HOTELS, COFFEE HOUSES, AND TAVERNS. London, profuse in every thing, is replete with accommodation for strangers. Here the man of fortune may dwell in a style of princely grandeur, and here also - strange contrast - the less prosperous individual may live for less money than in any other part of the kingdom. To furnish a list of the numerous hotels with which the metropolis abounds would far exceed the limits of this work; they are all to be found in the Royal Blue Book, or Fashionable Directory - a very useful work. At the following establishments, however, the first families will find themselves, comparatively speaking, at home. Mivart's Hotel, Brook Street, Grosvenor Square; Fenton's Hotel, St. James's Street; Warren's. in Regent Street; the Clarendon, in Bond Street; Grillion's Hotel, and Crawley's Hotel, Albemarle Street; Colonnade Hotel, Charles Street, St. James's; Nerot's Hotel, Clifford Street; Brunswick Hotel, Hanover Square; Ibbotson's Hotel, Vere Street, Oxford Street; Hatchett's Hotel, Piccadilly; Jaunay's and La Sabloniere's Hotels, Leicester Square; Limmer's in Conduit Street, and the Burlington, in Old Burlington Street. To those engaged in parliamentary or law proceedings, Fendalls Hotel, in Palace Yard, a beautiful situation, is from its proximity to Westminster Hall, and superiority of accommodation, a most desirable residence; in Covent Garden, the Piazza, and the Bedford, are Hotels suited to the reception of families; while for single gentlemen, among many others, the Hummums, the Tavistock, known not only to all Europe, but all over India, may with great propriety be pointed out. The houses where anniversary dinners are held, in rooms capable of dining from 300 to 400 persons, are the Freemasons Tavern, Great Queen Street; Crown and Anchor, in the Strand; the Albion Tavern in Aldersgate Street, and London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street. Coffee houses in which a man may breakfast well for from 1s. 6d. to 2s., and get a good dinner for 4s. 6d. exclusive of wine, are to be met with in almost every street; and dining-rooms with charges for a single dinner at from 1s. 6d. to 2s. are to be found in all parts of the town, but in the vicinity of the Mansion House literally abound.

Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844

HOTELS, INNS, LODGINGS. The best hotels in London are Mivart's, in Brook-street, Berkeley-square ; and the Clarendon, in Bond-street and Albemarle-street. The next, in point of excellence, are the several hotels in Jermyn-street, St. James's-street, Albemarle-street, New Bond-street,and Dover-street, immediately adjoining. Farrance's, in Eaton-square, is very good. Morley's Hotel, at Charing-cross, is well-frequented, and is good of its kind. The Euston-square Hotel, at the terminus of the North-Western Railway, is well spoken of. Among the third-class hotels we may enumerate Richardson's, the Tavistock, and the Hummums, in Covent-garden ; the Adelaide Hotel, and the Bridge House Hotel,by London Bridge; Osborne's in the Adelphi; Hatchett's, in Piccadilly; and among the old inns, the Golden Cross, at Charing-cross, and Gerard's Hall Inn, Bread-street, Cheapside. The stranger who comes to London for pleasure, and pleasure only, will find the best description of lodging in the West-end of London, in the streets issuing from Piccadilly in Dover-street, Clarges-street, Half-Moon-street, and Duke-street; in the streets abutting from St. James's-street, such as Jermyn-street, Bury-street, and King-street. These are all central situations, and for the most part composed of private houses. Good lodgings may be had in Cecil-street, Norfolk-street, and other streets in the Strand; in Holles-street, Oxford-street; and Margaret-street, Cavendish-square. Better houses may be found in parts less remote from the centre of fashion ; but the stranger who comes to London to pay visits and see what London has to show, should certainly choose a central situation for his head-quarters. The City, technically so called, is a part of London perfectly distinct from the West-end. No one thinks of lodging or living in the City. The great City merchants live at the West-end, or a little way out of town, and leave their counting-houses and warehouses to the keeping of their porters ; even their clerks, for the most part, have suburban cottages. The City, on a Sunday, is a deserted spot, the inhabitants flocking to the Parks at the West-end. and places like Richmond, Greenwich, Hampton Court, and Hampstead; others avail themselves of the railways and steamboats, and visit Windsor and Gravesend. The first family hotel in London was established in Covent-garden, in 1773, by a person of the name of David Low.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850

Hotels, Inns, Restaurants, and Lodging-Houses

It is a somewhat invidious task to undertake to single out from the many respectable Hotels, Inns, &c., in the Metropolis, a select number for recommendation to the traveller; and, indeed, his best plan will be to obtain an introduction or a reference from a friend. But those which are named in the subjoined list are of such old standing and established celebrity, that they at once suggest them selves for consideration.

