Morley's Hotel Explained

Morley's Hotel was a building which occupied the entire eastern side of London's Trafalgar Square, until it was demolished in 1936 and replaced with South Africa House.^[1] It was next to St Martin-in-the-Fields Church.

It was designed by the architect George Ledwell Taylor, and originally developed as apartments.^[2] It was built by Atkinson Morley in 1831, who in 1822 owned the British Hotel (also known as the British Coffee House) at 25 Cockspur Street, but had sold it to buy the Burlington Hotel at 19–20 Cork Street.^[3]

Morley's Hotel opened in 1832.^[4] In 1850, in his Hand-Book of London, Peter Cunningham described it as "well-frequented, and is good of its kind".^[5]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed there for some time in 1900, while he was writing The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the fictional Northumberland Hotel of that book may well have been based on Morley's. He wrote to his mother in 1900 that he was "somewhat sick" of Morley's and intended to try the Golden Cross Hotel.^[6]

References

51.5082°N -0.1269°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: The east side of Trafalgar Square. BHO. 22 November 2015.
2. Book: Mace . Rodney . Trafalgar Square: Emblem of Empire . 1975 . Lawrence & Wishart. London . 0-85315-367-1 . 42–3.
3. Book: Terry Gould. David Uttley. A History of the Atkinson Morley's Hospital 1869–1995. 22 November 2015. 1 December 2000. A&C Black. 978-0-567-63304-0. 10–11.
4. Web site: LONDON: Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square...and MORLEY'S HOTEL. tatteredandlostephemera. 14 June 2013 . 22 November 2015.
5. Web site: Victorian London – Houses and Housing – Hotels – list of hotels. victorianlondon. 22 November 2015.
6. Book: Alistair Duncan. An Entirely New Country: Arthur Conan Doyle, Undershaw and the Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes. 22 November 2015. 16 December 2011. Andrews UK Limited. 978-1-908218-21-6. 102–103.