Latest news with #Metropole
Indian Express
03-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Metropole: House of luxury to enemy property to now a parking lot, Nainital hotel's inheritance of loss
Last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs temporarily allotted Nainital's Metropole Hotel Complex — classified as enemy property — to the state government for use as a parking facility. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had requested the allotment in light of the serious parking issues in the popular hill station. Built in 1880, Metropole was owned by the Raja of Mahmudabad and is one of the oldest luxury hotels in Nainital. This is where Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his wife Rattanbai honeymooned in 1918. The design of its roof came to be known as Nainital-pattern-roofing, which the British then used in many buildings across India. However, the hotel was later classified as enemy property, setting in motion its slow decline. After Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan, the Raja of Mahmudabad, moved to Pakistan post Partition, his considerable properties in north India, including the 11-acre Nainital hotel, were declared enemy property. His son and heir Mohammad Amir Khan, who remained in India, fought a 30-year-long legal battle for the properties, and eventually secured a favourable Supreme Court order in 2005. However, his win opened the floodgates for similar litigation across the country, with genuine or purported relatives of people who had migrated to Pakistan producing deeds of gift claiming they were the rightful owners of enemy properties. On July 2, 2010, the UPA government promulgated an ordinance that restrained courts from ordering the government to divest enemy properties from the Custodian. The 2005 SC order was thus rendered ineffective. Hosting history Metropole, says historian and former professor Dr Ajay Rawat, was frequented by tall figures of history. 'Pandit Rahul Sanskrityayan, who was an exceptional scholar with proficiency in almost 11 languages, stayed there and wrote his famous work, Kumaun. Historian Dr Satyaketu Vidyalankar briefly maintained it,' he said. Speaking of his time in the hotel when he was eight years old, historian and former JNU professor Pushpesh Pant said that in 1953, the hotel was managed by a Parsi man, Shapoorji. 'I still remember the luxury we had in Metropole. It was an extension of your home. We had our meals in the suite we were occupying, and it was brilliant. It had four tennis courts, a billiards room, and a reading room. I was too young to realise that the hotel was already starting to show signs of wear and tear,' he said. The next time he visited Nainital, in 1960, the hotel's fortunes were dipping. People had started encroaching on the grounds of the property. 'When Nainital became a destination for films, several actors would stay at the Metropole. Actors Shashi Kapoor, Dev Anand, and their crew have stayed there. The cast of films like Gumrah also stayed there. Till the mid-60s, the hotel was catering to guests. After this, the perception of 'enemy property' made people wary of investing in its maintenance,' Pant says. Another reason for its fall is the change in the tourists themselves, Pant believes. 'After the departure of the Europeans, no one would pay to stay in a hotel to play billiards or go to a bar. They would rather go out. Soon, the hotel's sprawling grounds began to be used as a parking space. This is the connecting link to the present developments,' he says. Pant also said that after the 2010 ordinance, the government could have taken up the hotel as a heritage building. 'The saddest part is that the bureaucracy wants to demolish heritage buildings and give contracts to somebody. Before this, Post Office Tallital was to be demolished to widen a road.' In her book Mr and Mrs Jinnah, Sheela Reddy hints at the time the couple stayed in Nainital. 'As on this first evening of her honeymoon, coming down to dinner with the Raja of Mahmudabad's family in his palatial residence in Lucknow. She was dressed unexceptionally—underdressed, in fact, for a newly-wed—in a plain white sari with a black and gold embroidered border, and with no trace of the shy, demure bride. Jinnah had accepted Mahmudabad's invitation to visit them in Lucknow before driving to Nainital, where they would stay for a month in the Raja's house in the hill station,' she writes of Rattanbai, also known as Ruttie. Legal battles In 2023, the SDM of Nainital served notices to people living near the hotel, calling them encroachers on enemy property. The residents moved the High Court, claiming they had been living in the property's outhouses since the time of their forefathers. However, the court held that the property is required for developing a parking lot, 'which is a crying need for the town of Nainital'. The future plan According to the Nainital administration, the parking lot will have a surface parking facility to accommodate 510 cars and 200 two-wheelers. 'A DPR has been prepared, estimating the value of the project to be Rs 43.83 crore. However, a matter to be noted is that the parking lot will not function at 100 per cent potential because Nainital sees tourists for six months,' said an official. He further said that the property is not a heritage property, and no demand has been raised to categorise it as such. 'The accommodation of historical figures alone cannot fulfil heritage norms. This move will help reduce the congestion in the city and ensure the lives of locals are not disrupted. The hotel is a dilapidated structure and was a garbage dumping ground,' he added. Aiswarya Raj is a correspondent with The Indian Express who covers South Haryana. An alumna of Asian College of Journalism and the University of Kerala, she started her career at The Indian Express as a sub-editor in the Delhi city team. In her current position, she reports from Gurgaon and covers the neighbouring districts. She likes to tell stories of people and hopes to find moorings in narrative journalism. ... Read More
