if you are tired of the glare and blare of showy “American hotels,” and
you prefer a very quiet, but healthy locality, jot down in your
memorandum book, “Norfolk Hotel, Harrington Road, South Kensington,
S.W.” The Norfolk was built in the year 1889, not by a company, but by
Mr. A. Fatman, who himself keeps the house. It is not large, there is
room only for eighty guests, but these eighty can be made very
comfortable.
It is not like a hotel in certain respects. The rooms are not all of one
size nor of one shape. The furniture does not look as if it were turned
out by machinery in Grand Rapids and bought by the car-load. It has
character and distinction, no suites of furniture being alike. There is
nothing at the Norfolk to remind you, for instance, of a Salt Lake
hotel, with its great halls and corridors, and its cold, bare walls.
Good taste, as well as money, was used in building and furnishing the
Norfolk, and the result is an attractive, cosy, home-like house.
After entering the Norfolk and admiring its pleasant surroundings, the
tariff of charges will surprise you. Rooms are let as low as two-and-six
(about sixty cents) a night, and, wonderful to relate for a London
hotel, there is no charge for attendance. Fish breakfast, one-and-six
(thirty-five cents); afternoon tea, sixpence; the same price for hot or
cold bath.
THE FIRST AVENUE.
Don’t be prejudiced at the sound of “First Avenue Hotel.” It is in
Holborn, a bustling, busy thoroughfare, but which has nothing in common
with our First avenue in New York. The Gordon’s Hotel Company made a
mistake in naming the house; they meant to say Fifth Avenue Hotel, for
the First Avenue Hotel ranks probably with our Fifth Avenue Hotel in
New York, only the First Avenue is not an old house. Holborn is one of
London’s main arteries, a continuation, east, of Oxford street. The
First Avenue is not very far from St. Paul’s and Newgate. The former
being a noble cathedral, you will wish to get into; the latter being a
prison, you will wish to keep out of, unless for a temporary visit.
OTHER HOTELS.
Another hotel in Holborn which may be commended is the Holborn Viaduct
Hotel, near the city station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway.
A pleasant house in High Holborn is the Inns of Court; neither
fashionable nor grand, but select and comfortable; largely patronized by
English people. Terms moderate. The main entrance is in Lincoln’s Inn
Fields.
There are some famous old houses farther east, in the city, in such a
bustling, busy quarter as St. Martin’s le Grand, near the General Post
Office. The Queen’s Hotel in this neighborhood is best known.
Not far from this locality is the Manchester Hotel, in Aldersgate
street. The proprietor of the Manchester Hotel especially solicits
American patronage.
Those who desire to make frequent visits to the Houses of Parliament and
that grand old pile, Westminster Abbey, will find the Westminster Palace
Hotel convenient. It has an imposing front, in Victoria street,
Westminster, almost opposite to the Abbey. Within five minutes’ walk of
this hotel are the Home Office, St. James’s Park, the Horse Guards,
Westminster Bridge, leading to the Surrey side of London, the United
States Legation, and the Victoria Station of the London, Chatham and
Dover Railway. The favorite and well kept Hotel Windsor, referred to
elsewhere, is also in Victoria street, and still nearer to the Station
and the Legation before mentioned.
Convenient to Hyde Park are the Alexandra Hotel, 16 to 21 St. George’s
Place, Hyde Park Corner, and the Hyde Park Hotel. The latter is at the
west end of Oxford street, in Hyde Park Place, near the Marble Arch.
Claridge’s Hotel used to be considered “the crack” house of London, and
it is still patronized by the nobility, members of the diplomatic corps
and by royalty. Nos. 49 to 55 Brook street, Grosvenor Square.
The Hotels connected with the railway stations are large structures,
solidly built, fire-proof, as a general rule, and fitted up with every
modern contrivance. They are desirable stopping places if you arrive
late at night or if you intend to make an early start by rail, from the
station, in the morning. They were erected for that purpose and they
serve it admirably.
There are very many reputable hotels in London which are worthy of the
best patronage, detailed reference to which, in this limited space, it
would not be possible to make.
