St Ermin's Hotel

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St Ermin's Hotel
Sterminscourtyard.jpeg
The re-established garden courtyard entrance to the St Ermin's Hotel
Greater London UK location map 2.svg
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General information
TypeOriginally mansion block, converted to hotel
Architectural style Queen Anne revival
AddressCaxton Street
Town or cityLondon
CountryEngland
Coordinates 51°29′57″N0°8′5″W / 51.49917°N 0.13472°W / 51.49917; -0.13472 Coordinates: 51°29′57″N0°8′5″W / 51.49917°N 0.13472°W / 51.49917; -0.13472
Construction started1887
Completed1889
Opened1899 (after conversion 1896–1899)
Design and construction
Architect Edwin T. Hall
DesignationsGrade II Listed building
Website
http://www.sterminshotel.co.uk/

St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of the early mansion blocks in the capital, is thought to be named after an ancient monastery reputed to have occupied the site pre-10th century. Converted to a hotel in 1896–99, it became during the 1930s, through the Second World War and beyond, a meeting place of the British intelligence services, notably the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), [1] and where notorious Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean met their Russian handlers. The hotel is owned by the family of Tei-Fu Chen and is now part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection. [2]

Stars are often used as symbols for ratings. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, a system of one to five stars is commonly employed to rate hotels, with five stars being the highest quality.

Central London Innermost part of London, England

Central London is the innermost part of London, in the United Kingdom, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally, nationally and internationally significant organisations and facilities.

St. Jamess Park tube station London Underground station

St. James's Park is a London Underground station near St. James's Park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is served by the District and Circle lines and is between Victoria and Westminster stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1.

Contents

Background

The newly restored, highly theatrical lobby of the St Ermin's Hotel with undulating balcony and rich plasterwork. St ErminsLobby.jpeg
The newly restored, highly theatrical lobby of the St Ermin's Hotel with undulating balcony and rich plasterwork.

The St Ermin's Hotel in St James's Park, London was originally a horse-shoe shaped mansion block built in 1887–89 to the designs of E. T. Hall (1851–1923). [3] Mansion blocks (high-status, serviced apartments) were first seen in Victoria Street, London in the 1850s and remain a feature of the area today. St Ermin's Mansions was typical in both plan and elevation; Hall employed the fashionable red-brick Queen Anne style for the exterior and grouped the apartments around a courtyard which functioned both as a carriageway and garden for the residents. Four entrances led off the courtyard into the apartments (the two entrances in the side wings still exist in their original form to this day). By 1894, the building appears to have been extended along Broadway as far as St Ermin's Hill.

St Jamess Park Royal Park in the City of Westminster, central London

St James's Park is a 23-hectare (57-acre) park in the City of Westminster, central London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous chain of parks that also includes Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens.

In 1896, the building was purchased with the intention of converting it into a hotel, and by 1899, the change of use was complete. Such conversions were not uncommon. Several mansion blocks at that time were built offering apartments with a bathroom but no kitchen. Instead, an army of servants provided service in rooms plus communal dining, reading, and smoking rooms provided ground floor reception areas ready made for the needs of a hotel. [4]

Smoking room room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking

A smoking room is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited.

The new owners embarked on a major refurbishment programme undertaken by the theatre architect J. P. Briggs (1869–1944), [5] providing a spectacular sequence of public reception rooms with very rich plasterwork. Briggs remodelled the far end of the courtyard, creating a neo-Baroque space with raised verandah leading into a double-height foyer dominated by an undulating balcony at gallery level, accessed via a double staircase. In the eastern side of the building Briggs created a double-height ballroom with similar undulating balcony (reminiscent of theatre boxes) and unusual Art Nouveau plasterwork linked by anteroom with the former restaurant (now The Cloisters), the cove of which was decorated with lively rococo plasterwork.

Art Nouveau Style of art & architecture about 1890 to 1911

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was most popular between 1890 and 1910. A reaction to the academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers.

Following a change of ownership in 2010 the hotel has again undergone substantial refurbishment, restoring the building back to the original splendour created by Briggs.

History

The medieval city of Westminster grew up along the approach roads to Westminster Abbey, including Tothill Street and its continuation named Petty France, from the French wool merchants who had settled the street. Just south of Tothill Street was the Great Almonry, dating from the 13th century and from where alms were distributed.

Westminster Abbey Church in London

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign.

Petty France, London street in the City of Westminster, central London, historically also the area in its vicinity (7th Ward of Westminster)

Petty France is a street in the City of Westminster in central London, linking Buckingham Gate with Broadway and Queen Anne's Gate.

