Queens Hotel is a luxury hotel in

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea began as a f ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. The current Queens Hotel is placed on the site of Southsea House, built in 1861 by architect

Augustus Livesay Augustus Frederick Livesay (8 May 1808 – 24 September 1879), known professionally as A. F. Livesay, was an architect based in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, England. Life and work Livesay was born in Portsea, Portsmouth to John and Sarah ...

, which was built for Sir John and Lady Morris. In 1865, due to boom in construction and tourism, Southsea house was converted into the Queen's Hotel by William Kemp Junior. It was one of Portmouth's first hotels, and it focused on the leisure and relaxation for the upper class. At 4:20pm on 8 December 1901, a fire gutted the entire hotel, leaving only the two outer walls that face Osborne Road and Clarence Parade. On 11 December 1901, it was deemed safe to enter the site and two missing chambermaids were discovered, dead, due to being trapped by falling rubble in the basement. In early 1902, plans were submit by the hotel owner at the time, G. H. King, to rebuild the hotel to cover the original footprint. The new hotel was to be much grander and more purpose-built, to include 63 rooms for visitors, and 33 for staff. The architect of the rebuild was London based T.W. Cutler. He was to design the hotel in the Edwardian baroque style in brown terracotta. This was a rising popular style across the British Empire in 1901. Designs were grand and lavish and no expense was spared. The hotel had to be designed to make a statement. The book ''England'' describes the hotel as a "Magnificent Edwardian hotel overlooking the Common, with ornate stone-carved balconies and countless neoclassical decorative flourishes". The hotel contains 74 rooms and has two bars and a restaurant. An episode of

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside ...

starring

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

('' Mr. Bean in Room 426'') was filmed at this hotel in 1992, first aired in February 1993. The hotel was listed at Grade II by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

on 20 October 2020.

References

Hotels in Hampshire Buildings and structures in Portsmouth Hotel buildings completed in 1903 Edwardian architecture in the United Kingdom Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire {{UK-hotel-struct-stub