Hotel Bristol

"Bristol Hotel" redirects here. For the song by LL Cool J, seeBigger and Deffer.

Hotel Bristol labels

TheHotel Bristolis the name of more than 200hotels around the world. They range from grand European hotels, such asHôtel Le Bristol Parisand theHotel BristolinWarsaworViennato budget hotels, such as theSRO(single room occupancy) Bristol inSan Francisco.They are not a chain, except in Brazil, where Bristol Hoteis & Resortshas around a dozen hotels throughout the country with the Bristol name.

Origins

TheHotel Bristolin Warsaw

The Hotel Bristol in Salzburg

The first known Hotel Bristol was inPlace Vendômein Paris. It opened in 1816 and became a favourite of the Prince of Wales, laterEdward VII,who had a suite there. When it closed in 1916, its name was fought over, and finally won by Hippolyte Jammet,who openedHôtel Le Bristol Parisin nearby Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, today one of the city's five-star palace hotels.

Two possible origins of the name are the association with the English port-city ofBristol,andFrederick Hervey,the fourthEarl of Bristoland Bishop of Derry (1730–1803). According to his biographer: "So widely famed was the Bishop as a traveller, and so great his reputation as a connoisseur of all good things, that Lord Bristol's hotel...came to be the best known and regarded in every city or town where he sojourned and was thus the precursor of the Hotels Bristol to be found all over Europe."Lord Bristol died in Italy at the start of theNapoleonic wars(1803–15), which interrupted theGrand Tour.The Bristol in Paris was one of many opened in the ensuing peace, hoping to re-establish the Continental tourist trade.

The fact that many hotels, such as the Bernini Bristol in Rome, use thecoat of armsof the City of Bristol in their logos leads to speculationthat they are named after the city and not the Earl-Bishop. But there is no evidence that the Bristol family ever granted use of their arms to any hotel, while the city's coat of arms can freely be adopted to give an aristocratic image.

Modern distribution

TheBristol Hotel, Mar del Plata,1907.

Italynow has the most hotels of this name, with more than 50, whilstFrancehas around 30. Many luxury Bristol hotels from the Edwardian era (for example inBeaulieu-sur-Mer,London,Lugano,Mar del Plata,New York City,NaplesandSt Petersburg) have not survived, but a new Hotel Bristol opened in St Petersburg in 2012, and theBristol Hotel, Odessa(1899) has reclaimed its name after changing it to the Krasnaya Hotel during the Soviet era. One of the oldest still functioning is the Bernini Bristol inRome,which opened in 1874. Bristol hotels also have a presence in the Middle East in Beirut since 1951 withLe Bristol Hotel Beirut.Modern hotels to use the name include those inFrankfurt,San DiegoandGurgaon,India. The city ofBristolinEnglanddid not have a Bristol hotel until 2007 when Jurys Hotel Bristol changed its name simply to The Bristol.

Associations

• Valerie Solanas,author of theS.C.U.M. Manifestoand attempted assassin ofAndy Warhol,died in room 202 of the Hotel Bristol, 56 Mason Street,San Francisco.Richard Ramirez(a.k.a.Night Stalker) stayed in the same hotel, room 315, during his killing spree in 1985. The comedy filmWhat's Up, Doc?(1972), starringBarbra StreisandandRyan O'Neal,features the Hilton Hotel as the "Hotel Bristol, San Francisco". The famousBlack Cat Barwas originally in the basement of this building, then named the Athens Hotel, from 1906 to 1921. The Black Cat was later located inNorth Beachat 710 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
• TheHotel Bristol, Oslo,was where, in November 1939,Hans Ferdinand Mayer"a German scientist, who is on your side" wrote theOslo Report,a major leak of technical information passed to the British.
• Hotel Bristol, Warsawopened in 1901 onKrakowskie Przedmieście.Thoroughly refurbished in its original style in the 1990s it was reopened byMargaret Thatcher,an event that forms the final chapter of her memoirs.
• Hotel Bristol (Berlin)opened in 1891 and was destroyed in an air raid in 1943. It held the first international IAA (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) motor show, in 1897, and was involved in the Krupp scandal, detailed in William Manchester's book on the arms manufacturer.
• The five-star luxury hotel inViennaopposite theVienna State OperaHouse is one of the most exclusive hotels in Austria and was restructured by the hotelierGeorg Hochfilzer.It has hosted many historical figures includingTeddy Roosevelt.It was here that thePrince of WalesandWallis Simpsonsojourned at the height of their affair, in 1936; the most sumptuous suite is named after him. In 1938, the hotel underwentAryanizationwhen its Jewish owner Samuel Schallinger was forced to sell his shares before being deported toTheresienstadt concentration campwhere he died.
• Leon Trotskywas accused of meeting with others to plot against Stalin in theHotel Bristol (Copenhagen).An alibi was established in 1937 when theDewey Commissionshowed that the hotel had burned down in 1917.
• TheLe Bristol Hotel (Beirut),is one of the most exclusive hotels in Beirut where theLebanese Independencefrom the occupying Syrian military force was prepared in 2005.

Bristol Hotel in Beirut

• Hotel Bristol, Belgrade,opened in 1912; the architectural characteristics of the building are highly regarded: it is qualified as an anthological example of the modern architecture in Belgrade and the pinnacle of theSecessionarchitecture in the city. It was declared acultural monumentin 1987.

Notable hotels called Bristol Hotel or Hotel Bristol

• Bristol Hotel, Mar del Plata,Argentina
• Hotel Bristol, Sarajevo,Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Hotel Bristol (Copenhagen),Denmark
• Hôtel Le Bristol Paris,France
• Hotel Bristol (Berlin),Germany
• Bristol Hotel, Gibraltar
• Le Bristol Hotel Beirut,Lebanon
• Hotel Bristol (Oslo),Norway
• Hotel Bristol, Warsaw,Poland
• Hotel Bristol, Belgrade,Serbia
• Bristol Hotel, Odesa,Ukraine

External links

• Hotel Bristol Vienna,by Andreas Augustin,ISBN978-3-900692-11-7,published 2008
• The Earl of Bristol Didn't Sleep Here, But the Hotel Might Be Named After Him,Wall Street Journal, Sept 27, 2008.
• All the Bristol Hotels in the Worldby Roger Williams (Bristol Book Publishing, 2017)
• Hotel Bristol Storiesby Roger Williams (Bristol Book Publishing, 2017)
• UK: The Bristol fashion,Telegraph (Travel), 15 April 2000.
• The Mitred Earl: An Eighteenth-Century Eccentricby Brian Fothergill (Faber & Faber 1974)
• The Arms of Kruppby William Manchester, details corruption in the Berlin Bristol (Little, Brown, 1968)
• The Earl Bishop, the life of Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, Earl of Bristolby William Shakespeare Childe-Pemberton, Hurst & Blackett, London, 1924
• Vienna's tourist trail of plunder,Guardian (World News), 21 May 2002.
• Bristol Hotel in Campbell California