FIRST CLASS :-WEST END.

    Usual tariff: 2s. 6d. bed;  5s. private room; 1s. 6d. attendance; 2s. 6d. breakfast; 5s. dinner; 2s. tea, &c.
    Claridge's (late Mivart's), 42 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square; Farrance's, Belgrave Street, Belgrave Square; Grillon's, 7 Albemarle Street; Fenton's, 63 St. James's Street; Christie's, St. James's Street; Howchin's, St. James's Street; Ellis's, 59 and 60 St. James's Street; Burlington, Cork Street; Queen's, Cork Street; Long's, Bond Street; Gloucester, 76 Piccadilly; Limmer's, Conduit Street; Brunswick, 52 Jermyn Street; Clarendon, 169 New Bond Street; Gordon's, 1 Albemarle Street; Bath, 25 Arlington Street. 

SECOND CLASS (especially adapted for Families) WEST END.

    Hill's, 22 Spring Gardens; The Union, Cockspur Street; The British, Cockspur Street; Morley's, Trafalgar Square; Hatchett's, 67 Piccadilly; The Golden Cross, Charing Cross; Stevens's, 181 New Bond Street; Hancock's, 13 Hill Street, Berkeley Square; Batt's, 41 Dover Street, Piccadilly.

EAST END AND CENTRAL -SECOND CLASS.

    Usual tariff: 1s. 6d. bed; 3s. 6d. private room; 1s. attendance;
 3s. 6d. dinner; 1s. 6d. breakfast ; 1s. tea, &c.

    The Craven, 45 Craven Street, Strand; Clarendon, Arundel Street, Strand; Old Hummums, Covent Garden; New Hummums, Covent Garden; Evans's, Covent Garden; Richardson's, Covent Garden; Tavistock, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden; Bedford Head, Covent Garden; Arundel, 14 and 15 Arundel Street, Strand; The Ship, Charing Cross; Northumberland, 11 Northumberland Street, Strand; Caledonian, 3 Robert Street, Adelphi; Adelphi, Adam Street, Adelphi; Kent's, Norfolk Street; Sam's, 302 Strand; Anderton's, 164 Fleet Street; Portugal, 154 Fleet Street; Rider's, 46 Salisbury Square; York, Bridge Street, Blackfriars; Radley's, Bridge Street, Blackfriars; London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill; Cathedral, 48 St. Paul's Churchyard; Queen's Hotel, St. Martin's-le-Grand; The Albion, Aldersgate Street; Wood's Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate Street; Guildhall, 22 King Street, Cheapside; Spread Eagle, 84 Gracechurch Street; Old Bell, 123 Holborn Hill; Black Bull, 122 Holborn; Wood's, Furnivai's Inn, Holborn ; Ridler's, Holborn Hill; Chapman's, 4 Cavendish Square; Fladong's, 22 Old Cavendish Street; Edward's,  12 George Street, Hanover Square; Bridge House, London Bridge (Southwark side). 

RAILWAYS AND JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES' HOTELS.
    (Admirably conducted establishments, 
most of whose tariffs are framed on no unreasonable scale.)

London Bridge (adjoining the Termini of the South-Eastern and South-Coast Railways); Great Western. Paddington (Great Western Railway); Great Northern, King's Cross; Victoria Hotel, Euston Square (London and North Western Railway); Westminster Hotel, Victoria Street (near Westminster Abbey); Grosvenor Hotel, Belgrave Road, Pimlico (adjoining the Victoria Termini of the London and Brighton, and London, Chatham, and Dover Railways). 

HOTELS, ETC. FOR FOREIGNERS.

    De Keyser's Royal Hotel, Bridge Street, Blackfriars- first-class (Foreign attendance), introduction useful; Sablonni?re Hotel, and Hotel de Provence, Leicester Square;  Panton Hotel, Panton Street, Haymarket; Hotel de Versailles, Leicester Place, Leicester Square; and Hotel de Paris, 35 Essex Street, Strand. 
    Foreigners of distinction usually patronise Mivart's (now Claridge's), the Clarendon, or Farrance's.

Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865

HOTELS.