If none of the hotels described or alluded to in the foregoing list
suits your plans and purposes, consult friends who have had experience
in such matters. But don’t go, hap-hazard, into the smallest and oldest
London hotels of whose very existence you never heard. Some of them are
unpleasant, as residences; others are unhealthy. If your stay in London
is short there is every reason why you should put up at the best houses.
If you make a protracted visit and desire to economize, go to a boarding
house or take lodgings. You will see signs in windows all over London:
hire rooms and eat where your fancy or purse directs. London
housekeepers are glad to “eke out” by letting rooms in the summer, and
with a small tip now and then to the maid, life can be made very
comfortable in London lodgings.
A FEW BOARDING HOUSES.
There are plenty of first-class boarding houses where Americans are
welcome. Five or six come to mind--Mrs. Pool’s, No. 20 Bedford place;
Mrs. Goodman’s, No. 13 Montague place; Mrs. Philp’s, No. 6 Montague
place; Mrs. Wright’s, No. 15 Upper Woburn place, and Mr. Cooper’s, No. 1
Bedford place, Russell square. Mrs. Philp is an American whose husband
keeps the Cockburn Hotel in Glasgow; and there is a Philp’s Cockburn
Hotel in Edinburgh. Mrs. Philp’s drawing-room is beautiful, the
dining-room cheerful, and there is a pretty garden which is backed by
the walls of the British Museum, so Mrs. Philp is easily found.
Those who want to live economically but comfortably are recommended to
the handsome private hotel or _pension_ of Mrs. Marcus Pool, 20 Bedford
place, Russell square. This is a pleasant and convenient quarter of the
city--quite handy for the British Museum, not far from Charing Cross,
and a shilling cab fare to railway stations and places of amusement. The
house is furnished and appointed on a liberal scale; the drawing-room is
large and cheerful; the bedrooms are luxuriously fitted up in the best
taste, and they have a pleasant outlook. There is a Broadwood piano,
also a new billiard room, with a table from the famous firm of Bennett.
The house has a refined, home-like air, well representing the character
of Mrs. Pool and her charming daughter. French and German are spoken.
The terms at the Pool pension are from two dollars a day, which include
breakfast, table d’hôte dinner and attendance--“everything inclusive.”
Those are the terms “in the season;” the winter rates are lower. The
cuisine is of the substantial English quality, but not heavy. At Pool’s
pension you are sure to meet cultivated and select people. Those who
have been Mrs. Pool’s guests appear perfectly satisfied; for they
return again and again. Mr. Cooper keeps a good house and he caters to
people accustomed to refined surroundings. He is a typical Londoner of
the middle class--honest, blunt and out-spoken. Mrs. Lucy H. Hooper,
wife of the American Vice-Consul in Paris, recommends No. 1 Bedford
place. Mrs. Hooper makes it her stopping place when she is in London.
“American Family Home.”--An establishment which meets with especial
favor among fastidious tourists is Demeter House, 13 Montague place,
Russell square, W. C. The location is select, within easy access of the
centres of shopping and amusement. The house is kept by Mrs. A. Goodman,
who aims to maintain a house replete with the comforts and freedom of a
refined home and the advantages of a hotel, but with less expense. The
house is spacious and well furnished, the table excellent and carefully
provided. Many leading American families make this their home during
their annual visits to London.
Put down “No. 15 Upper Woburn place, Tavistock square,” and note that it
is not far from Euston station. It is a quiet street. The house is kept
by an English woman of refinement, Mrs. Wright and her maiden daughters,
and it may be commended as a pleasant Christian home, where grace is
said before meals.
Of these boarding houses, like all the hotels mentioned in this article,
the writer speaks from his own knowledge and experience. But don’t count
on getting accommodation in London hotels in the season, without making
previous arrangements or giving notice in advance of your arrival, or
you may be disappointed.
WHERE TO LUNCH IN LONDON,
AND WHERE NOT TO LUNCH.
It may be set down at the outset that there are no restaurants in London
equal to Delmonico’s in Fifth avenue, or the Café Savarin in the
Equitable Building, New York, and no London restaurant serves a table
d’hôte dinner at any price equal in quality and style of service to that
furnished at the select and elegant “Cambridge,” Fifth avenue and 33d
street, New York.
