The Landmark London is a five-star

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both direction ...

on the northern side of central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

. It was originally opened by the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

, as the Hotel Great Central. As one of London's railway hotels it declined after the advent of the motor car, and served as a military convalescent home during the Second World War, and later the headquarters of the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. It reopened as a hotel in 1993.

History

Early years

The hotel was originally one of London's

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

railway hotels, the Hotel Great Central. It was first proposed by Sir

Edward Watkin Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (26 September 1819 – 13 April 1901) was a British Member of Parliament and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, and presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his b ...

of the

who envisaged

Marylebone station Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...

, which the hotel was to serve, as the hub of an international railway which would run through a

channel tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

. Sir Edward's aspirations proved to be overambitious (not for the only time as he was behind the Watkins' Tower, which was a failed attempt to outdo the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

), and after the Great Central ran into financial difficulties the site of the hotel was sold to Sir

John Blundell Maple Sir John Blundell Maple, 1st Baronet (1 March 1845 – 24 November 1903) was an English business magnate who owned the furniture maker Maple & Co. Biography His father, John Maple (28 February 1815 – 4 March 1900), had a small furniture sh ...

of the furniture company Maples, who opened his hotel in 1899. Marylebone station is one of the smallest of the central London termini, but its hotel was among the grandest of the London railway hotels. It had a clock tower and was built around a large central courtyard. There were two main entrances, one on the northern side facing the station and the other on the southern side towards Marylebone Road. The architect was Colonel Sir

Robert William Edis Colonel Sir Robert William Edis (13 June 1839 – 23 June 1927) was a British architect. Biography Edis was born in Huntingdon to Emma and Robert Edis. His sister was the preacher Isabella Reaney, his brother was Arthur Wellesley Edis, a gynae ...

and the style was eclectic and opulent. The

Ladies' Alpine Club The Ladies' Alpine Club was founded in London in 1907 and was the first mountaineering club for women. It merged with the Alpine Club of Great Britain in 1975. History In December 1907 a group of ladies who were climbers in the Alps met in Lon ...

rented rooms in the hotel and held its annual dinner there.

Decline and military usage

In the 1920s the central courtyard became a winter garden, but the building's first period as a hotel was drawing to a close. With railway traffic falling due to the advent of the motor car, London's railway hotels were among the most vulnerable of the city's grand

s as they were not in the most fashionable districts. The Great Central fell out of hotel use for over forty years. It was a convalescent home during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and served as a military office building for many years afterwards as well as the headquarters of the British Railways Board, and was referred to by railway staff as "The Kremlin".Dr John Prideaux
at Alycidon Railtalk May 2002

Restoration

In a pattern which was followed by several of the railway hotels it later returned to its original use, as demand for luxury hotels in London grew and the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

expanded in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The building was purchased by a Japanese company in 1986 and restored and reopened as a hotel in 1993 as The Regent, London. In 1995, it was purchased by the Lancaster Landmark Hotel Company Limited, and renamed The Landmark London. The Landmark Group is a Thai company which opened its first hotel in 1987 and owns several other

hotels in London This article describes the hotels in London, England. History Before the 19th century, there were few, if any, large hotels in London. British country landowners often lived in London for part of the year but they usually rented a house, if the f ...

. The hotel now has 300 rooms and suites.

References

External links

The Landmark London official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landmark London, The Railway hotels in England Hotels in the City of Westminster Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures in Marylebone Hotels established in 1899 Hotel buildings completed in 1899