Belmond Reid's Palace (a.k.a. Reid's Palace) is a historic

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 ...

located to the west of

Funchal Bay Funchal Bay is a large bay opposite the main city of Funchal on the island of Madeira, located in the North Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Morocco in north Africa. Funchal has its harbour within the bay. Belmond Reid's Palace is locate ...

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

, in an imposing position looking out over the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

. The hotel has beautiful sloping gardens. The hotel's complex include more than 40,000 square meters of space designed as a subtropical botanical

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

Reid's Hotel and Surrounding Landscape, from Funchal, Madeira, by Sarah Angelina Acland, c

History

William Reid, the son of a Scottish crofter, originally arrived in Madeira in 1836. He hired out

quintas Luís Fernando Quintas dos Santos, known as Quintas (born 12 April 1965) is a former Portuguese football player. Club career He made his Primeira Liga debut for Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, P ...

to wealthy invalids and moved on to hotels, but died before his Reid's hotel was completed. The hotel was designed by the architects George Somers Clarke and John Thomas Micklethwaite. Reid’s two sons, William (Willy) and Alfred, brought their father’s project to fruition and the doors to Reid's Palace opened in November 1891, as the New Hotel, later became the New Palace Hotel, then Reid's Palace or just "Reid's". It was a luxury retreat combining Edwardian elegance with the latest comforts of the day. The pioneer colour photographer

Sarah Angelina Acland Sarah Angelina ("Angie") Acland (26 June 1849 – 2 December 1930) was an English amateur photographer, known for her portraiture and as a pioneer of colour photography. Distributed bThe University of Chicago Pressin the US. She was credited ...

(1849–1930) stayed at the hotel during the early 20th century and took many photographs in and around the location of the hotel. The hotel had a darkroom for use by guests. Famous guests over the years have included General

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

, Winston Churchill,

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid pro ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

, Worshipful Brother James Thompson and Lady Lynne Thompson, deposed emperor

Karl von Habsburg Karl von Habsburg (given names: ''Karl Thomas Robert Maria Franziskus Georg Bahnam''; born 11 January 1961) is an Austrian politician and the head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, therefore being a claimant to the defunct Austro-Hungarian t ...

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

, the poet

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recog ...

, the missionary

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...

, and dramatist

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

. The Cinema Museum in London has film from 1936 of the hotel and its guests. Reid's is particularly known for its tradition of serving

afternoon tea Tea (in reference to food, rather than the drink) has long been used as an umbrella term for several different meals. English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of v ...

on the terrace. The hotel was acquired by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., which changed its name to Belmond Ltd. on 10 March 2014. At that time the hotel changed its name to Belmond Reid's Palace. In December 2018,

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion hou ...

(LVMH) is expected to buy Belmond Ltd., the 40-year-old company that owns among other properties the Madeira Belmond Reid's Palace, in a €2.8 billion deal which closed in April 2019 in a $3.2 billion final transaction.

References

External links

* {{The Leading Hotels of the World, Europe 1891 establishments in Portugal Hotels established in 1891 Hotel buildings completed in 1891 Hotels in Portugal Buildings and structures in Funchal Tourist attractions in Funchal Belmond hotels

History

See also

References

External links