Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Seen in Downtown Cairo : Grand Hotel's Art Deco building "Updated"

Seen in Cairo's Downtown: The other Real Grand hotel in Downtown Cairo of Egypt.

Grand Hotel in Downtown Cairo
Grand Hotel in Downtown Cairo 
A 3-stars hotel, Grand Hotel is known for its unique Art Deco architecture style. Some say it was inaugurated in 1950 while others say it was open for business in 1939. 

Further evidence found below may prove it was inaugurated in 1939 for real.

The name of Grand hotel became a popular one due to the success of Egyptian TV series "Grand Hotel", which is based upon a Spanish TV series with the same name.
"Both are available on Netflix and both are good" 

There is not much information about the hotel and its owners except that it is a 3-stars hotel.

Still, I stumbled by coincidence in Pinterest on Grand Hotel of Cairo's Luggage label and it is mesmerizing at least for me.

Grand Hotel Cairo luggage label
Grand Hotel Cairo luggage label
I found it at Cooper Hewitt Collection. You can see it featured Egypt's old flag during the monarchy.

This found made me search for luggage labels of Cairo Grand Hotel and I stumbled into another one.
Grand Hotel of Cairo old luggage label
Found it on Collectables website Worth Point, this luggage label is dated to be from the 1940s-1950s.
Now judging from the foreign looking officer depicted on the label, I would say it was during World War II.

Interestingly, I found out that there were at least two other Grand Hotels operating for sometime in Egypt.

The first one was the Grand Hotel Assouan which I found more info about in the amazing Grand Hotels of Egypt website. It did not survive beyond 1985 according to the information available on Grand hotels of Egypt blog.
Grand Hotel Assouan luggage label 
"Getty" 
Grand Hotel Assouan is not the Old Cataract Hotel. There is a huge misconception because "Grand Hotel" TV show was filmed in Old Cataract.

The second one is the other lost Grand Hotel Helaun that used to be one of Egypt's oldest hotels.
Grand Hotel Helouan luggage label
Grand Hotel Helouan luggage label 
It was operating in Egypt in 1888 as Westerners discovered Cairo's suburb Helwan and its thermal basin

Untitled
Grand Hotel Helouan 
 Helwan lost its natural thermal basins and its resort natural as it became an industrial city since the 1960s, the hotel became a high school.
A postcard showing the Grand Hotel of Helouan in the 19th century
A postcard showing the Grand Hotel of Helouan in the 19th century 
Here is a photo from 1906 for the hotel turned into a school.
Grand hotel of Helouan
A photo showing the hotel in its golden days 
"MENA House hotel on Pinterest" 

1 comment:

  1. You should have a place to "Tweet" the photos, then I would do so. Nice from years past for it's day.

    ReplyDelete

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