopping streets of London, are hard
by, and the parks and palaces are within walking distance. Rawlings’
Hotel is famous for its cuisine, and a feature at Morle’s is that you
can arrange to live on the American plan if you prefer, the charges
being “inclusive,” as they call this plan there, and very moderate
withal. Both these houses are homelike and comfortable, but they are not
strictly fashionable.
Do not confuse Morle’s in Jermyn street with Morley’s in Trafalgar
square. Morley’s has a magnificent outlook, with the noble Nelson
Monument, Landseer’s lions and the playing fountains in front, and the
dinner served at Morley’s is of the best quality, but the house is very
old and rather worn, notwithstanding its white and attractive exterior.
THE NORFOLK’S MODERATE CHARGES.