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
During the Vietnam War, this luxury hotel sheltered celebs like Joan Baez and Jane Fonda from US air raids
Hanoi's Metropole Hotel sits imposingly on a corner in the city center, bright white with neat black shutters. As guests pull up in front of the French Colonial building, they are greeted by staff members wearing chic silk tunics. Framed photos throughout the lobby show some of the hotel's most famous guests, from French presidents Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac to the writer Graham Greene, actress Jane Fonda and silent film star Charlie Chaplin. In 2019, the Metropole hosted US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a summit. But below the elegant tile floors, there's another, darker layer of history. As Vietnam marks the 50th anniversary of reunification this week, the hotel — now called the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi — is highlighting its war heritage. April 30, 2025 marks half a century since the the fall of Saigon and the helicopter evacuation of US ambassador Graham Martin, ending what Americans call the Vietnam War and what Vietnamese call the American War. While most of the big, formal anniversary events like a military parade and a new airport terminal opening will be held in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Hanoi, as Vietnam's capital, has plenty of its own history to share. The Metropole opened in 1901 when Vietnam was under French control. It passed through multiple owners until it was taken over by the Communist government in the 1950s and renamed the Reunification Hotel. It was one of the few hotels allowed to house foreign visitors during the war, so many famous politicians, journalists and artists passed through. In 1965, the hotel built an underground bunker where guests could shelter during US air raids. According to hotel manager Anthony Slewka, the space could hold about 100 people — roughly the same as the number of guests — and was divided into four chambers with two access points. After the war, the bunker was forgotten — until 2011, when a contracting company remodeling the hotel's Bamboo Bar re-discovered it. Now, the Metropole offers two daily tours of the bunker to hotel guests at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. While in the bunker, visitors can see original light bulbs and other fixtures while listening to the Joan Baez song 'Where Are You Now, My Son?,' which she recorded while staying at the Metropole. The song incorporates music, spoken word, clips of a Vietnamese woman crying out for her son, and the sound of air raid sirens. Baez spent time in the bunker during her Vietnam visits and has spoken about how seeing the war's effect on people made her a peace activist. Travelers to Hanoi who want to learn more about the war era can also visit the Hoa Lo Prison, where American prisoners of war — including, famously, the late Senator John McCain — were held. Nicknamed 'the Hanoi Hilton,' it has been converted into a multimedia history museum and has extensive English-language materials. Meanwhile, Hanoi's Vietnam Military History Museum is the largest museum in the country following an upgrade in fall 2024. The outdoor section displays planes, tanks, rockets and artillery that were used by the American military during the war. The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary who led the North Vietnamese army and became the president of Vietnam, is on public display at a large building in central Hanoi. The mausoleum is just a short walk from the Presidential Palace complex, which features a traditional wooden stilt house he lived in. These days, Americans comprise the largest group of visitors to the Metropole, says hotel manager Slewka. Some are veterans of the war and want to come back to see the country again, but others are young people of the post-war period who are simply interested in Vietnam's food, culture and scenery. According to Vietnamese government data, the US is the fourth largest source of international tourists and the largest market outside of Asia, with 717,000 American tourists traveling to Vietnam in 2023. While the Metropole's bunker tours prove popular with guests, Slewka says that the majority of their questions are about much more than the structure itself. 'Mostly, they want to know if they like Americans here or not.' Slewka, who was born in the US and raised in Canada, always gives the same answer. 'Vietnamese people are very forward-facing. They are looking to the future.'
