Inaugurated in 1900 for the World's Fair in Paris, the hotel is on the Place des Pyramides, which takes its name from Napoleon's victory in Egypt in 1798. The hotel's building dates from the Second Empire. Léonard Tauber and his associate Constant Baverez built it between 1898 and 1900. It was named after Queen Victoria, symbolising the Entente Cordiale between the French and the British.