The site of the hotel itself, west of the Almonry, was then occupied by a chapel dedicated to St Ermin's though both the Almonry and that chapel appear to have been demolished from around the 16th century and no trace of either now remains. Nevertheless, the network of alleys and paths that developed around such institutions over the course of the medieval period developed into the irregular streets that still pattern the area around the hotel today.

The residential population of Westminster rose appreciably from the 17th century, partly illustrated by the construction of St Margaret Chapel, originally known as The New Chapell, immediately to the south of the hotel site in 1636 and where English astronomer Thomas Street was buried in 1689. By 1869 it was rebuilt on a larger scale as Christ Church and demolished in the 1950s following bomb damage. The burial ground it stood around still partly survives as gardens fronting Victoria Street.

Thomas Street (1621–1689) was an English astronomer, known for his writings on celestial motions. He has sometimes been confused with Thomas Street the judge, who lived from 1626 to 1696. The crater Street on the Moon is named after him.

The mid- to late 19th century was an era of great change during which the area was transformed by the creation of Victoria Street in 1847–51 and the construction of the District Railway. St James's Park underground station opened in 1868. Next door the hotel has the Caxton Hall, built in 1882–83, famous for the first meeting of the Suffragette Movement in 1906, infamous for the revenge assassination of Michael O'Dwyer in 1940 and a celebrity civil marriage venue in the 1950s and '60s – Roger Moore, Peter Sellars, Diana Dors and Elizabeth Taylor all took their vows there, some more than once.

Secrets

The St Ermin's Hotel has a reputation for use by the UK's secret intelligence agencies. During the 1930s the hotel and the building at 2 Caxton Street were used by officers of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) located close by at 54 Broadway to meet agents and is well documented from March 1938 as the headquarters first of SIS's Section D, headed by Australian George Taylor and then as home of the SOE, working under "Statistical Research Department" cover. Among the more famous personnel known to have worked from offices in the building are Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Laurence Grand, H. Montgomery Hyde and Eric Maschwitz.

The Caxton Bar, noted meeting place of London's secret intelligence officers for over 60 years CaxtonBar.jpg
The Caxton Bar, noted meeting place of London's secret intelligence officers for over 60 years

Throughout the Second World War the building operated as a convenient annexe for SIS as it was surrounded by other secret organisations, including the London branch of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Palmer Street; MI9 in Caxton Street; the SIS Chief's office at 21 Queen Anne's Gate; the SIS offices in Artillery Mansions on Victoria Street and in the basement of St Anne's Mansions and the MI8 listening post on the roof of what was then the Passport Office in Petty France.[ citation needed ]

In addition, the hotel was used regularly by SIS, MI5, and Naval Intelligence Division case officers, as mentioned in Snow by Madoc Roberts and Nigel West, [6] while the SIS also interviewed prospective employees there, usually by Marjorie Maxse, the organisation's recruiter as detailed in Kim Philby's autobiography My Silent War. [7] Shortly before the war the hotel was the venue for guerrilla warfare classes run partly by MI6, and among those working for 'King and Country' within that group at the time was Noël Coward, as well as art expert and member of the Cambridge Five spy ring, Anthony Blunt. [8]

From 1981, the hotel was used by St Ermins group of senior trade union leaders, who met secretly every month at the hotel to organise to prevent the left taking over the Labour Party. Four MPs also attended: Denis Howell, John Golding, Denis Healey, and Giles Radice. The group was created following the conference decision to establish an electoral college (40% trade unions, 30% members, 30% MPs) to elect the Labour Party leader and deputy. [9]

Ownership

St. Ermin's Hotel is owned by Los Angeles, California, based multi-level marketing and hotel firm Sunrider International. [10] It is part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection. [11]

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References

  1. ↑ Mackenzie, William (2000). Secret History of SOE: Special Operations Executive 1940–1945. St Ermin's Press. ISBN   1-903608-11-2.
  2. ↑ "ST. ERMIN'S HOTEL, AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION". Marriott.com. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  3. ↑ The Builder, 25 June 1887 (pp. 948–49).
  4. ↑ "'Babylonian Flats' in Victorian and Edwardian London". The London Journal. 3 / 3: 239. November 2008.
  5. ↑ Guide to British Theatres: 1750–1950. A. & C. Black. 2000.
  6. ↑ Roberts, Madoc & West, Nigel (2011). Snow: The Double Life of a World War II Spy. Biteback. ISBN   978-1-84954-093-3.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  7. ↑ Philby, Kim & Greene, Graham (Foreword) (2002). My Silent War. Random House.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  8. ↑ The Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2009.
  9. ↑ Hayter, Dianne. "St Ermins group (act. 1981-1987)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  10. ↑ Vincent, Roger. "SLS Beverly Hills hotel sold for $195 million to Sunrider International". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "ST. ERMIN'S HOTEL, AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION". Marriott.com. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
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