THERE is no capital in Europe, always saving Constantinople, which, until recently, was not better provided with good average comfortable upper and middle-class Hotels, than London. A few private houses knocked somehow into one have been thought a large and grand hotel, for it is only within the last few years that the obvious necessity which existed for constructing a building specially for hotel purposes has been slowly recognised in this country. This new class of Hotels originated with the great Railway Companies.
    Thus, we have the EUSTON, adjoining the terminus of the North-Western Railway; but this edifice is not remarkable for its architectural embellishment.
    The GREAT-WESTERN HOTEL, adjoining the Great-Western Railway Terminus, at Paddington, is of more ornate character; it was designed in 1852, P. Hardwick, R.A., architect, in the style of Louis XIV., or later; the curved-roof forms were then a striking novelty; four colossal termini, finely modelled, support the central balcony, and over them are casts of the Warwick vase; and in the pediment above is a group of Britannia, surrounded by personations of the six parts of the world, and of their arts and commerce. The exterior is of stucco; and the ornaments and projections are in rich and bold style, the figures by Thomas. The number of bed, dressing, and sitting- rooms, about 150; the passages and staircases are fire-proof. The chief coffee-room, and the saloon above it, are magnificent.    
    The GREAT NORTHERN, adjoining the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, King's Cross, has, architecturally, little to claim notice. 
    THE PALACE HOTEL, Buckingham-gate, Murray, architect, is a standard model of what the highest class of Family Hotel should be. Outside it is only a handsome range of buildings; inside it has costly and luxurious suites of rooms. The ventilation is perfectly arranged, and, though there is a constant current of air through all the building from basement to roof, the Hotel is always kept at a mild and equal temperature by hot-air pipes along each corridor, and leading into every apartment. Lifts communicate with each floor, so as to render every story complete in itself, with its service-room and heating apparatus, for serving dinners on the various landings. The entire structure is as perfectly fire-proof as the use of stone and brick along all the yam-ions stairways and corridors can make it.
    THE WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL, facing the Abbey, has one of the best situations in London, and is a very good example of French Renaissance architecture. It realizes the expectations even of the luxurious of the commercial classes. One-half of the hotel is let to the India Board, else this building alone would contain three hundred rooms. It has thirteen sitting-rooms, gentlemen's and ladies' coffee-rooms (the latter an exceedingly fine apartment), several committee and dining-rooms, with one hundred and thirty bedrooms, besides servants' apartments.
    THE LONDON BRIDGE HOTEL, Curry, architect, exactly adjoins time terminus on the side of the Brighton and South Coast Railway. As a building, it is inferior only to the Grosvenor in size and external appearance. It contains, in all, about two hundred and fifty rooms. There is an exceedingly magnificent coffee-room, with a smaller one, decorated in the same style, for the use of ladies only. There are spacious bed and dressing-rooms, with suites of apartments for families; reading, billiard, and smoking. rooms. This is the only Hotel of the new class which has a billiard-room. Like the other Hotels, the London Bridge is fire-proof, and is further provided with a powerful water supply, and fire-mains, with hoses, on each floor. An air-shaft passing up the building gives the most perfect ventilation to every floor, of which there are seven. The exterior has a heavy cornice, and terminates in a Mansard roof.
    THE GROSVENOR HOTEL, Victoria Station, Pimlico, J. T Knowles, architect, is of vast extent - 262 feet long, 75 deep, and 150 high to the top of the roof. The exterior is elaborately decorated. The spandrels on the first floor are in Portland stone, and represent her Majesty the Queen, the Prince Consort, Humboldt, Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, Lord John Russell, and others. At the side fa?ades are representations of the four quarters of the globe; and colossal festoons of flowers are suspended between the ground-floor windows. The enriched string, the trusses, and the leafage, are of Portland cement, coloured while "green," to match the stone; the carving by Dayman. On the ground-floor are a spacious hall, enriched with scagliola columns, and reaching to the second-floor corridor; dining, drawing, and sitting-rooms - the principal coffee-room, 69 feet by 36, and 18 in height; a smoking-room, &c. The first and second floors are chiefly suites of rooms for families; the upper rooms are bedrooms, the top story for servants only. On the first floor is a wide gallery entirely round the central hall. The whole building contains upwards of 300 rooms, many superb suites, including suites for wedding-breakfasts. The smoking-room, with its light, handsome columns, its groined arch roof, and ample windows, looks into