Morley's Hotel

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.

Morley's Hotel (directly behind Nelson's Column)

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

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

51.5082°N 0.1269°W / 51.5082; -0.1269