page_title: Bristol Hotel, Mar del Plata
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bristol Hotel, Mar del Plata / History
caption_attribution_description: Playa Bristol. Mar del Plata. Argentina
context_page_description: The Bristol Hotel was a luxury hotel in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
  At one time it was patronised by the elite of Buenos Aires. Later it became run down, and in 1944 it was sold, subdivided and rented for commercial use.
  The hotel building was torn down in 1974.
  The name survives in the Playa Bristol, the most popular beach in Mar del Plata.
context_section_description: The Bristol was patronised by wealthy families of Buenos Aires and other parts of the country who would come to bathe in the sea.
  On the same year that the hotel was opened a large number of wooden casillas, or bathing machines, were erected on the Playa Bristol, and began to be joined by a platform covered in awnings. This was the start of the early Rambla de Madera.
  The rambla was about 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide, resting directly on the sand.
  In January 1888 Pelusso, Narduzzo and La Cava began fishing for the hotel in the boat Lucaro.
  In March 1888 a French company was authorised to build the Rambla Bristol.
  On 15 December 1888 the Sociedad Anónima Bristol Hotel was authorised to construct a pier to provide access to the bathing machines.
  The first wooden ramblas (promenades) were opened, and the first residences began to be built.
  The Bristol was followed by La Perla Hotel in 1892, to the north, then the Hotel Royal in 1907 and the Saint James and Centenario hotels in 1910 on the Playa de Ingleses.
  When Mar del Plata was declared a city in 1907 the resort was called the "Biarritz of Argentina".
  In 1913 the French rambla was opened, with ceramic pavements from Belgium, balustrades and Greco-Roman statues.
  In the late 1920s wealthy families began to build chalets and mansions near the Hotel Bristol, and spent their days at the beach, named the Playa Bristol.
  More affordable hotels began to appear. 
  Statistics from 1935 record six categories, not counting rooming houses.
  They catered to the new, broader social classes, who wanted a way to enjoy their newly earned leisure.
  Between 1930 and 1945 there was strong growth in the number of tourists visiting the town, while the duration of their holidays became shorter. Traditional hotels had to compete with vacation apartments and state-run lodgings.
  Working class tourists could use government grants to stay at holiday camps and union hotels, while the new middle-classes had a chance of acquiring a small property by the sea. 
  The new government that emerged from the 1943 Argentine coup d'état took moves to reduce rents and make eviction much harder, and set up a vacation office.
  The closing of the Bristol in June 1944 symbolized the end of the belle époque.
caption: Playa Bristol in 1910
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