the Station. The principal staircase is one of the finest features in the building: after the first floor the stairs diverge right and left; 1500 feet of stone corridors traverse the centre of the building on its various floors from end to end. There is one staircase for servants in the northern end of the building; the corresponding space in the southern wing being occupied by a lift, the cage of which is 8 feet square. This is worked by a very simple hydraulic apparatus, Easton and Amos, engineers, and passes up a shaft along the various floors of the building from top to bottom; it is equal to raising ten persons at one time. There are bath-rooms in all the landings, with services of hot and cold water and speaking-tubes to every floor. The cost of this splendid building is stated at considerably more than 100,000l.
    THE LANGHAM HOTEL, Portland-place, Giles and Murray, architects, is a sumptuous pile, and contains forty drawing and private sitting-rooms, and 300 bedrooms. THE AGRICULTURAL HOTEL, Salisbury-square, Giles, architect, is of much less architectural pretension. THE INNS OT COURT HOTEL, Lockwood and Mawson, architects, has an Italian front, with polished granite and serpentine shafts, in Holborn; the original design includes a large central covered court, and a front in Lincoln's-inn-fields.
    THE CHARING CROSS HOTEL AND RAILWAY STATION is in the Italian style, order Corinthian, E. M. Barry, architect. The principal entrances have polished granite columns, and carving above, and the chimney-stocks have red terra-cotta shafts. The railway offices are in the basement. The suites of apartments are superb; there are 250 bedrooms; the building extends nearly as far down Villiers-street as along the Strand. In the court-yard is a reproduction of the Eleanor Cross, at Charing Cross.
    THE CITY TERMINUS HOTEL, Cannon-street, is by the architect of the Chaining Cross hotel. Both buildings have pavilions at the ends of the principal front, with high truncated roofs, ornamented in zinc; they have each a Mansard roof to the portion between these wings, and chimneys having small columns at their ends; in each case there are enclosed porches to the wings, and a pent-roof for the whole length between; in each there are balconies with flower-vases on the pedestals, and with the supporting cantilevers of the same character of profile.
    The City Terminus Hotel has provision for public meetings and banquets, a noble coffee-room, a great hall for public dinners and balls, and a large meeting-room; and it has a restaurant, as well as a chop-room and a luncheon-bar, besides the refreshment-bar and the dining-room immediately attached to the station. Including the ground-story, chiefly appropriated to the railway booking-offices, there are four ordinary stories in the principal front of the building, above ground, and two stories in the roof. In the Chaining Cross Hotel there are five stories of ordinary windows, including a mezzanine: whilst each pavilion has an additional story; and there are two ranges of dormers in the centre-portion of the front, and three ranges of dormers and lucarnes in the pavilions. The frontage of the Cannon-street building is about 213 ft. in length: that of the Chaining Cross Hotel is 227 ft. - the railing in the Strand being 11 ft. longer. The Cannon-street front comprises eleven bays; the porches project 14 ft. The height of the main portion of time building, comprising the four ordinary stories, is 76 ft. 3 in., to the top of the cornice. Above this, to the highest part of the main roof is about 23 ft., and to the highest part of the pavilion-roofs 32 ft. A tower at the south-east angle, containing a ventilating-shaft and the kitchen-flue, rises higher; whilst the highest points of all are reached by the gilded metal-work finials of the spire-cappings of the two turrets, which are grouped with the pavilions in the principal front. Much of the space in the building, being devoted to rooms for dinners amid meetings, there are few bedrooms in proportion to the size of the structure, or as compared with the provision in the Chaining Cross Hotel. There appear to be eighty-four bed and dressing-rooms. Amongst the leading features of the Cannon-street exterior are the spire-capped turrets and the continuous balconies. The pilasters on the piers between the windows of the first-floor, are enriched somewhat in the manner of the Renaissance. The pedestals of the crowning balustrade have rusticated obelisk-formed terminals, of Elizabethan character, in terra cotta; each one having a small gilt ball at the top. The dormer windows have two arch-headed lights, with pilasters and trusses, carrying a pediment whose tympanum is enriched. In the upper part of the pavilion-roofs there are lucarne-lights. The roofs are ornamented at time angles, and at the edges round the flat top of each pavilion, by very bold ornament in stamped zinc, executed, like that of the other Hotel, by French workmen. Each turret terminates in a belvidere-story, open, above the cornice; and with a domical covering, ending in a spire. The front of the Hotel looking into the station has three lofty and bold arches, having coffers us the soffits enriched with rosettes. The Hotel building is stated to have cost about 100,000l.