Neither is there a restaurant of the third class that will compare with
Mouquin’s, in Ann street, where everything is cooked to a turn, and
where even a fastidious _gourmet_ need not find fault. There are two or
three Italian places in Regent street where they serve a
“Chateaubriand,” enough for two persons, for one dollar, but nowhere do
you get a dish of maccaroni that is more palatable than at Mouquin’s,
and neither in London nor Paris do you get as good Burgundy for the
price as Mouquin’s beaujolais--half bottle, forty cents.
The foreign halls are more richly gilded, and the furniture is of finer
texture, but if you are looking for as good food and as well served at
that at Mouquin’s, at Mouquin’s prices, you will look in vain.
In the price of wines, however, no first-class hotel or restaurant
anywhere that I know of sells wines as low as the manager of the Hotel
del Monte, Monterey, Cal. In France, on the Swiss border, I found _vin
ordinaire_ almost as cheap as water, in the small inns. The Hotel del
Monte, please bear in mind, is a superbly appointed and grand
establishment, and they serve you a half bottle of good California
Zinfandel for fifteen cents. But then this hotel company own their own
vineyards, and make no profit on wine served at table. It is a sort of
“sample” or advertisement for their wines.
“The Aerated Bread Shops,” which are as “thick as flies” in London, are
probably good enough places to drop into if you are in a great hurry,
for a cup of coffee or cocoa and a roll or piece of dry, digestible seed
cake. If you abhor marble tables, if you must have a _serviette_ and you
would avoid a crowd and mixed company, keep out of the “aerated bread
shops,” and by the same token and by all means keep out of the Lockhart
lunch shops. The “aerated bread shops” are tolerable; the others are
not.
Much more worthy of patronage than aerated bread shops or Lockhart’s
lunch shops is the confectionery and cake counter of William Buszard,
197 and 199 Oxford street, where everything is clean and inviting. A
similar place of the first-class is that in “the city” of Alfred
Purssell & Co., No. 80 Cornhill, E. C. The proprietor of this
establishment is related to the late William Purssell, founder of the
famous restaurant in Broadway which still bears his name. There are
several pleasant places in and near Piccadilly where you may obtain a
cup of tea or cocoa and a dainty sandwich, just enough to “stay the
appetite.” One of the best of these is Callard’s, 146 New Bond street,
but even in this neat and clean little shop they don’t know what a
_serviette_ is.
Romano’s, called “The Vaudeville,” 399 Strand, is recommended for its
moderate charges, but this is a place I have never tried. So much for
the confectioners and the cheap restaurants.
The Tivoli restaurant, up stairs, connected with the Tivoli Music Hall,
is in the Strand, just East of Charing Cross. “La Haute Cuisine
Française,” as they term it, is in charge of a famous _chef_, M. Gerard.
A Table d’Hôte Luncheon, at 2s. 6d., from 12 to 3; Parisian dinner, at
5s., from 6 to 9, served in the Flemish Room.
Londoners are proud of their Holborn Restaurant, 218 High Holborn, where
the glass and the brass and the marble columns are resplendent and
imposing, and where you are regaled with vocal music (English glees)
during the dinner hour, but the meals are not daintily served: the
butter is not cold, and the plates are not warm, and unless you order a
costly meal at the Holborn Restaurant, the waiter may wait on you with
condescension. Dinner, three-and-six.
If you are in “the city,” in the neighborhood of the Bank (the Bank of
England), and you have a desire to see how and where some of the brokers
and commission merchants lunch, step into the Winchester House in
Bishopgate street--a well-lighted, well-furnished restaurant, where no
charge is made to customers, strange to say, for use of water and soap.
Ladies who are in the neighborhood of Westminster Abbey or who have
business at the American Legation, are recommended to the Army and Navy
stores, in Victoria street, opposite the Windsor Hotel, where a dainty
lunch is served at a very moderate sum. You can do your shopping in the
same large establishment. They sell everything, from a poached egg to an
Axminster carpet or a wedding outfit. The Army and Navy stores is on the
coöperative plan. To gain entrance you must either use a member’s ticket
number or use good judgment.
