The
Cumberland Hotel - Marble Arch,
London
It
takes its name from the Duke of Cumberland
(son of George II 1721-1765) a public
house which stood on the site from as
early as 1747 until it was demolished at
the turn of the twentieth century. The old
Roman way from the west of England to
London - the Oxford Road of which
Oxford street is a part - met the
equally ancient Watling Street (now the
Edgware Road) near the site of the present
Cumberland Hotel. Tyburn Brook, which
flowed nearby, was in a district known as
Tynburnia which was almost as aristocratic
as Mayfair and Belgravia. Alongside the
brook were the Tyburn Trees and for
generations the trees were used for
execution. Later a permanent fixture of
gallows was erected where for centuries
executions continued to be performed, the
last taking place in 1783.
The
rural nature of the district began to
change rapidly in the early eighteenth
century. Cumberland Place had been built
in the mid 1700 (probably after the Battle
of Culloden in 1746) followed by Old
Quebec Street in 1770 and Bryanston Street
in about 1780. Aristocratic families moved
to the district and the Duke of York took
a house in Portman Square in 1805. Lord
Camelford lived in house on the north side
of Oxford Street where it remained until
1913 when it was demolished to make way
for a cinema and a block of flats. In 1901
the island site bounded by Oxford Street,
Old Quebec Street, Bryanston Street and
Great Cumberland Place, was progressively
acquired by Lyons for the erection of the
Cumberland Hotel. This was well before the
Stand Hotel had been built in 1909. Apart
from the complicated land deals, the
Cumberland project was formidable. The
excavations alone entailed the removal of
over 100,000 cubic yards of material
during which historical relics from all
periods were unearthed. The architect in
charge was F. J. Wills with Oliver Bernard
responsible for the public rooms. All
building work was carried out by Lyons own
staff.
The
Cumberland Hotel featured all the latest
developments of comfort. It was
sound-proofed, double glazed, air
conditioned and all 900 bed-rooms had
their own en-suite. All air entering the
hotel was filtered including the supply to
the kitchen areas. Here the exhaust was
treated to eradicate cooking smells. The
reading lamps in the bedroom were of a
triangular design with close fitting metal
doors on two faces. In a twin-bedded room
therefore, the occupants could adjust the
lantern doors to prevent light from
affecting the other sleeper if he/she
chose to sleep rather than read. With both
sides of the lantern closed a pin-head of
amber light provided the perfect
night-light. The structure consisted of
thirteen floors, ten of them above ground
and three below ground. The public rooms,
restaurants, banqueting hall, grill room
and centre court were located centrally.
Part of the hotel backbone was an enormous
100-ton girder which required the world's
largest lorry to convey it. Fifteen
thousand tons of steel-work was used in
the hotel's construction. Four hundred
thousand square feet of 'Empire grown
timber' was used in the making of bedroom
furniture. The 50,000 yards of sheets cost
£25,000 and the carpets £18,000.
Two thousand staff were employed at the
hotel and a specially built annex provided
accommodation for 300 girls who slept in
single or double rooms. There was one bath
to every four girls and they ate in their
own restaurant on the ground floor of the
annex.
The
Hotel was visited by the young King George
V and Queen Mary two days before the
public opening on 12 December 1933 in time
for the Christmas trade. The first hotel
manager was Proserpi Amilcare who remained
in charge until his death in 1947 aged
only 59. At fifteen he had started work as
a waiter in Cannes and two years later
came to England working in the Midland
Hotel, Manchester. From 1907 until 1914 he
worked in Baden-Baden, Berlin, Vichy,
Monte Carlo, and the Savoy Hotel London.
In 1914 he joined the company at the
Popular Cafe and in 1918 became
superintendent-in-charge of the Louis Room
at the Regent Palace Hotel. In 1924
Amilcare took charge of Lyons' famous
Grill Room at the Wembley Exhibition. Then
after a short stay as manager of the
Trocadero Restaurant he was appointed
manager of the Regent Palace Hotel in 1926
where he remained until the Cumberland
Hotel opened in 1933. One of his last
public appearances, despite his illness,
was when he attended the unveiling of
Lyons' Second World War memorial at
Sudbury, Middlesex, on 9 November 1947. He
was laid to rest, in the presence of
several Lyons directors and senior
managers, in West Norwood Cemetery on, 17
December 1947.
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