Hotel Metropole

The Hotel Metropole that opened in 1885 became one of London’s major hotels but after World War 1 it flowered with new vigour. The Restaurant des Ambassadeurs, the Café Anglais and the Whitehall rooms blossomed through the 1920s and the famous Midnight Follies cabaret created a brighter London.

The evolution of the grand hotel began with the construction of the railways across the country from 1830 but the first really large hotels in London began to open after the Great Exhibition of 1851 in response to an increase in tourism and business. By the late 19th century vast, opulent edifices of luxury were built all over London led by Frederick Gordon, who opened the Grand Hotel (Trafalgar Square) in 1881, the First Avenue (Holborn) in 1883 and the Metropole (Northumberland Avenue) in 1885. Other hotels followed including the Hyde Park in 1888 but all were eclipsed by the grandeur of Richard D’Oyly Carte’s the Savoy which opened in 1889 and later by the Cecil, the Carlton and the Ritz.

The Hotel Metropole was regarded as one of the finest and most comfortable hotels in the world occupying one of the best positions in London. It was one of many luxury hotels run by the Gordon Hotel Group under Frederick Gordon, who by the 1920s had at least 5 leading hotels in London, 7 in English seaside resorts like Brighton and two on the Riviera at Cannes and Monte Carlo.

It was a large building with an extensive frontage on Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place with the principal entrance on the former and containing 600 bedrooms. The footprint of the hotel was in fact a triangle and at each corner was a hall of splendid proportions. The entrance was through a bold semi-circular arch with fine bas reliefs and once inside there was an entrance hall and a grand marble staircase rising to the 7th floor.

Leading from the hall was a spacious reception room in the style of the Italian Renaissance and a large freize 5 feet high ran around the room clouded with groups of skilfully executed cupids, flowers and birds. general harmony of colour was a rich, soft yellow. Wall panels contained tapestries representing the 4 royal palaces of Windsor Osborne, Balmoral and Sandringham and symbolic of the 4 seasons.  Around the bases of two massive decorated columns supporting the beams were luxurious Ottomans upholstered in rich brown velvet and the window draperies were of similar texture and colourings.

Then, off a corridor leading in the direction of the drawing room was a vestibule in the Arabian style with windows of stained glass and a mosaic floor.  It was formed in an alcove with a luxuriously upholstered ottoman raised on a dais protected by a screen and the upper panels of which were filled with rare old Cairo mush-work in geometrical Arabian wood framing. The walls were hung with a Moorish patterned material and the light came from a dome filled with stained glass and there was a Morris lamp hanging from the crown of the arch above the alcove.

Opposite was the library that was a handsome room in Elizabethan character and décor. There was a richly panelled dado and above panelling of embossed leather in shades of brown surmounted by a deep frieze of modelled plaster of Elizabethan design and ceiling of oak in geometrical ribbed panels.

The drawing room itself was based on one of the private apartments of the Empress in the Tuileries in the style of Louis XV1 with the décor reflecting a harmony of colour in pink.

The Grand Salle or principal dining room was 120 x 45 feet and styled with Italian Renaissance décor with a ceiling supported by 10 handsome columns.  It was situated at the apex of the triangular footprint of the hotel. A dado 4ft 6″ high was composed of four different kinds of choice marble and surrounded the room.  The upper part of the walls was covered with a rich Genoa velvet connecting the marble pilasters which extend to the springing of the windows and above this were richly decorated plaster spandrils. The 11 lofty and arched windows were draped with soft brown-red-silk curtains. The cornice had a very handsome frieze decorated with Italian ornament in two colours relieved in gold. The whole of the ceiling and cornice was of plaster richly figured and colour tinted. There were Eleven large lofty windows draped with soft brown-red silk curtains and the furniture was in handsome walnut.

Parallel with the Grand Salle was the Oak Salle, a smaller dining room at 50 x 45 feet, decked in oak. The walls were panelled and decorated in 8 handsome tapestries and the room was lit by a large central lantern. The Kings room, a smaller dining-room, was Jacobean in character with dark oak panelling and panelled oil portraits of famous people.

Another entrance from Whitehall Place led into a smaller lobby and a semi-circular arch led into a secondary hall. Adjacent was the magnificent and richly decorated banqueting hall at 82 x 42 feet and also called the Whitehall Rooms. The walls had arches and ornamental Italian pilasters relieved by panels of silvered plate glass surmounted by pediments. 8 massive columns supported the ceiling all panelled and decorated in tints of gold. The floor was of polished oak. At one end of the room was an alcove with 3 panels one of which represented an Italian marriage festival.

On the opposite side of the corridor was a public dining room in Italian renaissance style. Finally, In the basement were billiard and smoking rooms.

The Hotel Metropole was in a perfect location at the time for well-to-do families visiting London, visitors from Continental Europe arriving by train from Kent ports at Charing Cross and an influx of Americans. There were also regular updates to the interior with redecorations, for example in 1910. The purpose and designation of some of the major rooms was also changed and in 1909, for example, a magnificent new lounge was unveiled.  During World War I the hotel was closed and used by government staff.

The hotel finally re-opened 3 three years after the Armistice in July 1921. It had been completely refitted with a sumptuous transformation that combined luxury with perfect good taste disposing of what was thought to be ‘gloomy Victorian magnificence.’. Perhaps the most important new features were creating three new function rooms out of previous rooms, namely the Restaurant des Ambassadeurs, the Café Anglais and the Whitehall banqueting room or ballroom.