Gatti is a well-known name in the Strand, where the Gattis have two
large, gaudily furnished restaurants, one of which extends to King
William street. The Gattis are also owners of the Adelphi Theatre, where
you may always enjoy a drama--if you enjoy melodrama. The Gattis are
Swiss, and one of the brothers is a legislator in one of the Swiss
Cantons. They commenced in a small way, in the east end of London, many
years ago and made a reputation for their ices. They long since moved to
the west end, where they increased their business and they now conduct a
thriving trade. All Gatti’s waiters are foreigners. They are a talkative
set and some people might prefer that their linen be nearer the color of
snow.
IN REGENT STREET.
If you are in the neighborhood of Piccadilly Circus, a fair place to get
luncheon at a fair price is “the Florence” in Rupert street, Regent
street. It is an Italian restaurant; the lunch is served table d’hôte
and the price is one shilling and sixpence. But there is no profit to
the restaurateur in the mere lunch: you are expected to order
wine--indeed that is the expectation in all English restaurants and
hotels--all hotels that are not temperance houses. At the Florence you
can get dinner from six to nine, for half-a-crown--sixty-two cents--and
you order wine of course.
If you are fond of high living, and you don’t mind paying for it, take a
meal in the middle of the day or _early_ in the evening at the Hotel
Continental. It is in the lower part of Regent street, on the corner of
Waterloo place, within the shadow of the Duke of York column. It was one
of the first houses in London to adopt the French style in name--Hotel
Continental in lieu of Continental Hotel--and it was one of the first to
serve a first class dinner in the French style. The reputation for its
_cuisine_ is second to none, and the hotel prides itself upon the
accuracy of the names and vintages of the wines supplied. It has the
monopoly in London of that famous brand of champagne, “_Medaille d’Or_”
which received the grand prize in the French Exhibition of 1878 over
sixty other competing wines. Cigarettes made of the finest tobacco are
manufactured expressly for the hotel in Constantinople and Salonica.
There is always a very gay scene in the Hotel Continental supper room
after the theatres close; it might become too lively in the early hours
of the morning, but the police regulations oblige such places as the
Continental to close their doors at one A.M. Dinner from seven-and-six
to twelve-and-six, without wine, of course; for although you are in the
Continental you are not on the Continent. A. Y. Wilson, who has been
connected with the house since its opening, is the manager.
More attention is given to “the inner man” in London than in any other
place I wot of. They seem to live to eat there, not eat to live, and yet
some one has noted this difference--you eat dinner in London, while in
Paris you dine. Mention the subject of restaurants in London and the
majority will ask you, “Have you dined at Verrey’s in Regent street?”
Yes, I’ve been to Verrey’s and I found it very gloomy, and very
expensive not to say oppressive. You are in the middle of the house and
the room is lighted from a skylight. It is not at all cheerful.
Blanchard’s, “The Burlington,” 169 Regent street, is patronized by the
higher classes. Dinner from five shillings to twelve-and-six. No higher
priced dinner in London.
For a healthful, nicely-served meal, whether it consist of a mutton chop
and a boiled potato or a dinner of several courses, much better than the
aforesaid establishments in Regent street is the Café Royal, at No. 68
Regent street. In the “Grand Café Restaurant Royal,” where dinner is
served, prices rule high. For luncheon go into the “Grill Room” of the
Café Royal. You will find the rates reasonable, the food of the best,
the appointments on a grand scale, and the service satisfactory. These
remarks will also apply to “The Monico,” at Piccadilly Circus and
Shaftesbury avenue.
The St. James Restaurant, which extends from Piccadilly to Regent
street, with entrances on both streets, is a large, showy place, with
plenty of glitter about it, and wearing the big-sounding title of St.
James Hall. The rates are not low, the food is not of the choicest
quality, the service is not of the best, and the waiters may over-charge
you unless you watch them closely. The charge for washing your hands at
the St. James, be you a patron or not, is two-pence. This is a regular
charge made by the proprietors, but if you don’t also fee the man who
hands you a towel or fills your basin, you might get a cold reception
down-stairs the next time you call, and you may fill your own basin.
At the Criterion, in Piccadilly Circus, you can take your choice; go up
stairs, and the charges are higher; down in the basement the same dishes
are served at a lower price. To quote their bill, “table d’hôte
three-and-six, _le diner Parisien_, five shillings.”
