Living in Hotels: Brown’s in London, the Savoy in Cheltenham. A Memoir, by Helen Wallimann

1929-1942, a Swiss country boy, trained as a banker, works his way up in the hotel business at Brown’s Hotel, London. He saves the Prince of Wales Hotel from bankruptcy and survives the Blitz with wife and two children. He becomes the manager of Brown’s Hotel.

1942-45, childhood memories of Brown’s Hotel: sirens and a luxury air raid shelter; a princess; pelicans and tramps in Green Park; bonfire smoke and gas masks; V for Victory.

1945, relatives and chewing gum in Lucerne. The Wallimans buy the Savoy Hotel in Cheltenham. A history and a tour of the building.

1945-1950s, memories of beetles in the basement, of attics full of Christmas decorations and trunks with exotic stickers, of cellars filled with furniture, giant jars of eggs in lime water, the statue of a naked woman. Six children trying not to be noisy, making themselves useful in hotel and garden, in quarantine with measles and other diseases. Nannies. Welcome visitors from abroad. Ordinary guests and celebrities. Long-stay residents: the Lively Lady with Intellectual Aspirations, the Prince of Chess, the Archdeacon’s Widow, the Gentleman who bought Racehorses, the Colonial Colonel and his Artistic Wife, etc. Employees and their work: housekeepers, linen keepers, office staff, chambermaids, porters, waiters and waitresses, dishwashers, gardeners.

1952, the family moves to a house in the garden, the hotel gets a bar and a grill room.

1960s, addition of a lift and further bedrooms.

1970s, the second generation takes over.

1985, the hotel is sold.

August 2022, 141pp, illustrated paperback, £12.95, ISBN 978-1-914407-37-6