De Keyser's Royal Hotel

Last updated

De Keyser's Royal Hotel, London 1887 De Keyser's Royal Hotel 1887.jpg
De Keyser's Royal Hotel, London 1887

De Keyser's Royal Hotel was a large hotel on the Victoria Embankment, at its junction with New Bridge Street (now the A201), Blackfriars, London. The location was formerly the site of Bridewell Palace.

The Royal Hotel was founded before 1845 by Constant de Keyser, an immigrant to England from Belgium. It was a high-end hotel, catering mainly to visitors from continental Europe. His son Polydore de Keyser ran the hotel from around 1856.

A new hotel building with five storeys and two basements was opened at the same site on 5 September 1874, designed by the English architect Edward Augustus Gruning. The foundation stone was laid by the daughter of the Belgian Vice-Counsul. The new building had a long curved façade facing the River Thames, close to Sion College and near the site of the new City of London School building that opened in 1883. The exterior was in an Anglicised form of the Second Empire Style, faced by white Suffolk bricks and Portland stone, with a Mansard roof covered with green slates and hips, ridges and dormers in zinc. An archway to through to an internal courtyard, at the centre of which was a glass dome covering a billiard room below, later used as a lounge. The interior was decorated in opulent French style, with 230 guest rooms and many function rooms, including a dining hall 110 by 40 feet (34 m × 12 m) with space for 400 people. Furniture was imported from Paris.

A second wing opened in 1882, when the hotel became the largest in London, accommodating up to 480 guests, with a second dining room for another 250 people, and rooms for 150 staff.

Sir Polydore de Keyser had no children. His hotel was sold to a limited company in 1897, and a nephew Polydor Welchand de Keyser took over the management.

Following the outbreak of the First World War, the hotel suffered serious decline. Anti-German sentiment had increased across Britain and the internment of German nationals and German-British citizens during the conflict had led to the arrest and confinement of many of the hotel's German staff, including its manager. It was eventually taken over by a receiver. With a shortage of office space in London for the wartime ministries, the hotel was requisitioned in May 1916 by the Office of Works for the wartime use of the Royal Flying Corps. Renamed "Adastral House", the first building to bear that name, it was the London headquarters of the Royal Flying Corps until it moved to Hotel Cecil on the formation of the new Air Ministry and the Royal Air Force in 1918. For a short period it was occupied by the Royal Army Medical Corps, until 1919.

The owner of the hotel claimed compensation, leading to a legal case on the power of the royal prerogative, Attorney-General v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Limited . The case reached the House of Lords, which held that the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 replaced the royal prerogative, and that compensation was due under the Defence Act 1842.

Unilever House, built on the site of De Keyser's Unilever House 1.jpg
Unilever House, built on the site of De Keyser's

The hotel never reopened. The building was sold to Lever Brothers in 1921, and it became their London headquarters. The hotel building was demolished in 1931 to make way for the construction of Unilever House.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Horta</span> Belgian architect and designer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Northolt</span> Royal Air Force station in Greater London, England

Royal Air Force Northolt or more simply RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip, 2 nautical miles from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, western Greater London, England, approximately 6 mi (10 km) north of Heathrow Airport. The station handles many private civil flights in addition to Air Force flights. Northolt has one runway in operation, spanning 1,687 m × 46 m, with a grooved asphalt surface. This airport is used for government and VIP transport to and from London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Bentley Priory</span> Royal Air Force station in the London Borough of Harrow

RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was the headquarters of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War. During the war, two enemy bombs destroyed a wooden hut near the married quarters, a blast from a V-1 flying bomb broke a few windows, the windows in the Officers' Mess were shattered by a V-2 rocket, and a Vickers Wellington crashed outside the Sergeants' Mess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridewell Palace</span> Formal royal residence in the City of London

Bridewell Palace in London was built as a residence of King Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King Edward VI for use as an orphanage and place of correction for wayward women, Bridewell later became the first prison/poorhouse to have an appointed doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor</span> British politician

Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England causes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton Princess & Beach Club</span> Hotel in Bermuda

The Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, A Fairmont Managed Hotel is one of the grandest and most famous hotels in Bermuda, located in Pembroke Parish just outside the City of Hamilton. It also happens to be the oldest hotel in the Fairmont chains. One of the largest in Bermuda, it has over 400 rooms. It is one of two Fairmont Hotels on the island, the second being the Fairmont Southampton, which was originally opened as the Southampton Princess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumberland Avenue</span> Street in central London

Northumberland Avenue is a street in the City of Westminster, Central London, running from Trafalgar Square in the west to the Thames Embankment in the east. The road was built on the site of Northumberland House, the London home of the Percy family, the Dukes of Northumberland between 1874 and 1876, and on part of the parallel Northumberland Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Hemswell</span> Former RAF station in Lincolnshire, England

Royal Air Force Hemswell or more simply RAF Hemswell is a former Royal Air Force (RAF) station located 7.8 miles (12.6 km) east of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Tibenham</span>

Royal Air Force Tibenham or more simply RAF Tibenham is a former Royal Air Force station located 13.5 miles (21.7 km) southwest of Norwich and 5.8 miles (9.3 km) north of Diss, Norfolk, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unilever House</span> Historic building in London, England

Unilever House is a Grade II listed office building in the Neoclassical Art Deco style, located on New Bridge Street, Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars, London. The building has a tall, curving frontage which overlooks Blackfriars Bridge on the north bank of the River Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hôtel de Pontalba</span> Official residence of the United States Ambassador to France

The Hôtel de Pontalba is a hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse of France, at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It has been the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France since 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corinthia Hotel London</span> Building in London, England

The Corinthia Hotel London, at the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place in central London, is a hotel and former British Government building, located on a triangular site between Trafalgar Square and the Thames Embankment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal prerogative in the United Kingdom</span> Privileges and immunities of the British monarch

The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity attached to the British monarch, recognised in the United Kingdom. The monarch is regarded internally as the absolute authority, or "sole prerogative", and the source of many of the executive powers of the British government.

<i>Attorney-General v De Keysers Royal Hotel Ltd</i> UK constitutional law case concerning the exercise of prerogative power

Attorney-General v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Limited is a leading case in UK constitutional law decided by the House of Lords in 1920 which exhaustively considered the principles on which the courts decide whether statute has fettered prerogative power. It decided that the royal prerogative does not entitle the Crown to take possession of a subject's land or buildings for administrative purposes connected with the defence of the realm without paying compensation. It is the authority for the statement that the royal prerogative is placed in abeyance when statute law can provide a legal basis for an action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Harlaxton</span> Former Royal Air Force base in Lincolnshire, England

Royal Air Force Harlaxton or more simply RAF Harlaxton is a former Royal Air Force station near the village of Harlaxton, 3 mi (4.8 km) south west of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The airfield was located in a triangle of flat fields midway between Harlaxton Manor and the nearby village of Stroxton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polydore de Keyser</span> Lawyer, Lord Mayor of London

SirPolydore de Keyser, was a lawyer and the first Roman Catholic since the Reformation to be elected Lord Mayor of London. He was born in the Belgian city of Dendermonde, near Ghent, Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlton Hotel, London</span> Former hotel in London

The Carlton Hotel was a luxury hotel in London that operated from 1899 to 1940. It was designed by the architect C. J. Phipps as part of a larger development that included the rebuilding of Her Majesty's Theatre, which is adjacent to the hotel site. The Carlton was originally run by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz, with Auguste Escoffier as the head chef. In its early days it was one of London's most fashionable hotels and drew some customers away from the Savoy Hotel, which Ritz and Escoffier had previously managed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Cecil, London</span>

The Hotel Cecil was a grand hotel built 1890–96 between the Thames Embankment and the Strand in London, England. It was named after Cecil House, a mansion belonging to the Cecil family, which occupied the site in the 17th century. The hotel was largely demolished in 1930, and Shell Mex House now stands on its site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAF Desford</span>

Royal Air Force Desford or more simply RAF Desford is a former Royal Air Force station located one mile (1.6 km) south of Desford, Leicestershire, and 6.7 miles (10.8 km) west of Leicester, Leicestershire, England.

Events in the year 1898 in Belgium.

References

51°30′42.46″N0°6′20.73″W / 51.5117944°N 0.1057583°W / 51.5117944; -0.1057583