CNN
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
During the Vietnam War, this luxury hotel sheltered celebs like Joan Baez and Jane Fonda from US air raids
Hanoi's Metropole Hotel sits imposingly on a corner in the city center, bright white with neat black shutters. As guests pull up in front of the French Colonial building, they are greeted by staff members wearing chic silk tunics. Framed photos throughout the lobby show some of the hotel's most famous guests, from French presidents Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac to the writer Graham Greene, actress Jane Fonda and silent film star Charlie Chaplin. In 2019, the Metropole hosted US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a summit. But below the elegant tile floors, there's another, darker layer of history. As Vietnam marks the 50th anniversary of reunification this week, the hotel — now called the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi — is highlighting its war heritage. April 30, 2025 marks half a century since the the fall of Saigon and the helicopter evacuation of US ambassador Graham Martin, ending what Americans call the Vietnam War and what Vietnamese call the American War. While most of the big, formal anniversary events like a military parade and a new airport terminal opening will be held in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Hanoi, as Vietnam's capital, has plenty of its own history to share. The Metropole opened in 1901 when Vietnam was under French control. It passed through multiple owners until it was taken over by the Communist government in the 1950s and renamed the Reunification Hotel. It was one of the few hotels allowed to house foreign visitors during the war, so many famous politicians, journalists and artists passed through. In 1965, the hotel built an underground bunker where guests could shelter during US air raids. According to hotel manager Anthony Slewka, the space could hold about 100 people — roughly the same as the number of guests — and was divided into four chambers with two access points. After the war, the bunker was forgotten — until 2011, when a contracting company remodeling the hotel's Bamboo Bar re-discovered it. Now, the Metropole offers two daily tours of the bunker to hotel guests at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. While in the bunker, visitors can see original light bulbs and other fixtures while listening to the Joan Baez song 'Where Are You Now, My Son?,' which she recorded while staying at the Metropole. The song incorporates music, spoken word, clips of a Vietnamese woman crying out for her son, and the sound of air raid sirens. Baez spent time in the bunker during her Vietnam visits and has spoken about how seeing the war's effect on people made her a peace activist. Travelers to Hanoi who want to learn more about the war era can also visit the Hoa Lo Prison, where American prisoners of war — including, famously, the late Senator John McCain — were held. Nicknamed 'the Hanoi Hilton,' it has been converted into a multimedia history museum and has extensive English-language materials. Meanwhile, Hanoi's Vietnam Military History Museum is the largest museum in the country following an upgrade in fall 2024. The outdoor section displays planes, tanks, rockets and artillery that were used by the American military during the war. The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary who led the North Vietnamese army and became the president of Vietnam, is on public display at a large building in central Hanoi. The mausoleum is just a short walk from the Presidential Palace complex, which features a traditional wooden stilt house he lived in. These days, Americans comprise the largest group of visitors to the Metropole, says hotel manager Slewka. Some are veterans of the war and want to come back to see the country again, but others are young people of the post-war period who are simply interested in Vietnam's food, culture and scenery. According to Vietnamese government data, the US is the fourth largest source of international tourists and the largest market outside of Asia, with 717,000 American tourists traveling to Vietnam in 2023. While the Metropole's bunker tours prove popular with guests, Slewka says that the majority of their questions are about much more than the structure itself. 'Mostly, they want to know if they like Americans here or not.' Slewka, who was born in the US and raised in Canada, always gives the same answer. 'Vietnamese people are very forward-facing. They are looking to the future.'
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The ghostly allure of Dungeness, Kent
