Page 33 - VE Magazine - Issue 42
P. 33
Bournemouth. As it happened, the hotel was up for sale and so the lure of a new business opportunity in the healthier seaside location proved too irresistible, and on Christmas Day 1876, the couple became the new owners of the Bath Hotel.
It was small and unassuming but they soon expanded it and made it luxurious, offering guests billiards, Havana cigars and an own-branded Scotch whisky. What really marked it out however, was the collections of art and lavish objects they had amassed on their travels throughout the world.
Notable guests who enjoyed staying there included Benjamin Disraeli, DH Lawrence and one Oscar Wilde who wrote in the visitor guest book: “You have built and filled up with the greatest beauty and elegance, a palace and filled it with gems of art, for the use and benefit of the public at hotel prices”.
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ve / October-November 2018 / 33
Courtesy of the Russell-Cotes Museum
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