33 Albemarle St, London W1S 4BP, United Kingdom
Brown's is the first hotel in London. It was built in 1837 in the Mayfair district.
The history of Brown's begins with the infamous romantic poet Lord Byron—or rather, his butler James Brown, who, together with his wife Sarah, Lady Byron's maid, purchased the house at 23 Dover Street in 1837 and expanded it in 1838, creating Brown's Hotel. But this is not the only fact that made the hotel historic: it became the first building in England to have an elevator installed. The architecture of the eleven Georgian-style townhouses that make up its premises means that each room is noticeably different from the others. In 1889, the hotel was merged with the neighboring St George's Hotel, as they adjoined each other and were eventually combined to provide a passage between Dover Street and Albemarle Street.
In 1876, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell checked in and made the first British telephone call; Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie sought temporary refuge here from the French Third Republic; and Queen Victoria often had tea in the English tea room. Theodore Roosevelt spent the night before his wedding at Brown's Hotel, and a copy of the marriage certificate can still be found at the hotel today.
Historian John Lothrop Motley stayed at the hotel in 1874, as shown in a letter he wrote on June 17 of the same year to Dutch historian Groen van Prinsterer.
Famous Victorian writers Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, J.M. Barrie, and Bram Stoker were also regular visitors.
Brown's continued to be a center of literary history, hosting guests such as Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Faulkner, Somerset Maugham, Agatha Christie, George Orwell, A.A. Milne, and Stephen King. Yet the most influential literary guest must surely be Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling first stayed at Brown's on his honeymoon in 1892 and returned again and again until 1936. Writing "The Jungle Book" during one of his many visits, he left an indelible mark on Brown's legacy. The Kipling Suite is the largest room in the hotel, and it was here that he wrote many of his works.
Kipling was not the only one to draw inspiration within these walls: it is said that Agatha Christie based her book "At Bertram's Hotel" on Brown's Hotel, and
Stephen King—sitting at Kipling’s writing desk—began his novel "Misery" here. Agatha Christie loved this hotel so much that one of her characters said, “I never stay in a hotel, I stay at Brown’s.”
The hotel came under the management of Rocco Forte Hotels on July 3, 2003; previously, it was managed by Raffles International Hotels. Between 2004 and 2005, the hotel was renovated and reopened in December 2005.
Brown's Hotel is known for its traditional English Victorian elegance combined with a modern atmosphere.
Sources:
https://realty.rbc.ru/news/5c2220639a79472d99e282d0?from=copy
https://www.bondstreet.co.uk/directory/browns-hotel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown%27s_Hotel