'It's a Marmite place, you either love it or hate it,' says the lady making us coffee at Ness Café, as we gaze across the flat, arid landscape that is Dungeness beach, a chunk of Arizona on the Kent coast. Certainly it's not for everyone. Some find it too bleak, depressing even. Others lean into it, the endless stretch of shingle and the looming presence of a nuclear power station at the southern end that lends a distinctly apocalyptic feel. Throw in the surreal afterthought of a miniature railway that runs across the beach and there really is nowhere else quite like it. The place has long been an inspiration for artists, photographers, architects and writers, drawn by the otherworldly atmosphere, the strange clash of styles and the shifting blue-grey light. It drew me a couple of years ago, when I decided it would make a great setting for a key scene in my psychological thriller. My two main characters end up at the Metropole, an entirely fictional hotel that I wish existed: a forlorn art-deco gem crouching on the shore near the lighthouse. As the fog sets in, a mysterious widower confesses more than he should to his ghostwriter about the mysterious circumstances of his wife's death. It felt like the right place to dial up the romantic suspense. Our brief stay is distinctly less gothic. We start with lunch at the Dungeness Snack Shack on the beach: fat juicy prawns, fried fish in flatbread, red cabbage slaw, fried potatoes (nothing so obvious as chips here), scallops and halloumi taste sublime in the sea air, even more so at less than a tenner a head. We walk past the mishmash of cottages and cabins – everywhere you look it's Martin Parr meets Architectural Digest; next to the bright green bungalow with a St George flag and washing line out front, there's a black, midcentury cube with floor-to-ceiling glass. Found objects, pebble sculptures, piles of fishing nets, rusting machinery and boats abandoned far from sea all add to a sense of mystery; what has been left to gently decay, and what has been lovingly curated? We head to the Pilot Inn for a pint, its retro pine-clad interior already packed by 6pm with locals tucking into generous portions of fish and chips, 'the best in England', according to the late filmmaker Derek Jarman, whose rustic former home, Prospect Cottage, overlooks the beach. As we walk across the shingle, the rolling fog I imagined in my book puts in an appearance. Ahead of us is the flashing beam of the lighthouse shrouded in sea mist. We follow the straight line of the miniature railway track, slightly spooked by the eerie whistling sound and a low hum from the nuclear power station. We make it back across the marshland to our home for the night, West Cottage, one of two former lighthouse keepers' homes, at the foot of the original Dungeness lighthouse which was built in the 18th century. Like most of the properties around here, there's an interesting history. West Cottage, dating back to 1843, was bought by artist, sculptor and photographer Martin Turner in the 1990s. When his daughter, Kathryn, inherited it, she embarked on a meticulous renovation. There are lovely touches throughout the house, from the reclaimed floorboards to the brass taps and the striking Spanish floor tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. We cook a meal and cosy up for the evening with a roaring wood-burning stove. The next day, we pack up and head to Camber Sands. Less than 20 minutes along the coast it could be a different state, like leaving Arizona for the Hamptons. Here the coastline softens, the sea is bluer, the surf whiter and the shingle turns to swirls of creamy sand dunes, overlooked by pretty clapboard houses. Just nearby is Harry's, a restaurant that opened a few months ago and is part of the Gallivant, a boutique hotel a few yards from the beach. A pretty, conservatory-style dining room with white wicker chairs and walls lined with framed vintage swimwear looks out on to a small courtyard. The lunch menu feels like good value at £29 for two courses, but we've worked up an appetite after a walk on the beach and opt for three courses at £35. With ex-Bibendum chef Matthew Harris as lead chef here, we can't resist the Maldon oysters, suitably elemental with a zing of sauce mignonette (vinegar, minced shallots and pepper). The local fish – hake today – caught from Rye Bay is the perfect foil to the anise of the fennel and spiced red cabbage purée. There's also an impressive range of English wines on the menu including a crisp, dry East Sussex sparkling white from Oxney Organic Estate. The highlight is sharing an old-school Armagnac prune crème brûlée and vanilla ice-cream served as it should be, in a silver coupe with chocolate sauce to pour over. Before we leave, we walk into Rye and its picture-perfect Mermaid Street, a steep incline of cobbled lanes and half-timbered houses. It's undeniably pretty, but for me it doesn't quite pass the Marmite test. Give me the ghostly fog and bleak desolation of Dungeness any day. West Cottage sleeps four in two bedrooms and is available from £981 for five nights. For more details, go to Emma Cook's novel You Can't Hurt Me is out now in paperback and is published by Orion at £10.99. Buy it for £9.89 at
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From Blackpool to Play School: Johnny Ball on his days as a ‘bag of nerves' comic
After spending the summer as a Redcoat, I arrived at Butlin's Metropole hotel in Blackpool. As I walked in, the entertainments manager asked, without hesitation, 'Can you do an act?' 'No,' I said. 'Shit,' he said, and the tale unravelled. The summer Reds had gone and we were starting up the winter season. But the hotel had no lull between summer and winter. There were guests who needed entertaining, but with whom? Principal comedian Freddie Davies was on honeymoon and a second comic hadn't yet arrived. 'Are you sure you don't do an act?' asked Vince in desperation. 'Well, I do know an act!' I said. 'Great,' said Vince, 'you're doing it tonight.' For the past two seasons, playing drums for the Redcoat Show, I had watched Ricky McCabe's very funny, never-changing comedy spot around 60 times. Of course, I knew every word. It opened with, 'Hello there. Will the lady with the lucky ticket come up and get me?' So, that very Friday night, having no option, being the only person available, I was top of the bill. I was very nervous, but once the first few gags had got laughs, I relaxed, and it went quite well. 