Her Lotus Year: The Hong Kong Hotel

There are few pictures of the interior of the old Hong Kong Hotel (closed 1952) on Pedder Street. I think this is because it was, as Wallis recalled, dark, gloomy and a bit depressing, while the food at Gripps (the hotel’s restaurant) was universally described as awful, “British inspired” and as remembered by Wallis, “boiled, boiled and then boiled again”. Still, apart from the Repulse Bay Hotel where she’d briefly stayed, it was the best the colony had to offer in 1924. And there was this impressive awning….

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…