NEWEST U.K. HOTEL

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30113, 23 April 1963, Page 7

NEWEST U.K. HOTEL

31 Storeys In West End

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) LONDON, April 22. Britain’s tallest, newest, and most controversial hotel, the £8 million London Hilton, went into business this week in London's West End. Towering 31 storeys over London’s most exclusive residential area, the hotel will be opened by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Reginald Maudling).

The hotel’s spectacular rise of 300 ft above Park Lane and Hyde Park has not been with-' out setbacks.

The builders had hardly donned Overalls before objec-

tions were raised in Parliament that it would invade the privacy of the Queen in nearby Buckingham Palace. It does, but the Queen now walks in more secluded parts of her gardens and it is impossible to see into the palace windows. A Palace official has tried it to make sure.

The completed hotel boasts "hot, cold and iced water” in every room, five restaurants, a ballroom the si2e of an aeroplane hangar, and service which provides, among other things, wheelchairs and blood plasma.

The bedrooms are divided into English and French categories. The English have twin beds and the Frehch double beds. The 850-guest hotel was -built by the property millionaire, Mr Charles Clore, to be operated by the American Conrad Hilton Organisation.