'Fabulous,' said Vince, 'same again tomorrow night!' I pleaded no, but, of course, the guests changed over on Saturday so I would have a totally new audience. This time, with more confidence, it went very well indeed. Right after the show, one of the girls came up and said, 'Great spot, Johnny. Oh, the new Redcoat has just arrived – he says he knows you. His name is Ricky McCabe!' I was rooted to the spot in shock. But, plucking up courage, I rushed into the lounge to find Ricky. 'Hello, mate,' he cried, grinning from ear to ear. With no sign of a smile, I guided him to a table and said, 'Ricky, I've got to tell you something terrible. I've just done your act.' The smile drained from his face! I quickly explained that I hadn't volunteered to do it. They had nobody else, and I had admitted that I knew his act, having watched it so often from my drums. Ricky went through the act, and I confirmed, 'Yes, I did that. Yep, that too.' I had missed nothing. Ricky was in complete shock. After a few 'bloody hells!' or similar, he resigned himself to the situation and started to work out what he would do for an act the next night, with me trying to help. In a couple of days, Ricky had forgiven me. As a team, we all became great friends at the Metropole and Ricky helped me write my very first comedy act. I had been collecting gags by the hundred since I was 11, but jokes in a book do not make an act. It was Ricky and his experience which solved this problem. As a comedian, you have to explain in the first instant just what kind of person you are. I was incredibly nervous and unsure of myself, so that had to be the tack. Ricky suggested I carry a brown paper bag, slightly inflated, and arrive on stage visibly shaking. At the microphone, I would say, 'Hello. I'd like to start by, er, start. I'd like to commence. First of all, I'd like to say, to start, er, first of all!' Then I would stop and point at the quivering bag and say, 'Bag of nerves!' It always got the laugh and often applause and I would throw the bag into the wings and come back smiling. The ice was broken and away I went. I soon became known as 'Bag of Nerves'! Slowly, I learned the tricks of keeping the audience on side and building a rapport with them. This change of fortune arrived when I learned to relax and appeared to be enjoying the audience's company from the first minute. My style became one of almost asking the audience for their approval before I could carry on. I would soon slip in a slightly bluer joke and immediately ask for their approval. So, rather like Max Miller, I was apparently giving the audience what they were asking for and only ever as rude as they wanted me to be. Bob Monkhouse first saw me working a big rough club in Manchester. He arrived looking very out of place in his dress suit with tissues tucked around his neck to stop the makeup reaching his Persil-white collar. He caught me as I came offstage and complimented me on my timing and the fresh new style I was developing. Bob was the greatest comedy technician I would ever see – the consummate master. From Bob, I learned that when you are coming to a major punchline, you make sure you are moving towards the audience on the tag, or lighting up your face, or changing it to a frown – anything with a dynamic impact. This learning process wasn't about stealing – it was about learning the many ways that a performance can be improved and adapted. In late 1964 (still my first year as a professional), the agent Mike Hughes called his four principal comedians to Liverpool for a photocall. He had marketed us as the Liverpool Comedy Wave and it worked, even though only one of us hailed from Merseyside. Besides myself, there was my old Butlin's mate Freddie Davies, Mike Burton and Mike Newman. All three had appeared on Opportunity Knocks, but I refused to even consider it. Everything about it smacked of amateurism. I remember one of them appeared on the show sandwiched between three schoolgirls singing Three Little Maids and a taxi driver from Walthamstow who played 'the mouth organ'. Of course, the show did make stars of Freddie Davies and dear old Les Dawson, who I knew well. Les was a comedian's comedian, and we all loved his material despite the fact that it didn't get many laughs. His flowery vocabulary was very entertaining to us, but club audiences weren't that enamoured with his total lack of energy. What club audiences wanted was vitality. What Les gave them was lugubriousness. He was a droll and his style suggested a lack of care for everything, including his own act. On two occasions, I recall talking Les into carrying on in the business. But I honestly didn't think he would carry on much longer. Then came Opportunity Knocks and his static comic style made him an instant star. Meanwhile, I was in such demand in the clubs I still had every confidence that I would get a major break very soon. The Stage newspaper's respected James Towler, in his Yorkshire Relish column, featured the four Mike Hughes comedians, ending with, 'But the one with most potential is most certainly Johnny Ball!' Only time would tell. This is an edited extract from Johnny Ball – My Previous Life in Comedy, published by the Book Guild (£10.99). Order your copy from
