The Sloane Square Hotel is located on the north side of

Sloane Square Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, London, Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a ...

, in the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

. Nearby notable buildings include the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

, the department store Peter Jones and the Sloane Square Underground station.

History

The building has been a hotel for over a century, ever since the rebuilding of the northern side of Sloane Square during the 1890s. In 1900 the lease for the site was taken by George Bernard and Amos Ballard, who completed the building and opened it as the Royal Court Hotel. By 1919, the running of the hotel had been taken over by the hotelier Auguste Wild. In 2005 the hotel was bought by the hotelier John Tham, former managing director of the

Cliveden Cliveden (pronounced ) is an English country house and estate in the care of the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hi ...

hotel, and renamed the Sloane Square hotel. It was completely renovated in 2006. Following the bombing of Sloane Square Underground station in 1940, the hotel was used as staging post for treating casualties. In early 1960, the hotel was temporary home to

Peter Llewelyn Davies Peter Llewelyn Davies (25 February 1897 – 5 April 1960) was the middle of five sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, one of the Llewelyn Davies boys befriended and later informally adopted by J. M. Barrie. Barrie publicly identifie ...

, a leading figure in London's publishing industry and the inspiration for

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

's ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

'', while en route to

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. On 5 April 1960, Davies left the bar of the hotel and threw himself under a train at the nearby underground station, making "front-page news around the world". During the 1960s, the hotel was part of the

Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...

phenomenon, which encompassed fashion, music, art and other forms of popular culture. Early in February 1962,

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

stayed in the hotel for several weeks, and in the following year they used the building as a venue for a photographic session on 10 February 1963. The hotel also played host to the first meeting between

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

and his future girlfriend

Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)''The International Who's Who of Women'', 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and through her associatio ...

, when McCartney was interviewed by the Radio Times on 18 April 1963.

References

External links

sloanesquare.com

sloanesquarehotel.co.uk

british-history.ac.uk
{{coord, 51, 29, 33.2, N, 0, 9, 26.8, W, type:landmark_region:GB-KEC, display=title Hotels in London

History

See also

References

External links