Luxury hotels offer a unique vantage point on history. They are places where famous lives intersect with private dramas, political intrigue, changing fashions and the everyday business of being human – often leaving behind stories that were never intended for the history books.
But hotels are fascinating for another reason. They are crucibles of change, bringing architecture, technology, travel, society and changing ideas of luxury together under one roof. Through their corridors, dining rooms and bedrooms we can see how London and its visitors lived, travelled, entertained, worked and sometimes misbehaved.
A hotel is therefore more than a building. It is a lens through which the wider story of an era comes sharply into focus – revealing unexpected connections, forgotten characters and the secrets hidden behind the grand facade.
My work explores those stories through original research, writing, talks and guided walks, with a particular focus on London’s luxury hotels.
Brown’s Hotel – and the mystery of the oldest hotel
Brown’s Hotel is a good example of why hotel history is rarely quite as straightforward as it first appears. My research established that Brown’s opened on 12 March 1832, five years earlier than previously believed. But that raised an intriguing question: which is London’s oldest luxury hotel? To answer this I developed the ‘rule of three’.
My pocket history, Brown’s Hotel: A History of Rulers, Writers & Rascals, explores the people and stories behind the hotel.
Discover the history of Brown’s Hotel →
A world of hotels
Brown’s is one chapter in a much wider story. I also research the histories of other remarkable hotels, from The Milestone and Egerton House in London to The Balmoral in Edinburgh.
Each has its own cast of characters, unexpected connections and stories that reveal something about the changing world of luxury hospitality.
Explore the histories of these remarkable hotels →
The golden age of travel
A grand hotel never exists in isolation. Its story is tied to the railway that brought its guests, the technology that transformed its rooms, the restaurants and shops that grew around it and the changing ways in which Londoners travelled, worked, dined and entertained.
The articles on this site explore those wider connections – from the rise of the luxury hotel to the golden age of travel and the people who inhabited this fascinating world.
