In the late Victorian 1800’s – they began to rise. The steam age powered their ascendency. Status and prosperity demanded only the best. Cities and premium holiday destinations could have only one. What am I talking about? Grand Hotels. Those gloomy, Gothic, late Victorian cathedrals to hospitality.

 

Today, some are still very Grand. Some used to be. Some probably never were. The burden of up-keep ever-present. The Gothic features diminishing as new management seek to modernise. Like the British Empire, Grand Hotels had a rise, then for some, a brutal century of fall.

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In 2025, a revisit to Grand Hotel Gardone on Lake Garda, kindled the idea of curating a wider collection. A range of 10 Grand Hotels were visited – thriving, struggling, dying. All places of fascination to a Documentary Photographer. Visits were brief – sometimes overnight, sometimes just a coffee. My narrative had two themes: a place from the past; its people in the present.