Regent Palace Hotel, London , 1915-2006

Designed by architects Henry Tanner, F.J. Wills and W.J. Ancell, the Regent Palace Hotel was built in 1914 on Glasshouse Street, Piccadilly Circus, and at the time of its opening on 16 May 1915 was the largest hotel in Europe with 1028 bedrooms. Initially the responsibility of Morris Salmon, the hotel later came under the remit of Douglas Gluckstein and Rex Joseph, with Mr Frederichs and Mr Delaloye forming part of the management team.

At its height, the hotel employed more than 1000 staff, some of which were accommodated in the adjacent Annexe and its 160 bedrooms. This building also contained a complete laundry service for all of the Strand group hotels in London, and was linked to the main building by a bridge and underground passage constructed in the 1930s. The Regent Palace Hotel additionally supplied meat to all the Strand hotels and Cornerhouses in the form of pre-cut steaks which were butchered onsite in specially designed kitchens in the basement of the hotel.

During the First World War, the hotel's accommodation was requisitioned by the government, and later in the Second World War, two separate bombs caused minor damage to the building, including the staff Annexe.

The hotel was owned and operated by Strand Hotels Limited, a subsidiary of J. Lyons and Company Limited, until 1977 when the Stand Hotels group was acquired by Trusthouse Forte. It was subsequently run by Grenada, Compass and Travel Lodge, and finally closed in December 2006.