Travellers' Checks | London welcomes Hard Rock Hotel, in a former haunt of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross
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News of the opening of London’s Cumberland Hotel in December 1933 was of particular interest in the hot and steamy tropics. Claiming to be Europe’s largest hotel, it contained 1,000 guest rooms, each with its own hallway, bath and toilet. But it was something else that made headlines abroad. “PICK OWN CLIMATE AT HOTEL/London’s Latest Gives Novel Service” ran an article in The Straits Times of Singapore the following February. Guests at the hotel could, it was reported, “regulate the temperature of their rooms by simply moving a small valve lever”, thereby recreating their home climate, be they from “Alaska or Timbuctoo”.
A week earlier, The China Mail had printed a similar article in Hong Kong, where the opening of the first fully air-conditioned building (the third Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank headquarters, on Queen’s Road Central) was still almost two years away.
Located opposite Marble Arch, at the top of Oxford Street, The Cumberland – with its awkward pre-war blend of art-deco and neoclassical architecture – seemed gradually to fade into the mainstream of unremarkable London hotels. Today, it is probably best known for being listed as the “usual address” on the death certificate of Jimi Hendrix, who took a suite there about two weeks before he died, in 1970. The hotel was also the location of the American rock star’s last interview, so it is perhaps, in some small way or other, fitting that the Cumberland will next month be rebranded as the Hard Rock Hotel London.
The rock-memorabilia-filled property is “paying tribute” to other former residents, including Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly and Diana Ross. Guitar-playing guests, though, might feel more at home at the Ruby Lucy hotel when it opens near the city’s Waterloo Station later this year. German boutique brand Ruby Hotels keeps a Marshall amplifier in every room, and lends guitars from reception.
Muji Hotel Ginza to open in April
