The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-12
HOTELS IN ENGLAND.
THE CUSTOM OF LYING IN THEM
ISIS SAID 70 BE GROWING.
Good Hotels Largely Responsible for
the Change-Twenty-F Five Years Ago
London Had None-Plentfful Now.

Twenty-Five years ago London had
probably the worst hotels of any of the
great capitals of the world. To-day il
has some of the best. The hotel habit
has become a fashionable craze. Peo-
pie now live in hotels during the season
inst cad Of taking town houses. Those
who still have London mansions on
their hands patronlze the hotels for
meals. Not content with dining out,
your smart woman Of to-day must have
her afternoon tea at Claridge's, her
lunch at the Carlton, and some ultra
smart people have been trying even to
create craze for going out for break
fast.
The twenty leading hotels of London
represent a capital Of something like
seven millions sterling. During a busy
month they accommodate about eighty
four hundred guests every night and
find employment for forty-five hundred
servants. The Gordon hotels represent
an investment of three and half mil
lions, and secured profit last year of
one hundred and f1ftysix thousand
pounds. The Cecil Is run on scale
greater than the whole government of
more than one South American state
The pioneers of the improved London
hotels undoubtedly were the Gordon
company, and their great houses, the
Grand, the Victoria and the Metropole
We're revelations to London. But in re-
cent years they have had very keen RI
valry The Savoy brought luxury to
the Thames embankment, The Freder-
lex syndicate has fought them on their
own ground by building monster pal
aces in various parts of the country,
by the thousand, and the ground they
cover by the acre. Then in 1896 came
that triumph of barbaric splendor, the
Cecil, with its accommodations for sew
en- hundred people. Not satisfied with
this, the Cecil is now busy adding
couple of hundred more bedrooms.
Railway hotels have been growing
greater and greater, the leaders OF
them being the Midland Grand with
four hundred bedrooms and the Great
Eastern with four hundred and fifty.
Then Claridge's was transformed, with
suites for one hundred and eighty wish
tors, and the Carlton came to the fore
for accommodation for about three
hundred guests. The Carlton is consld-
cred, and rightly the last word in hotel
luxury. It's manager, M. Ritz. is the
genus of the European hotel world
The hotel world of London, of course
has it's romances. Some Of the biggest
establishments have been created by
their proprietors out Of little or moth
TIM Tn tho GerratlrV of
temperance society opened a tiny
house This became so crowded that
he had to take a second. House was
added to house. servants were multi
piled, accommodation improved, and if
one wishes to see the outcome he need
only to go to Smiths big hotel in
Southampton row. In another case
butler started a boarding house in the
west end. His boarding house became
q hotel. To-day 1t stands in the front
rank of the big London palaces, and its
owner is a great country gentleman,
Justice of the peace member of par
lament, and the owner of fine estates.
1t is strange how, in spite of the ex-
terror resemblances, each hotel has
distinct character OF It's own. The man
who has money to spend and wishes to
make a show with it naturally goes to
the Cecil. The quieter man seeks the
Savoy. None but an the fashionable
would penetrate C1aridge's. And you
should be at least a senator or foreign
prince If you wish to stay at Browns.
If you are hasty business man you go
to the Midland Grand or Charing Cross,
III you are a cosmopolitan and study
NJ r-tn
bly, go to De Keyser's, on the Embark
ment Colonials and Americans have
fcndness for the Golden hotels. The
Frederick hotels, the Russell and the
Gie eat Central have hardly yet had time
to obtain a peculiar stamp.
Some very old hotels in West Lon
don, untouched by modern invasion,
still retain their aristocratic connec-
tion il may truly be said of them that
they provide the least accommodation
for the most money. They are small,
without any up-to-date
Their servants are of
the most OLD fashioned cut, their fur
niture is usually shabby and out of
late, while their prices often exceed
those of the best known resorts. Yet
their patrons ale the very best people.
old-fashioned country families who
would regard even Claridge's with dis
Iain, so to these places like sheep.
They know the landlord and look on
him as q kind oe family retainer.
In the modern hotel prices have gone |
Town alongside the improvement of ac-
,ommodation. The old, uncertain peri |
ID when you never knew what you |
we're gong to pay unless you bar |
rained and chartered with the Clerk |
beforehand, has now passed right |
away. In the up-to-date hotel you can |
est every charge by the tariff, and |
even the price of your bedroom is usu-
,lly recorded on your ROOM There is |
, printed scale for everything. Wines |
ire still ridicuously high, and we have |
yet to find the hotelkeeper who regards
'1uit as anything but a pernicious lux