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Tower Hotel
London
The
magnificent Tower Hotel, next to Tower
Bridge and close to the Tower of London,
was opened by Field Marshall Sir Richard
Hull GCB, DSO Constable of the Tower of
London, on 19 September 1973. The bands of
the Grenadier Guards, drawn up at the
entrance to the banqueting suite, greeted
guests arriving for the opening luncheon
which was televised by BBC Television.
Most new hotel development post WW II had
been to the west of London, particularly
along the Cromwell Road and out towards
Heathrow Airport. Indeed Lyons themselves
opened their Ariel Hotel in 1961 close to
Heathrow Airport. The Tower Hotel was the
largest hotel development of the twentieth
century east of the City of London. It
took three years to build on a very
difficult island site in the historic area
of London known as St Katharine's Dock.
Architects were the Renton Howard Wood
Partnership with Taylor Woodrow
Construction Ltd responsible for the main
building and civil engineering endeavours.
Responsibility for the interior design
fell to Glyn Smith Associates while the
consulting engineers were Ove Arup &
Partners with quantity surveying
responsibilities falling to Rider Hunt
& Partners. Without doubt the Tower
Hotel enjoys the finest location of any
hotel in London with magnificent views
across Tower Bridge and the river. St
Katharine's Dock itself (resulting from
the combining of three separate docks) had
been restored to historical importance
after the devastating fires it suffered
when east London was set alight during WW
II. The dock basin contained historic
ships and yachts while the famous Ivory
House on its far side had been converted
to exclusive apartments. There was a small
pier in front of the hotel used by river
buses and other vessels. On the opposite
side of the river bank was Butler's Wharf
where, in its earlier days, Lyons had
their tea warehouse. A short walk away was
Traitors Gate, the Monument, where the
Great Fire of London started, Tower Hill,
The Mint and London's Custom House. The
area was steeped in history. A feature of
the hotel were the high volume pumps which
had been installed in the basement area in
case of flooding by the Thames. This was
before the Thames Barrier had been built
downstream at Greenwich. The hotel had 860
bedrooms, three restaurants, a bar,
banqueting suits and penthouse suites
arranged on 14 floors although some parts
of the hotel were only nine or ten storeys
high. Each of the double-glazed bedrooms
(104 singles, 654 twin bedded and 68
double-bedded) had coloured television,
radio, direct-dial telephone, individually
controlled air conditioning and private
bathroom. Each had a view of either the
Thames, Tower Bridge or St Katharine's
Dock to the side and rear. Bedroom
interiors featured different colour
schemes; orange and yellow or green and
brown matched with a range of light
English oak built-in furniture. The rooms
had a ship's cabin quality appropriate to
a riverside setting emphasised by the
nautical detailing on the furniture,
bathroom interiors and compact storage
facilities. The main restaurant was the
108 seat Princess Room with its own
cocktail lounge and views of the river and
Tower Bridge. The dark stained timber
panelling, smoke silk walls and rich brown
velvet upholstery blended with a brown
metal ceiling, rose linen tablecloths and
a series of silk decorative wall panels.
Live music was played by a series of
ensembles with a harpist being one of the
favourites. The Carvery (an innovation
introduced earlier in some of the
company's hotels from America) was in
contrast in brilliant reds to reflect the
meat being served off the bone. A fixed
price of £2.20 covered a complete
meal and service with an 'eat as much as
you like' value. On the ground floor level
(the two main restaurants were on the
upper foyer) was a coffee shop with orange
and reds as the colour scheme. It served
meals, snack or just coffee/tea throughout
the day until 1 am. The Thames Bar was
decorated in mint green, royal blue and
scarlet. Open to the public it had its own
terrace and wonderful views of the river.
The York and Lancaster Rooms were designed
for prestige functions giving individual
comfort for 200 people. The suit had its
own entrance with the entrance foyer
dominated by a striking red tapestry.
Their were smaller suites (Neville,
Mortimer and Beaufort) suitable to seat 30
or 40 people. The penthouse suites were on
the twelfth floor, eight in all, and they
were furnished with French wool brocade
bedspreads, Scottish tweed upholstery for
the furniture and linen curtains. The VIP
suite comprised two bedrooms and a double
living room. At the time of opening the
General Manager was Brian Ridgway who had
been with the company for eighteen years.
Richard Matthews was the Front Hall
Manager and Simon Dolan the Front Office
Manager. Peter Fitzgibbon was the Catering
Manager, Mike Preston the Head Chef,
Graham Wells the Conference and Banqueting
Manager, Audrey Fuller Personnel Manager,
Pauline Hancocks Head Housekepper, Judi
Johnson Booking Office Manager, Lilian
Barkes Head Receptionist, Stan Bayly-Jones
Works Manager, Roland Thompson Hotel
Accountant and four Assistant Managers
John Buchanan, Stewart Edwards, Wolfgang
Granditsch and Harry Howard. Quite
obviously the hotel was popular with
American tourists and it soon became
profitable. The decline in the fortunes of
Lyons in the mid 1970s triggered the sale
of their hotels, most of which were sold
to the Charles Forte Group. The Tower
Hotel, however, was sold to EMI in July
1977.
Peter
Bird
Front (L-R)
Audrey Fuller (Personnel
Brian
Ridgway (General Manager)
Brian
Smith (Essential Services Manager)
Richard
Johnstone (Security Officer)
Back
Row (L-R) Richard Mathews (Front Hall
Manager)
Peter
Fitzgibbon (Catering Manager)
Stan
Bayly-Jones (Works Manager)
Graham
Wells (Banqueting Manager)
Roland
Thompson (Hotel Accountant)
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