MOURBY AU LAC*
The Baur Au Lac, Zurich Once, very memorably I ate at the Baur au Lac. No-one who has done so will forget the restaurant's huge Lalique chandelier but until recently I’d never stayed, much as the ideal appealed. To say that t...
Entries tagged with: Mourby
MOURBY OF ATHENS
Adrian Mourby thinks that the Hotel Grande Bretagne has never looked so grand On my first night back in Athens there was a protest march due in Syntagma Square. The liveried staff prepared by calmly removing the brass handrail in case a...
Mourby of Balmoral
The Balmoral Hotel looks like a Gothic Castle perched above Norloch, the swampy ground beneath Edinburgh castle that once acted as its moat - and eventually became Waverley Station. The hotel appears to cling to the edge of a cliff face, but is ...
Mourby of Books
Two books by Adrian Mourby should interest all hotel aficionados: Rooms of One's Own — 50 Places That Made Literary History Writers' relationships with their surroundings are seldom straightforward. While some, like Jan...
Mourby of Harwich
He travels the world, visits the hospitality palaces of our globe, lives at luxurious hotels, surrounded by famous names of legendary travelers. And then, Adrian Mourby came to stay at THE PIER HOTEL, HARWICH The history of hotel can s...
Mourby of India
By Adrian Mourby, Contributing Editor Before arriving at The Imperial in Delhi I’d read a wonderfully inaccurate entry in an Indian guide book. Evidently it was in a bar at The Imperial that Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatama Gandhi,...
Mourby of Landmarks
In the late Victorian period, north London was like a series of launchpads. A string of great railway stations stretched in an almost straight line from Paddington in the west to King’s Cross in the east. Euston was here, as was St Pancras and...
Mourby of Lavenham
Some hotels are world famous, some are not. The Swan Hotel in Lavenham is quintessentially English, says famoushotels - travelling amabassador Adrian Mourby while trying to find his way to the bar. The Swan is a half-timbered mediaeval inn, a windin...
MOURBY OF MARTINI?
We have little choice, but sometimes our roving correspondent visits not-select members of our esteemed organisation, and before we can say a thing, he has done it. This time, his long-term quest to find the ultimate hotel martini serves as an excuse...
Mourby of Milan
Adrian Mourby visited the city of the World Expo 2015, only to spend all his time at the Grand Hotel sipping Martinis. Can we continue to support such a man? We can. Recently I visited Milan while the city was in the grip of Expo 2015. Many new hote...
Mourby of Rome
Adrian Mourby travelled to Rome and landed in history. In search for a decent 'albergo', two books of The Most Famous Hotels library came to aid. At the time of Italy's Unification in 1870, Rome was already a city of hotels and inns. The...
Mourby of Rome — Eden
Our Roving Contributing Editor welcomes the reopening of Rome’s Hotel Eden. When Cavalier Rufini took his census of Roman hotels for Pope Pius IX in 1855, the city was found to possess many small hotels and inns, some dating ...
MOURBY OF STAIRS
You can tell a lot about a hotel from its staircase. Some dominate the foyer as if attempting to emulate a palazzo or perhaps the Opera Garnier in Paris, a truly wonderful building that is essentially an elaborate flight of steps with an average-size...
Mourby of Titanic
A terrace with a view: Maria della Salute opposite of the Europa & Regina. VENICE: Recently I was booked for dinner at Venice’s Westin Europa and Regina. Many famous people have dined here, including Claude Monet, Marcel Proust and...
Mourby to Tango
London’s Waldorf Hilton is very proud of its claim to have introduced the tango to Great Britain in 1910, two years after William Waldorf Astor (cousin of John Jacob Astor IV) opened his Waldorf Hotel on Aldwych. The Waldorf cousins competed ac...
Mourby’s Trafalgar
If you want to know where the beating heart of England can be found, then Trafalgar Square a good place to start. When World War II ended, thousands of people crammed into this world-famous piazza below the National Gallery and danced round its fount...
PARIS: Mourby of Meurice
After staying at a number of hotels where everything -from the lights to the TV, from the window blinds to the air conditioning - is controlled by one complex sheet of interactive glass it is rather nice to return to Le Meurice in Paris a...
The Corinthia London — the good old Metropole
THE CORINTHIA, LONDON In 2012 a glamorous five-star hotel opened near to London’s Trafalgar Square. However, this was no new hotel. Not at all, just one that had been missing for decades. Unlike many of today's central London hotels, it wa...
The Dorchester - revisited
The Dorchester is quirky, eclectic and very British. It sits like a section of some 1930s luxury liner plonked down on Park Lane. No two bedrooms the same. Scots warriors, clad in tartan, are stencilled on to the walls of the Grill. The Orchid Room w...
The Reopenings: Athens — Grand Bretagne
BY ADRIAN MOURBY On Wednesday, 15 July 2020, one of the most important buildings in Athens reopens to the public. It’s not the Acropolis, nor is it the Hellenic Parliament (although that building, originally the palace of King Otto I, is its n...
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Mandarin Oriental Savoy Zurich (former Savoy Baur en Ville)
Johannes Baur, born in Austria in 1795, was a visionary entrepreneur who profoundly shaped Zurich’s hospitality industry. In 1837, at the age...Read More
Raffles Hotel
The historic building (top, slide to the right): The "new" Raffles main building in 1899. It opened on 18 November 1899, featuring the all new...Read More
The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok
Since decades “The Oriental”, as it is affectionately known by travellers from all over the globe, leads the lists of most...Read More
Half Moon
In 1952, a group of wealthy individuals including Donald Deskey, the fabled designer (among his works the Radio City Music Hall); Harvey Firestone,...Read More
Mount Kenya Safari Club
You don your safari gear during the day, but you always dress for dinner. Because Mount Kenya Safari Club Nanyuki is an exclusive retreat. High on...Read More