The Grand Salle dining room became the Restaurant Des Ambassadeurs, a designation designed to attract overseas guests and had an atmosphere of sombe hotel stateliness. The roof was painted to resemble a gorgeous torquoise blue sunset with scudding golden clouds and the lights are encased in enormous pink silk flowers that glow that were frequently described as Chinese lanterns.  This room was thought to be one of the most perfectly equipped and amazingly contrived rooms in Europe and was described as a room of ‘fairy tale beauty’. The walls and ceiling gave the effect of opals in their translucent glow of silver through transparent layers of lacquer in pale blue, rose-colour and amber, while big doors of ebony delicately traced with gold, and black lacquer chairs upholstered in petunia and blue brocade add to the unusual effect.  There were silver tissue curtains with clusters of embroidered bowers to shield the windows, while the carpet was of petunia-tinted pile that had been specially woven. A dancing floor had also been laid in the wide annexe next to the prinicipal room that has previously been the Oak Salle.

The Café Anglais was thought to have a beauty and airiness. The big windows afforded sunshine to challenge the lovely apricot-yellow tones (sunset yellow) of the hangings and decoration with a carpet copied from Louis XVI design. The ceiling and frieze were in white and gold and the warm apricot tones on the wall blended well with the various coloured marble used for the skirtings, dado’s and pilasters. It was described as ‘one of the most strikingly handsome and exhilarating dining rooms to be found in any city.’ However, it is not clear where this room was or what it had previously been but it may have been the Oak Salle.

There were also other newly titled rooms including the Adam, Chinese Lacquer and Dutch rooms along with a new garden lounge on the ground floor with blue skies, green trees and the feeling of summer along with trellised walls.

The Whitehall room or ballroom was redecorated by Ashley Tabb. The big lofty room had jade green pillars sweeping upwards to a great cream roof picked out in jade lace. The orchestra sat in a deep blue alcove flanked by two pale orange lamps. Strings of hand painted ‘chinese’ silk lanterns were hung from the ceiling. Supper tables were arranged in horseshoe fashion with a good-sized dancing floor in the centre and at the far end a curtained recess. Here the atmosphere was described as ‘extreme decorum and the austereness of unemotional Britain seems the keynote.’

Significantly, the Whitehall Room became the site of one of the first true cabarets in London that transformed London’s nightlife in the 1920s. On 4th November 1921, the ‘Midnight Follies’ was inaugurated at the Metropole and became an overnight hit with all of smart London flocking to see the show which commenced at 11.30pm, cost 30s with supper and lasted about one hour.

The idea had come about via George Grossmith, the famous English performer and producer. Following his frequent trips to America, he had been impressed with the growth of the numerous cabaret entertainments in New York. Grossmith, with fellow colleagues JAE Malone and Andre Charlot decided to find a London setting for their concept of a supper time entertainment. But it was not easy and many suitably large venues like the Criterion and the Savoy refused. Finally, they discussed the idea with the hotelier Sir Francis Towle, who was most enthusiastic and showed them the Whitehall Rooms at the Metropole Hotel. It was ideal and Grossmith engaged the American Jack Haskell, to arrange the cabaret. Haskell had made his reputation at the Ziegfeld Follies in New York and had already scored a great success by arranging the dances for Grossmith in his Winter Garden show of Sally. The first show featured Odette Myrtil and Lewis Sidney and a suitable chorus of 30 fashionable bright young things. On the stroke of midnight three loud knocks were heard and the orchestra stopped suddenly and dancers hurry back to their tables. At the end of the room the curtains parted and from a raised platform the cabaret company stepped to the floor. The programme consisted of sketches, songs and ballets ‘adroitly mixed and deftly served.’ It was thought to be first class value for money including supper and dancing.

But disaster struck when the London County Council objected to the venture and ‘brisk skirmishes’ followed between Francis Towle and the LCC. Immediately the cabaret was curtailed and only 6 performers and no scenery of stage costumes were allowed.

Despite these restrictions the power of the Hotel Metropole’s attractions was confirmed and outlined in an advert from 10^th December 1921 with a gala dinner in the Restaurant des Ambassadeurs, dancing in the Salle de Fete, a gala dinner in the Café Anglais and the Midnight Follies in the Whitehall Rooms.

The restrictions from the LLC continued as did the revised Midnight Follies show which never diminished in popularity. Finally, in December 1922, the LCC restrictions were lifted and more ambitious cabaret shows were staged with numerous editions that continued into the late 1920s. The Midnight Follies became one of London’s leading cabaret shows along twith he New Princes Frivolities, the Piccadilly Revels and shows at the Trocadero.

The hotel was leased to the British government from 1936 and then after the war it was bought by the Crown Estates and continued to be used by the Ministry of Defence. However, in 2007 it was bought by a consortium who reopened the building as the Corinthia Hotel in 2011.

Sources

Corinthia London

The Observer 17/5/1885
The Irish Builder 15/5/1885
Nights in London by Horace Wyndham
Gentlewoman 16/7/21
The Bystander 3/8/21
The Bystander 8/8/23
The Golden Age of British Hotels by Derek Taylor & David Bush
The Sphere 26/2/10
Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer 12/7/21
British Australian 21/5/1885
Justice 23/5/1885
The Graphic 10/12/21
British Australian 21/5/1885
Evening Standard 12/7/21
Illustrated London News 23/7/21
The Stage Yearbook 1921-25
The Encore 15/10/21
GG by George Grossmith