Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London, August 2021
I often walk or ride past this hotel and it has long looked tired and well past its best, and to my eyes it did not match its name. In reality it looks sadder than in these photos.
Investigation revealed that the name was inherited from its predecessor: from 1911-1967 the hotel here was an ornate red brick building built in Art Nouveau Tudor and Art Nouveau Gothic style. It flaunted corbels, gargoyles and statues, a green copper roof and ornate towers. It had a Winter Garden and Turkish baths. But in the 1960s it no longer met the required standards and was demolished. Apparently it did not have enough bathrooms, but another theory is that it did not fit with the fashion tastes of the 60s.
But now the hotel is under renovation and I’m waiting to see the results, though I think the plan is for internal rather than external resuscitation.
Now over to all of you. Do come and join us in our Saturday six-word musings.
As you can see I sometimes break the numeric rule and share far more words (all excellent of course!) so the key rule is to have a title of six words – and then create around that the post that you desire!
To join the challenge, please put a link in your post to the URL of this post. Then come back here and leave us a comment. If you have any problems with linking, just put your own URL into the comment. And do feel free to socialise digitally – tweet, instagram, flickr, etc. with the hashtags #SixWordSaturday and #6WS.
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 4 September 2021
Posted as part of Six Word Saturday
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Travel with Intent 
Something to keep your eye on, I bet it will be beautiful again
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Interesting building! Hopefully the hotel is going to open again.
This is mine:
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Hello Debbie, it is a beautiful building – so sad it looks neglected. I have a similar post! https://fakeflamenco.com/2021/09/04/painting-a-20th-century-trachte-building/
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Happy Saturday to all!
Here’s mine: https://outofmywritemind.com/2021/09/04/rebekah-is-back-at-the-well/
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I had a drink in the bar of the Imperial a couple of years ago when an American friend stayed there. He found it satisfactory, to “the standard”, he said, of hotels in close proximity of tourist attractions. I can’t agree with him there but he was happy enough with it. Certainly they served a very good vodkatini in the bar but that may be because they had a lot of American visitors.
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Bars can make things easier to forgive 🙂
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I’d love to see the inside. It sounds fascinating.
janet
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They kept a statue and soemof the ceramics of the Turkish baths in the courtyard. I’ll investigate when it reopens.
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Hi Debbie
Youre right – the hotel does look sad and abandoned. Your description of the predecessor hotel sound charming.
Here’s my offering with a Heron that also looks sad. And abandoned by his friends.
Best, Babsje
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It certainly does look run down. Can you imagine how much people would pay today to stay in it’s predecessor? I’ve stayed at the Hotel Russell just up the road which is a bit grand in places, but nothing compared to the old Imperial. https://alondonmiscellany.wordpress.com/2021/09/04/herding-sheep-near-to-st-pauls/
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Indeed! The Turkish baths alone would have drawn people in.
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The sixties have a lot to answer for 😉
DID YOU HEAR ME? https://picturesimperfectblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/04/hear-ye-hear-ye-hear-ye/
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what did you say?…..
🙂
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I just realised that there is no shouting emoji!
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You’ll have to try it out and see ….
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I might do that! The rooms look rather nice on their website but they are drawings not photos!
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Nothing so grand and dilapidated from me, just a fun reflection in a store window:
https://davidmsphotoblog.com/2021/09/04/backwards-convenience-is-that-an-inconvenience/
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What a shame! For sure they won’t bring back the art nouveau. Have a good weekend, Debs!
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I am excited too, to see how this building will look like after the renovations. I bet it will be posted here too.
Here is mine for this week: https://mywanderings.travel.blog/2021/09/04/i-need-some-chairs-now-but/
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It will 🙂
Not sure when they’ll be done though
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It does look sad and very 60s! Modern at its time I guess.
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It sounds like the previous hotel would be much better to look at; this newer one certainly seems to fit the 60s obsession with concrete 😩 Here’s my reminder of time moving on: https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2021/09/04/leafs-changing-autumns-almost-upon-us/
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