| Imperial Hotel | |
|---|---|
 Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, 2017 | |
  Location within Central London | |
| Hotel chain | Imperial London Hotels |
| General information | |
| Address | 61-66 Russell Square |
| Town or city | London, WC1B 5BB |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°31′18″N0°07′27″W / 51.5218°N 0.1241°W |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Imperial Hotel is a hotel on the east side of Russell Square, a branch of Imperial London Hotels. [1] - a chain of budget tourist hotels with several properties in the Bloomsbury area.
The original building was designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and built between 1905 and 1907. The height of the building was 61 meters and there were 15 floors. [2] In its opening year 1907 it was used by the first all Indian cricket team to tour England. [3]
Physicist Leo Szilard was staying at the Imperial Hotel when he conceived of the atomic bomb. [4]
Round about 1910 an extension to the hotel took place and construction was completed in 1913. [5] As part of the extension, Turkish baths were constructed. [6] The hotel had about 640 bedrooms. [7] The building was equally colossal as its neighbour the Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel and the architectural style was a mixture of Art Nouveau Tudor and Art Nouveau Gothic, combining terra-cotta ornaments in which the corbels, gargoyles and statues were modelled with red brick. Towers rose above a high mansard roof of green copper. A Winter Garden occupied the ground floor between the two bedroom wings. Both Winter garden and Turkish Baths were decorated in glazed Doulton ware. [8]
The building was demolished at the beginning of 1967. [2] [9] It was demolished because of its lack of bathrooms and because, according to the Greater London Council, the whole frame of the building was structurally unsound. There was no possibility of saving it if a preservation order had been placed on the building. In truth, however, the building was probably a victim of fashion and the prevailing taste in the 1960s. [10] All that remains of the building are 21 statues from the Turkish Baths, bells and a galleon, now placed in the courtyard of the current hotel. [11]
The hotel was replaced by a new building of the same name. [12]
Victor Pierre Horta was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93), often considered the first Art Nouveau house, is based on the work of Viollet-le-Duc. The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used in turn influenced many others, including the French architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first Art Nouveau apartment building he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.
Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row. Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden near Euston Station.
West Brompton is a London Underground, London Overground and National Rail station on Old Brompton Road (A3218) in West Brompton, located in west London, and is on the District line and West London Line (WLL). It is immediately south of the demolished Earls Court Exhibition Centre and west of Brompton Cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Queen Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of central London. Many of its buildings are associated with medicine, particularly neurology.
Fitzroy Square is a Georgian square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzroy Town and latterly as Fitzrovia, though the nearby Fitzroy Tavern is thought to have had as much influence on the name as Fitzroy Square.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 160 hotels with 47,765 rooms planned for development.
The Birkdale Palace Hotel was a luxury hotel located in the Lancashire coastal resort of Birkdale, Southport, on the north-west coast of England. The building towered over the surrounding area for over a hundred years before being demolished in 1969. During the Second World War it had been used as a rehabilitation centre for US airmen, and in the last two years of existence was used as a film location. The Palace is notorious in local folklore as a haunted hotel.
The Queen's Lawn is a green lawned area situated at the centre of Imperial College London's South Kensington campus, next to the Queen's Tower and immediately to the north of Imperial College Road. It provides an open space of 1,600 sq metres, and is surrounded by the Abdus Salam Library, and the Sherfield administration, Chemistry, and Skempton buildings. It is often the site of college events, including student bands, fairs, and balls, as well as student activism.
Edwardian architecture usually means a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular for public buildings in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style.
The Khedive's Palace, also known as Çubuklu Palace, is located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, and was once the residence of Khedive Abbas II of Egypt and Sudan. In English it is also known as the Khedive's Pavilion or the Khedive's Mansion.
The Kimpton Fitzroy London is a historic five-star hotel, located on Russell Square, Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. From its opening in 1900 until 2018, it was known as the Hotel Russell.
Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions, as the spine of Fitzrovia.
The Rác Thermal Bath, located in Budapest, Hungary, is an 8000-square metre bath and is renowned for its Turkish bath dating back to the 16th century, and its imperial pools and shower corridor built in the age of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The bath is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is now part of the newly built complex of the Rac Hotel & Thermal Spa. Its name derives from the ancient Hungarian name of Serbs, one of the former cohabiting populations in Tabán.
Charles Fitzroy Doll JP, FRIBA (1850–1929), was an English architect of the Victorian and Edwardian eras who specialised in designing hotels. He also designed the dining room on the RMS Titanic, which was based on his design for that in the Hotel Russell in Bloomsbury.
The Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, Kent, on the southeast coast of England, was a former hotel designed by Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus Pugin. The Granville was a hotel between 1869 and 1946 before being sold by proprietors Spiers & Pond.
The Walsingham House or Walsingham House Hotel was located at 150-4 Piccadilly on the site of what is now The Ritz Hotel, London and was adjacent to the Bath Hotel. The Ritz's financial backers began negotiations in 1901 and purchased the Walsingham simultaneously with the Bath Hotel. Though the Walsingham was of fairly new construction, they determined it was too "inelegant" and demolished the building. One of the considerations that made the transaction appealing to the city was that they would be able to widen Piccadilly when the Walsingham and Bath Hotels were demolished.
Queen's Hotel is a heritage-listed former hotel at 12 The Strand, Townsville CBD, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1902 to 1920s. It is also known as the Telecasters North Queensland Ltd Building. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
