Churchill wouldn’t recognise favourite rooms at hotel

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 31

Churchill wouldn’t recognise favourite rooms at hotel

By

STEPHEN HUGHES

of Reuter (through NZPA) Marrakesh Sir Winston Churchill would not recognise his favourite rooms at the Mamounia Hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco. They have been transformed into a palatial suite with luxury furnishings including a life-size porcelain bulldog beside the bed in memory of the wartime British Prime Minister, who died in 1965.

It is one of 49 suites in a hotel transformed by a multi-million-dollar facelift into what its owners say is now “one of the most magnificent hotels in the world” and by far the most luxurious in Africa.

The suites are in artdeco style, recalling the 1930 s when the hotel was first built. There is a profusion of brocades,

taffeta and satin drapes, crystal chandeliers, marble jacuzzi baths with gold-plated fittings, and four-poster beds fit for princesses.

New features Churchill never saw include a lavish casino as big as three tennis courts, a large artdeco ballroom, a sophisticated nightclub organised by the Parisian entertainer, Regine, and several exclusive villas with entrances hidden in the garden’s foliage.

Built 53 years ago, the Mamounia had become somewhat down at heel. Desert dust had faded the Moorish decorations, the floors creaked and the plumbing was cranky.

But it was still patronised by the rich and famous — emirs, princes, dukes, Rothschilds and Rockefellers attracted by its incomparable setting inside the red ramparts of Marrakesh, a city founded by desert warriors 900

years ago. Everywhere there are old photographs of Churchill painting in the hotel gardens planted with date palms, olive, orange and jacaranda trees, against a backdrop of snow-capped Atlas mountains. Bert Flint, a Dutch expert in Moorish arts who has lived for 30 years in the labyrinth of the old city, confesses that he heard of plans to renovate the Mamounia with “considerable misgivings.” But most guests were surprised to find that the general atmosphere was little changed. The thick-pile carpets, cedarwood and plaster carvings, and multi-col-oured mosaics are much the same and an elegant Andalusian patio has been added with a gurgling fountain surrounded by a marble colonnade.

The manager, Mr Jacques Bouriot, has a

staff of nearly 600 to run his establishment of 179 rooms, including 47 security officers. “We have to keep an eye on our guests’ tiaras,” one of them said.

The renovation took 150 days, involving 3500 workers day and night and 6200 at peak periods supervised by Andre Paccard, a French decorator who built an eighth royal palace for King Hassan on the ocean at Agadir.

The cost of the work is the talk of the town. Unofficial estimates range from SUS 47 to SUS 73 million (S94M to SI46M). When asked, officials have the same reply: “That is the sort of question we don’t answer.”

The prices of rooms and services have been tripled, but since a room now costs SUS2OO a night guests said it compared very favourably with firstrank luxury hotels in Europe or the United States.