John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1867

For persons who can afford to pay for good accommodation there is one invariable maxim- the best hotels are the cheapest. Avoid Leicester-square. The following list includes some of the most convenient hotels in London

WEST - Albemarle, 1, Albemarle-street. 
Albion, 25, Cockspur-street.
Albany, 240, Great Portland-street.
Almonds' (Private), Clifford-street, New Bond-street.
Bacon's, Hyde-park-square.-Family hotel.
Batt's, 41, Dover-street.
Berners', Berners-st., Oxford-st.
Boar and Castle, 6, Oxford-street.
Brunswick house, 10, Hanover-square.
Burlington, Old Burlington-st. and Cork-st.
Claridge's, 49, Brook-st. Grosvenor-sq.
Clarendon, 169, New Bond-street.
Ford's, Manchester-st., Manchester-sqnare.
Great Western Royal, Craven-road, Paddington.
Green Dragon, Bishopsgate-street, City.
Grosvenor, Buckingham Palace-road.
Hatchett's, Piccadilly, and Dover-street.
Langham, Portland-place.
Limmer's', George-street, Hanover-square.
Long's, 16, New Bond-street.
Norfolk-square---2, 4, and 6, Norfolk-square.
Quadrant-Air-street, Piccadilly.
St. James's Hotel, Piccadilly.
Thomas's, Berkeley-square-Private.
Western Counties, London-st., Paddington.
Westminster Palace Hotel, Victoria-street.
CENTRAL- Golden Cross, 452, Strand.
Northumberland, 11, Northmberld.-st., Strand.
Charing Cross Hotel, terminus, Charing-eross.
Inns of Court and Great Central, 269, High Holborn.
Euston and Victoria, Euston-grove, Euston-square.
Great Northern, Terminus, King's-cross. 
Hill's Ship, 27 Spring- gardens-Family.
New Opera Hotel, Bow-street, Covent-garden.
Peele's, 177 & 178, Fleet-street.
Craven 45 Craven-street, Strand.
Morley's, Trafalgar-square.
Adelphi, John-street, Adelphi.
Mitre, 125 Chancery-lane.
Bedford, Gordon, Opera, Richardson's, Tavistock, all in Covent-garden (Market).
Anderton's, 164, Fleet-street (and Dining-rooms).
Southampton, Southampton-buildings.
Somerset, 162, Strand (and Dining-rooms). 
Haxell's Royal Exeter - 370-375  Strand. 
Old Furnival's Inn- 139, Holborn Bars. 
Queen's, St. Martin's-he-Grand.
Lay's (Private), 8 and 9, Surrey-st., Strand.
Salisbury, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street. 
Royal Surrey, Surrey-st., Strand. 
Old Furnival's, Holborn Bars. 
Cannon-street Terminus
Cathedral, 48, St. Paul's Churchyard. 
Castle and Falcon, 5, Aldersgate-street. 
City of London, Bucklersbury
Bridge House, London Bridge.
De Keyser's Royal Hotel, Bridge-street, Blackfriars. 
Deacon's, 3, Walbrook.
Dolly's, Queen's Head Passage,Newgate-Street.
Green Dragon, Bishopsgate. 
Four Swans, Bishopsgate.
Kenan's, Crown-court, Cheapside. 
Sambrook's, Basinghall-street.
Old Bell, 123, Holborn-hill.
Wood's, Furnival's-inn, Holborn. 
Mouflet's, 24, Newgate-street.
George, Borough High-street. 
Ridler's, Holborn-hill.
Yorkshire Grey, 53, Lower Thames-street. 
Bull (and Tavern), Aldgate.

Routledge's Popular Guide to London, [c.1873]

Hotels, Inns, &c.

