Camden War Feature 70 Years On: Joseph nathaniel Lyons | J Lyon & Co | Strand Palace Hotel London | Claridges

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Camden New Journal - FEATURE - War 70 Years On
Published: 5 November 2009

The Original Strand Palace Hotel Key

Hotel in the Strand –where the war-weary could relax

JOSEPH Nathaniel Lyons made his fortune through a large catering company popularised around the turn of the 19th century for a chain of tea rooms in the West End.
Sipping tea from fine china in a J Lyons & Co “corner house” was considered the height of sophistication and became big business for the firm that won permission to open a “grand hotel” in the Strand in 1909.
It was the start of a fascinating 100-year history of the Strand Palace Hotel, which reopened during the build-up to the Second World War as an Art Deco showcase boasting 980 bedrooms.
Refurbished with the trappings of the First World War, including coal-fired steam boilers salvaged from battleships, the grand entrance edged a battle for supremacy with rivals Claridges and the Savoy.
The glamorous venue became popular with American forces arriving in London before being sent into action, and the hotel was commissioned as an official US “rest and recuperation residence”.
The Strand Palace became an important venue, as Londoners and war-weary soldiers found some light relief jiving and the jitterbugging their troubles away at under the tall mirrors and glistening chandeliers of the ballroom.
Over the years, many of those service personnel have returned to relive their memories and families and relatives still visit the Strand Palace Hotel.
TOM FOOT

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