The Langham, London , is one of London's largest and most famous traditional grand style hotels. It is in the Marylebone district of Langham Place and overlooks Portland Place to Regent's Park. It is a member of the world's leading hotel marketing consortium.
Video Langham Hotel, London
Histori
Langham was designed by John Giles and was built between 1863 and 1865 at a cost of Ã, Â £ 300,000. It was then the largest and most modern hotel in town, featuring a hundred water closets, thirty-six bathrooms and the first hydraulic lift in the UK. The opening ceremony on June 16 was done by the Prince of Wales. After the original company was liquidated during the economic downturn, the new management acquired the hotel for a construction cost of more than half, and soon became a commercial success. In 1867, a former Union officer named James Sanderson was appointed general manager and the hotel developed an extensive American clientele, which included Mark Twain and multi millionaire millionaire, Hetty Green. It is also protected by Napoleone III, Oscar Wilde, AntonÃÆ'n Dvo? ÃÆ'¡k, and Arturo Toscanini. Electric lights were installed at the entrance and yard on a very early date of 1879, and Arthur Conan Doyle set the story of Sherlock Holmes "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Sign of Four" partly at Langham.
The Langham continued throughout the 20th century to become a favorite with members of the royal family, such as Diana, Princess of Wales, and many top politicians including Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. Other guests included Noon Coward, Wallis Simpson, Don Bradman, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Ayumi Hamasaki.
Langham was devastated by the Great Depression and the owner tried to sell the site to the BBC, but Broadcasting House was built across Portland Place. During World War II, the hotel was used partly by the Army until it was damaged by a bomb and forced to close. After the war, he was occupied by the BBC as an additional accommodation to Broadcasting House, and the company bought it directly in 1965.
One of the BBC employees living in Langham is Guy Burgess, one of the 'Cambridge Five', a spy ring that gave official secrets to the Soviets during the Cold War. A BBC internal memo revealed that after being unable to access his room at the hotel late one night, Burgess attempted to break down the door with a fire extinguisher.
The Palm Court is a reference library, and the restaurant has a staff bar and a refreshment room. In 1980, the BBC failed to apply for a planning permit to destroy the building and replace it with the development of an office designed by Norman Foster. In 1986, the BBC sold the property to Ladbroke Group, which then bought a non-US Hilton Hotel for £ 26 million and finally reopened the hotel as Langham Hilton in 1991 after Ã, Â £ 100 million improvements.
Langham was sold to Great Eagle Holdings based in Hong Kong in 1995. The new owners expanded the hotel and undertook other renovations between 1998 and 2000. Further renovations took place between 2004 and 2009, with an estimated cost of Ã, £ 80 million, restoring the hotel to its original form. The Great Eagle then bundled a number of hotels in its portfolio using the "Langham" brand, creating a subsidiary of Langham Hotels International.
Maps Langham Hotel, London
The Langham on the movie
The hotel is featured in the James Bond movie GoldenEye (1995), its entrance is duplicated in the exterior shots for the Grand Hotel Europe of St. Petersburg. Only the exterior is filmed in the hotel, the interior is filmed in a studio. The Langham is also featured in the film Michael Winterbottom Wonderland (1999), in external shots for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen films made for TV Winning London (2001), and < i> Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
The Langham restaurant is also the main setting for the Burnt drama movie Burnt starring Bradley Cooper.
The hotel is also used in Season 5 episode 1 of the British show Hustle .
Hotels of the day
The hotel has a five star classification. A further refinement round, the cost of Ã, Â £ 80m was completed in April 2009. The configured Langham now has 380 rooms, down from 425, the restored Palm Court that has been serving afternoon tea since 1865, a new business center and 15 function rooms including The Grand Ballroom which can accommodate 375 guests for the reception. The new rooms join Roux at The Landau restaurant, The Wigmore British tavern (both from Michel Roux Jr.), the Artesian bar and the private dining room, Postillion, made by designer David Collins. Beginning in late 2017, the Artesian bar is overseen by Remy Savage and Anna Sebastian.
On March 19, 2010, the author and former M.P. Gyles Brandreth launched the City of Westminster Green Plaque to commemorate the August 1889 meeting at Langham between Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Marshall Stoddart. Stoddart commissioned two other men to write stories for his magazine Lippincott Monthly Magazine. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Sign of Four published in a magazine in February 1890. Oscar Wilde wrote Dorian Gray Picture published in July of the same year.
To celebrate the hotel's 146th birthday in June 2011, the restaurant offers afternoon tea for original 1865 prices from seven pence.
Many guests at the hotel, including British cricketer Stuart Broad and Joe Root, have reported sightings of a mysterious phenomenon during their stay.
References
External links
- Langham's official website, London
- Palm Court, where afternoon tea is served
- Roux in The Landau, a fancy restaurant
- Reviews restaurant Roux in Landau at Langham
- Artesian, cocktail bar
- The detailed history of The Langham in cosmopolis.ch
- Afternoon Tea at The Langham
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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