    § 20. London Hotels are so numerous that it is only possible to mention a very few of them; they are divided into several distinct classes, such as Grand Hotels, generally managed by Companies; Family Hotels, patronized by the English and foreign nobility and gentry who have no town residence of their own, but generally spend some weeks during the year in London. Private Hotels similar to the above, but of a quieter and less expensive character; Hotels frequented by bachelors and sportsmen; Commercial Hotels, and hotels owned and patronized by foreigners.
    A "table d'hôte" dinner, at London Hotels, is the exception; and visitors are, as a rule, expected to take at least one meal in the house. Prices vary exceedingly, according to the position of the house and the season of the year. From Easter to September, the charge for apartments is nearly double what it is at other seasons. The charge for a suite of apartments ranges from 30s. to £30 per week, for a single bedroom from 2s. 6d. to 10s. a night.
    GRAND HOTELS, 5 or 6 stories high, built in the fashion of those in America and the Hotel do Louvre, at Paris - have been established chiefly at the Termini of the chief Railways - generally in connection with the Company. They have fixed tariffs of prices; and Coffee-rooms for ladies as well as for gentlemen.
    London and North Western Euston and Victoria Hotel
    Great Northern King's Cross Hotel
    Midland St. Pancras Hotel.
    Great Western Paddington hotel. 
    Brighton and South Coast Grosvenor & London Bridge Hotels
    South Eastern Charing Cross and Cannon St. Hotels
    London, Chatham, & Dover Holborn Viaduct Hotel.
    The Westminster Palace Hotel at the end of Victoria-street, close to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
    The Palace Hotel, close to Buckingham Palace, quiet and well-managed, for families and gentlemen, very select.
    The Alexandra hotel, Hyde Park Corner.
    Langham Hotel, Portland-place. American House, table. d'hote daily (6s.), at which non-residents may dine.
    Inns of Court Hotel, Holborn, table-d'hote 6 p.m.
    Grand Hotel, Northumberland-avenue, built 1879.
    International Hotel, London Bridge.
    Manchester Hotel, Aldersgate-street (in course of erection).
    FAMILY HOTELS. - Claridge's (quite first-class), and Buckland's, Brook-st.
    Albemarle, York, Pulteney, and St. George's, in Albemarle-st.
    Thomas's, in Berkeley-square, well managed.
    Portland Hotel, Great Portland-st. (visitors taken "en pension").
    The Hyde Park Hotel, Marble Arch.
    Prince of Wales's Hotel, Eastbourne-ter., Paddington.
    Parish's, in George-st., Hanover-sq.
    Fenton's, in St. James's-st.
    Craufurd's, in Sackville-st.
    St. James's Hotel, Berkeley-st., Piccadilly.
    Burlington and Queen's, in Cork-st.
    Bristol, in Burlington Gardens.
    Brown's and Bate's, in Dover-st.
    Rawling's, Cox's, and the Brunswick in Jermyn-st.
    Grosvenor Hotel, Park-st., Grosvenor-square.
    In the Covent Garden district, The Covent Garden Hotel, Southampton-st., W.C. (table d'hote); Ashley's, Henrietta-st.
    In South Kensington, Bailey's Hotel, Gloucester-rd. (tabled'hote, 7 p.m.), and South Kensington Hotel, Queen's Gate-ter.
    Midway between the City and the West End are the British in Cockspur-st., the Golden Gross, Morley's, at Charing Cross, the United Hotel, Charles-st., Haymarket.
    Less expensive inns in the City :-The Bridge House Hotel, London Bridge; the Queen's, close to the Post Office; the Castle and Falcon, 5, Aldersgate-st. ; Metropolitan Hotel, South Place, Finsbury (table d'hôte).
    Central houses, chiefly for bachelors: Hatchett's, Piccadilly; the Tavistock, the Bedford, the Hummums, Covent-Garden, Long's, Bond-st.; Limmer's, Conduit-st. (rebuilt 1878). The British and Waterloo Hotels, Jermyn-st.
    Haxell's Hotel, 370 Strand (table d'hote daily, 5?30). Anderton's, 162, Fleet-st., bedrooms from 2s.; and many others in the Strand and its immediate neighbourhood.
    The Arundel, Arundel-street, and the Caledonian, Adelphi-terrace, board and lodge visitors at a fixed charge of 7s. 6d. per diem.
    Salisbury hotel, Salisbury-square, Fleet-st., frequented, chiefly by farmers.
    PRIVATE HOTELS.- Fleming's, Half-Moon-st.; Brown's, Howchin's, and Storey's, Dover-st.; Mackellar's and Hallam's, Albemarle-st.; Lings and Garlant's, Suffolk-st., Pall-Mall, are recommended; but houses of this class. are too numerous and varied for any limited list.
    Hotels for Foreigners.- To those who wish to be moderate in their expenses, we would mention the well-conducted house of M. de Keyser (the Royal Hotel), New Bridge-st., Blackfriars; here every guest must be introduced personally, or by letter. Rebuilt in 1873, fine situation on Thames Embankment.
    The quarter more especially devoted to French and German visitors is Leicester-square, and the vicinity of the Haymarket. The Hotel de Provence (in Leicester-square) is conducted in the Continental style. The Hotel de Versailles, 37, Gerrard-street, Soho; Hotel Previtali, Arundel-street, Coventry-street; Panton Hotel, Panton-street.
    There are many disreputable houses in this neighbour. hood, therefore travellers should be cautious not to resort to any without some reliable recommendation.

