The Peninsula Hotel, its grand entrance and colonial façade supplemented by a modern thirty-storey structure and a heliport, is a Hong Kong institution. Opened in December 1928 in Kowloon, it is the city’s oldest surviving historical hotel, and has played host to everyone from Clark Gable to Imelda Marcos.
The Peninsula Hotel Has a Difficult Start
Luxury hotels were in short supply in Hong Kong in the years following the First World War. A growing number of well-heeled travellers were heading east, and needed somewhere inviting to stay. Hong Kong’s Culture magazine notes in its October-November 2008 issue celebrating the hotel’s eightieth anniversary that the idea for a grand hotel was put forward in 1921, although it took some time for the idea to come to fruition.
Spiralling costs and political instability on the Chinese mainland delayed things considerably, with a general strike in June 1926 halting construction completely. Turbulence continued the following year, as the Chinese civil war gained momentum. The half-finished building was commandeered by the British army in 1927 to house reinforcements sent out to maintain order.
The army’s departure in April 1928 heralded a flurry of building work, and the building was finally ready. It had four hundred rooms on six floors, seven elevators, and a ballroom large enough for a thousand dancers. The opening gala, attended by the Governor W. T. Southorn, was the social event of the year.
Hong Kong’s Premier Luxury Hotel
Aside from the dark days of World War Two, when the hotel was taken over by the Japanese military, the Peninsula has set a standard for luxurious accommodation ever since. Germany’s Business Traveller magazine voted it the Best Hotel Worldwide in its Business Travel Awards 2007, while Australia’s Luxury Travel & Style magazine voted it the Best Overseas Hotel in its Gold Awards 2009.
Over the years the hotel has played host to the rich and famous from around the world. Everyone from Cary Grant to Marlon Brando, Noel Coward to Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor to Princess Diana, has stayed here. Charlie Chaplin never left the hotel during his 1967 stay for the making of his film The Countess from Hong Kong. It was, as Michael Ingham in his book Hong Kong: A Cultural and Literary History says, “a recommendation in its own way.”
The company behind the hotel has grown to encompass luxury hotels in eight cities, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Beijing, Bangkok, Manila and Tokyo, as well as Hong Kong. A new hotel is to open in Shanghai in 2009.
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