In May of 2005 I was paying a visit to Folkestone, and joined the Folkestone Local History Society.  As luck would have it, they had a tour planned of the Grand Hotel on the Leas, so I jumped at the chance to join them.

Now, having a very bad memory, and as it is now August when I am looking at these photos again, I doubt I will remember very much of what we were told about the hotel, so will show you the photos, and you can fill in the history yourself! :-)
This handsome fellow is a griffin who adorns the staircase.
A beautiful chandelier, glad I don't have to clean it!
Look up to see this amazing skylight, and on an internal bridge is their crest which reflects the royal patronage they used to have.
Views from the magnificent ballroom, these walls are hand painted showing Folkestone in the 20's
This is a photo of a photo on the wall there.  There used to be daily coach & horse runs from The Grand to Canterbury.
Looking out to sea
Looking across to the Metropole
Looking through to lobby area
Keppel's Bar, named of course after Alice Keppel, mistress to King Edward V11, who frequented this hotel often, either with Alice, or his wife Queen Alexandra - or both at once!  If you would like to read about the life of Alice Keppel, who happened to be the great grandmother of Camilla Parker Bowles,  I found this interesting page on her HERE and urge you to check it out.
Sorry about the quality of some of these photos, I was having a lot of trouble with my flash that day.
The hotel was undergoing considerable construction while we were there, and the higher we got, the more the construction seemed to be going on, but it was obvious that it was going to be absolutely gorgeous when it is finished.

We were then invited to go up onto the roof of the building.  When we got up there, my first thought was that if the hotel's insurance company had known about it, they would have had a blue fit!  There we were, about 60 of us, youngest of whom was about  55 at the most, all on this roof, which was littered with construction material, and absolutely nothing to stop one from dropping off the edge!  Not being great with heights, I was more than a little nervous, but was very glad I went up there just because of the view from up there.  Here are a few of the pictures I took:
We ended our very interesting tour with a drink at the bar, and it was quite dark by the time we left, but managed to get this final shot which was lit up.  You can see how proud they are of their VIP adulterers can't you? :-)

In fairness though, it was quite normal in those days for the aristocracy to have both a respectable wife and several mistresses throughout the course of the marriage.  It was not hidden from view, and the mistress was treated with great respect, and even though she was not liked, she was tolerated by the wife.  Mind you, I read on the above mentioned website that although Queen Alexandra allowed Alice into the room when he was dying, because he asked for her, the moment he took his last breath, she had her thrown out, and she was not even allowed to sign the book of condolences.
Click your back button to return to the Hotels page
Home