additional conveniences of large lounges and halls

It will be noticed that, except that this is on a larger scale and for a different class of customer, there is much the same tendency to provide for non-resident lunchers and diners as there is in the larger city public-houses, and similarly the rooms are all of considerable size and luxuriously appointed, with the additional conveniences of large lounges and halls, more exclusively for the use of residents.

the first-floor plan, which it will be seen is more completely that of a residential hotel. The Regent Street frontage is even here occupied by the upper storeys of shops, but the Piccadilly and Vine Street frontages are given up to suites of rooms, generally arranged so that they can be let off in pairs or groups, a sitting-room and bedroom being usually grouped together, it being always possible to open communicating doors if desired. These suites are complete, each sitting-room and bedroom being pro- vided with separate cupboards and separate bathrooms, all properly lighted from the exterior, while the bed- rooms have standing washing basins. These rooms, occupying the exterior of the site, are all reached by internal corridors, which are lighted from large wells which also provide top light to the dining-room on the ground floor. The Air Street frontage is given up to drawing and reading-rooms, while the interior is devoted to hotel dining and coffee-rooms, served mainly from the kitchens on the lower floors, and having here only a service kitchen communicating by means of lifts with those below. There are also several service lobbies, pantries, etc., the general idea being to obtain ample internal communication, by means of which the servants can easily reach all parts without unnecessary interfering with the guests.

The same tendency to provide suites rather than single bedrooms is to be seen in the upper floors, of which that shown in Fig. 18 may be taken as a type. In many cases it would be possible here to provide groups of three or four, or even as many as six rooms, which would practically be independent residences within the great hotel, showing in a striking fashion the tendency at the present day to follow the American manner of hotel rather than home living. This floor is planned on the direct central corridor system, with two such corridors radiating from the main staircase, while the lift service is remarkable for its completeness.

Similarly, the way in which all parts can be reached by the servants from the back entry from Vine Street, by means of the stair which runs up and down from the goods entrance shown in that position in Fig. 15, is worth noticing. On these upper floors, by means of enlarging the areas, it has been possible to obtain external lighting to all the rooms, though the corridors will to a certain extent have to depend on electricity even here. There are no great general reception-rooms, and the need for them scarcely exists so much in a hotel of this character as it does where the guests are provided only with private bedrooms and not with private sitting-rooms also. This is an American idea rather than an English one, but it appears to be becoming general, and doubtless future hotels of the larger character erected here will be upon this system, unless it be found to pay better to provide somewhat large bedrooms which can be utilised for sitting-room purposes also, as is commonly done upon the continent. There is no stinting of room, but plenty of space is given to provide comfortable and even luxurious apartments for which a high rent can be charged.