English people when they are thirsty drink beer, wine, or something
stronger; Americans who live in cities, American women at least, prefer
something weaker, soda water, for instance, which, charged with gas,
looks cool and inviting as it comes bubbling from a highly polished,
silver-plated fountain. Not until recently could American taste in this
matter be gratified in London. Now there are two “American
confectioneries” kept by Fuller, one, the principle establishment, at
206 Regent street; the other, at 358 Strand, both central locations. The
first is close to Oxford Circus and not far from the Langham Hotel. At
Fuller’s you can get ice-cream soda and “caramels fresh ever hour.” In
fact, on a pleasant summer day Fuller’s, in Regent street, will remind
you of Huyler’s on Broadway, and if you are a New Yorker, you will meet
many familiar faces there. If you retain a juvenile _penchant_ for
peanuts, that taste can also be gratified at Fuller’s.
THE GRILL ROOM OF THE GRAND.
So many of the transient guests at hotels in London are out shopping and
sight-seeing, that they generally take only breakfast, or, at most,
breakfast and dinner, at their hotels, always lunching wherever
convenience may permit. The meals at European hotels being usually a
separate charge, the hotel is a sufferer by this custom, so that at
some, if not most houses, it is understood that, if you take your meals
out, a higher charge will be made for your apartment. The manager of the
Grand Hotel, however, has opened a restaurant of his own, in his own
house, which is so attractive that it not only keeps together his
regular guests, but allures “the outside world,” and thus the “Grill
Room,” as it is called, of the Grand has become famous in London.
While within and a part of the Grand Hotel, it is not reached by the
main entrance in Northumberland avenue. It is at the eastern end of the
building, around the corner, in the Strand, and is in what we would call
in New York a basement, but no ordinary “basement” is this, and the
staircase leading to it is anything but ordinary. The Grill Room of the
Grand is a well-lighted, cheerful apartment, richly carpeted and finely
furnished. The chairs are comfortably upholstered, the walls are
gorgeous with polished tiles, the table furniture is dainty, the food is
of prime quality, and the tariff of charges moderate.
Don’t be surprised at the charge, two-pence, for washing your hands in
the Grill Room lavatory, and unless you occupy a room, the charge for
use of lavatory in the hotel proper is three-pence; but it is worth half
a crown merely to see the lavatory, or rather the staircase and landing
leading to it, so beautiful are the colored marble fountain, the eastern
rugs, the fernery and the Oriental lamps, with which this lower part of
the house is decorated. The view of this lower part from the marble
staircase on the main floor has been called fairy-like; it is certainly
very pleasing.
Strangers are not allowed the run and freedom of the hotels in Europe as
they are in “the States.” They can’t use the smoking-room, read the
newspapers, loiter about the halls, make a general rendezvous of the
house and help themselves to stationery in European hotels as they do on
this side. Their hotels lack some of our popular features and the
excellent service and discipline of the American hotels, but, on the
other hand, they are not so noisy, and are more private. American hotels
suit Americans, and the hotels in England satisfy the wants and desires
of English people.
SIMPSON’S DIVAN.
A Characteristic English Restaurant.--A good, plain, thoroughly
wholesome English dinner is served in an appetizing way by English
waiters at Simpson’s, in the Strand, next door to Terry’s Theatre,
opposite Exeter Hall. You get a bowl of good soup, a course of fish, a
cut from the joint, a salad, two kinds of vegetables, with bread and
butter, a biscuit and a bit of rich Gorgonzola or dry Wiltshire cheese
to wind up with, and your whole bill will be four shillings, to which
add threepence for “attendance,” which is charged in the bill, and about
threepence more which you will hand to the waiter. A feature of the
place is that the hot joint, over a chafing dish and on a small table,
is wheeled round to you, and it is there cut before your eyes and
transferred to your plate. You can get a lower-priced dinner in London,
and higher-priced dinners where you please, but none of a better quality
and none that is more satisfactory unless you demand fancy fol de rols,
indigestible entrées and French dishes made of little or nothing.
Simpson’s is justly celebrated for its “fish” dinners. Both these and
the meal above described are served in the middle of the day and in the
evening also. On Sunday the evening dinner only is served; the place is
closed until 6 P.M.