Imperial Victorian Style in London - Langham Hotel

This is an unusual view of the Langham Hotel., with the Post Office Tower and an undistinguished modern block to one side. The Langham was built between 1863 and 1865 at a cost of £300,000, and was then the largest and most modern hotel in the city, featuring a hundred water closets, thirty-six bathrooms and the first hydraulic lifts in England.

It was opened on June 16 1865 by the Prince of Wales, and quickly went bust. In 1867, a former US Union officer James Sanderson was appointed general manager and the hotel developed an extensive American following, including Mark Twain.

Napoleon III, Oscar Wilde, Dvořák, and Toscanini stayed there. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set the Sherlock Holmes tales: 'A Scandal in Bohemia' and 'The Sign of Four' at the Langham. Churchill, de Gaulle and Haille Selassie stayed there in the 20th Century.

The Langham was hit by the Great Depression and the owners attempted to sell the site. Used by the Army in the Second World War until damaged by bombing, it was occupied by the BBC as ancillary accommodation to Broadcasting House after the War.

The ballroom became the BBC record library and The Goon Show was supposedly recorded there. The BBC wanted to knock it down for offices but were prevented.

It was reopened as the Langham Hilton in 1991 and has been renovated on several occasions since to return it to its grand past as again The Langham.