Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-08-25
LONDON'S HOTELS.
Recently They Were Few and Bad-Th e
Have Sextupled In Is Years and Ar
Ierv Good Nny

Very Good Now.
With a population of $4,000 London
harbors every day 10000 strangers. Some
may remain week, some month, but all
the year around there is an average Of
10000 visitors who are within the metro
poitan boundaries. No tity in the world
can exhibit such a proportion-a seconds
consideration Will show that 1t is stupen-
dous says the London Mail.
The first thing arising is, Where Is this
army harbored? Roughly 1t may be said
to be spread out all over London, but
when particular inquiry comes to be made
1t is found that only 70 per cent. of the
gross total actually spend the night in the
metropolis while less than 1900 put up at
recognized hotels. In other words. 1000
persons engaged hote, rooms yesterday in
London. while over $500 stopped in pri-
vate houses or with friends. These figures
have not hecn achieved hurrledly or with
out much inquiry and difficulty owing TO
the lack of ready facilities established by
law. In Paris every guest Of a hotel or
lodging house is obliged on his or her ar
rival to Ill up a form issued by the po-
lice, wherefrom the precise number of
daily visitors to the city can be ascertain
cd almost to a unit. 1t is different in Lon
don.
Fifteen years ago the Cecil the Savoy,
the Metropolc, the Victoria, the Grand
anu tue FlTSl avenue flOltlS Hdu NOT Dtcl
built. The daily hotel arrivals fifteen
years ago did not average leo. A hotel
with fifty bedrooms was a monster cara.
varseri and the richest and most arsto-
cratic foreigners were compelled to put VI
with apartments or else dirt and inconven-
fence OF the little hostelerlcs which were
thickly dotted throughout Albemar!e
street Dover street, and the Hanover
square Notwithstanding that marvellous
known
adays we have the Cecil, with 600 rooms
the Metropole, with 20; the Grand, with
200. and the Savoy, with so, to say moth
ing of the vast hive of hotels in Kensing.
ton and Bayswater.
The recognized hotels of London have
no fewer than 1890 bedrooms, with ac'
commodation for % 900 guests or 5000 a q
pinch.
or private hotels and boarding houses
| of the first class there are 2200, with &C
| commodation for $500 visitors. Alto
gether $50 COO visitors can be accommoda
| ted in London at hotels and boarding
houses alone. If we add apartments thu
| total would reach three-quartcrs of a mil
| lion.
No more forcible illustration of tn,
growth of hospitahle London in recen
years can he cited than by the simple
| statement that in 1851 the hotel accommo
| dntion called by courtesy nrst-class
could provide quarters for only 1900 per
sons
Perhaps not the least interesting CIR
| cumstance in connection with the hotc
| accommodation of the worlds metropolis
is it's practical confinement within a limit
ed sphere. II We draw half-mie crcl
about the Nelson statue, we are inclosinl
vast population which Is shifting IL
habitat necessarily. Tradcsmcn nowaday
do not live over the shop. so that If W
subtract the tradcsmcn We ind that tn
parish OF Savoy is almost entirely com
posed OF walters. cooks and chamber
maids. Judged rcsidentially, II is the mos
marvellous under the sun, for it shifts III
population every week.
! Its 10000 inhabitants of last week are to
/ day scattered over Europe and it's resi-
dents Of last month are to-day in Russia
In Montana, in India, and in Japan.