Morley's Hotel was a building which occupied the entire eastern side of London's

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

, until it was demolished in 1936 and replaced with

South Africa House South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

. It was next to

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval pe ...

Church. It was designed by the architect

George Ledwell Taylor George Ledwell Taylor (31 March 1788 – 1 May 1873) was an architect and landowner who lived in London. Life Taylor was born on 31 March 1788 and educated at Rawes's academy, Bromley. He became a pupil of the architect James Burton (proper ...

, and originally developed as apartments. It was built by Atkinson Morley in 1831, who in 1822 owned the British Hotel (also known as the

British Coffee House The British Coffee House was a coffeehouse at 27 Cockspur Street, London. It is known to have existed in 1722, and was run in 1759 by a sister of John Douglas (bishop of Salisbury), and then by Mrs. Anderson, and was particularly popular with t ...

) at 27

Cockspur Street Cockspur Street is a short street in the City of Westminster, London, within which a very short part of Trafalgar Square links Charing Cross to Pall Mall/Pall Mall East at the point where that road changes name, opposite the traffic exit from ...

, but had sold it to buy the Burlington Hotel at 19–20

Cork Street Cork Street is a street in Mayfair in the West End of London, England, with many contemporary art galleries, and was previously associated with the tailoring industry. Location The street runs approximately north-west from the junction of Burl ...

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

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

recalled the fire in the coffee room and the vast four-poster beds. Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

stayed there for some time in 1900, while he was writing ''

The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four Detective fiction, crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serial (literature), serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from ...

'', 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. Other visitors to Morley's included

Buffalo Bill Cody William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), better known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. One of the most famous figures of the American Old West, Cody started his legend at the young age o ...

References

Defunct hotels in London Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Trafalgar Square Demolished buildings and structures in London Buildings and structures demolished in 1936 {{UK-hotel-struct-stub

See also

References