Murray's Handbook to London As It Is, 1879

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Hotels.?One of the greatest changes in London during the last score or so of years is in the matter of hotels. In proportion to its size, London is still far worse provided in this respect than most of the great Continental or American towns. Almost every great railway, however, with the exception of the Great Eastern and South Western, has now a handsome hotel in connection with its terminus, the most especially noticeable being the Gt. Western Hotel; the Grosvenor, at the Victoria Station of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, the Charing-cross Hotel, belonging to the South Eastern Company, the Greal Northern Hotel, at the gates of the Great Northern; and the gorgeous Gothic pile which forms the front of the St. Pancras (Midland) terminus. None of the hotels are at all cheap for people who do not understand hotel life but they are very convenient for the new arrival, especially at night and will probably prove quite as economical in the end as hunting about in a cab for a cheaper lodging. Indeed, we may go further, and say that it is possible, with judicious management, to live almost as cheaply at one of the large hotels as at any of the ambitious second-class houses. Other handsome establishments are Claridge?s in Brook-st, the hotel par excellence for foreign ambassadors, princes, and so forth; the Westminster Palace, close to the Houses of Parliament ; the Alexandra, over looking the park at Knightsbridge; the Langham, at the south end of Portland-place, a special American resort; the Buckingham Palace Hotel, just opposite the great ballroom window of Buckingham Palace; the St. James?s Hotel in Piccadilly, and a large number of old-fashioned family hotels in Brook-street, Bond-street, Clifford - street, Cork-street, North Burlington-street, Albemarle Street, Dover-street, .Jermyn street, &c.; at most of which will be found very first-rate accommodation at equally first-rate prices. Next comes a somewhat more moderate class, though still with excellent accommodation, such as the Norfolk, close to Paddington terminus ; Norris?s private and family hotel, at the north end of Russell-road, facing the Addison-road Station ; De Keyser?s newly-built Royal Hotel at the corner of  Blackfriars-bridge; the Inns of Court Hotel in Holborn, the rear-part of which looks on to Lincoln?s-inn?field and the Holborn Viaduct Hotel ?of Messrs. Spiers and Pond. There is also a large class of comfortable and more old-fashioned hotels, such as the Bedford, Covent Garden, for families and gentlemen; Tavistock, also in Covent Garden, for bachelors, where bed, breakfast, and attendance cost 7s. 6d and which has one of the best smoking-rooms in London. Among the cheap hotels, special reference should be made to the Arundel on the Embankment, at the foot of Arundel-street, Strand, but is of very little use to look for rooms there, unless bespoken beforehand. Nearly all the streets from the south side of the Strand are full of small private hotels, a sort of compromise between hotel and lodging-house, where the casual visitor will find himself comfortable if perhaps a little roughly quartered, and where he will be in a thoroughly central position, either for sightseeing or pleasure. Hotels on the ?Temperance? principle will be found at Shirley?s, 37, Queen?s street, Bloomsbury; Fithian?s, 17, Great Coram-street; Devonshire House, 12, Bishopsgate-street-without; Ling?s, 11, South-place, Finsbury; McEwen?s, 14, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street; Angus? 22, New Bridge-street. Foreign visitors will do well to bear in mind that the Continental custom of taking all, or the great majority of meals out of the hotel does not obtain in England, and that London hotel-keeper, under such circumstances, will consider himself ill-used. Attendance is now usually included in the bill. When this is the case, the servants invariably expect very much the same gratuity as when it was not included. But, unless you propose making a long stay, or very speedy return, it is by no means necessary to meet their views in this respect. The following are the day?s charges at the respective hotels for bedroom breakfast, with coffee and cold meat; dinner, with soup and joint; attendance, &c.:

6s.  
SOMERSET HOUSE, Strand, T.T. Hurst.
7s.  
CROWN HOTEL, 42, High Holborn, J. Smith
7s. 6d.  
APLIN, W. ,35, Arundel-street, Strand.
EASTERN, Limehouse, J.G. Paterson
HOTT, E. 53, Liverpool-street, King?s Cross.
JOSLAND?S, Falcon-street, Thos. P. Josland
KENNAN?S, 3 Crown-court, Cheapside, Rowley & Catte
THE BEAUFORT, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, C. De la Motte.
WINDSOR, 9 Queen-street-place, Southwark-bridge, J. B. Rawson
WINDSOR, 427, Strand, J. Grunfold & H. Armbruster
7s. 9d.  
BUNYER?S OLD BELL, 123 Holborn, W.M.Bunyer
7s. 10d.  
PRINCE OF WALES, Eastbourne-terrace, W. T. Grammer
8s.  
ALBION, 2 New Bridge-street, Ludgate-circus, C. Parker
DINGLEY, A. 4, Salisbury-street, Strand.
HEBDITCH, J., 200 Great Portland-street.
HOUSDEN, G., 16 & 17, King-street, Wilson-street, Finsbury-square
SWISS, Finsbury-place-south, C. Naef.
8s. 3d.  
ARMFIELD & SON, J., South-place, Finsbury.
8s. 6d.
BARNETT, MRS. 39, Craven-street, Charing ?cross
BUECKERS, Finsbury-square, G. Hohly.
CATHEDRAL, St. Paul?s-churchyard, F. J. Sweeting
DUKE OF EDINBURGH, Salisbury-square, W.M.Ford
JOHNSTON?S, Salisbury-street, Strand, T. Williams
WHITE SWAN, High-street, Deptford, Fredk. Morgan.
8s. 9d.  
FIRTH?S, Salisbury-st, Strand. J.C. Firth
9s.  
SARACEN?S HEAD, Snow-hill, M.H. Woodhill.
9s. 6d.
QUEEN?S, St. Martin?s-le-Grand, W. Q. East.
RAYMENT?S, 18 London-wall, Fred. Rayment.
RIDLERS, Holborn-hill, E. Ellis
THREE NUNS, High-street, Aldgate, Samuel East.
WEST KENSINGTON, Russell-road, W. Boyd.
10s.  
AKER?S, 59, Liverpool-street, King?s Cross, E. Holder.
BACON?S CENTRAL, Gt. Queen-street, T. Bacon
BATH AND CHELTENHAM, 23, London-street, Paddington, J. B. Hudson.
BRIDGE HOUSE, London-bridge, J. Spencer
NORFOLK-SQUARE, London-street, Paddington.
ROYAL EXETER, West Strand, E. Nelson Haxell.
10s. 6d.  
ALEXANDRA, Clapham, J. du Jardin
BARRETT?S, Cecil-street, Strand, M. Barrett.
BEDFORD, Covent-garden, Ann Warner
COVENT-GARDEN, Southampton-street, Strand. A Mellon.
LANCELOT, E. M. 39, Jerymn-street.
THE HUMMUMS, Covent-garden, R. Ganham
WESTERN COUNTIES, 8, London-street, Paddington. J. Headon
11s.
DURRANT?S, George-st., Portman-square, Charles Arnell.
ROY?S, 34, Lower Brook-street, Grosvenor-square, R. Roy.
TERMINUS, London-bridge, A. Gearing
WALDUCK?S BEDFORD, 95, Southampton-row, Russell-square
11s. 6d.  
CRAVEN, 46, Craven-street, A. Warner
EUSTON HOTEL, H. Taylor.
TAVISTOCK, Covent-garden, Harrison and Joy.
UNITED, Charles-st., St. James?, Miss Sommers.
12s.  
BRITISH, Cockspur-st., Charing-cross, E. H. Meyer
BRITISH, 83, Jermyn-street, George Evans.
GOLDEN CROSS, Charing-cross, J. R. and R. Sinclair
QUEEN?S, Upper Norwood, M.A. Masterman
12s. 6d.  
GROSVENOR, 91, Buckingham-palace-road.
INNS OF COURT, Holborn, W. Gosden.
ROYAL CRYSTAL PALACE, Upper Norwood, A. Burton.
WESTMINSTER PALACE, Victoria-street.
13s.  
BRADLEY, M.S. 85, Jerymn-street.
BURLINGTON, Cork-street, H. Holl, Manager.
DIEUDONNE, J., 11, Ryder-street, S.W.
13s. 6d.  
GREAT WESTERN, London Terminus, Geo. A. Miller.
14s.  
GREAT NORTHERN, King?s Cross, X. Meyer.
MIDLAND GRAND, St. Pancras, R. Etzensberger.
THE QUEEN?S, Richmond-hill, J. Fanwin.
14s 6d.  
LANGHAM, Portland-place, P. Blades.
THE ALEXANDRA, St. George?s-place, Hyde-Park-corner, W. Niebecker.
15s. 6d.  
LONG?S, New Bond-street, Clifford-street, H. J. Herbandt.  

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879