FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Farewell to the Excelsior Hong Kong (and the Dickens Bar in particular)
Old Oct 9, 2018, 1:45 pm
  #19  
clansey1973
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 382
When completed in 1972 The Excelsior had BOAC as an equity partner alongside Jardines, so this really was BA in HK. I've stayed there half a dozen times over the last 20+ years and usually saw BA Crew in the Dickens Bar. When working in the travel trade many moons ago I bumped into Roger Balchin (our BA Rep.) in reception at The Excelsior, seemed the natural place to find him strangely. AIUI Jardines took quite a few years to decide what to do with the hugely valuable land, a tender to sell for a ridiculous amount (£Billions) to a third party recently fell through. In the end presumably a major redevelopment will be done and totally change the Causeway Bay area in the process. The Excelsior was definitely the shabbiest hotel within The Mandarin Oriental portfolio, presumably because of the issue(s) of what to do and how to do it with "Lot 1."
ADDENDUM I kept wondering where I'd read the above background! Seemingly : The Hongkong Land Company A brief history, 1979, Nigel Cameron, pg 50: -
World Trade Centre Complex
Much more ambitious in scale was another venture in the same year (1970). The Company joined with Jardine's, Trust House Forte, The Bank of East Asia, British Airways, City Hotels Limited, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, to develop Marine Lot 52. This was part of a lot belonging to Jardine's which had formed a portion of their East Point properties since the very first days of their activities in Hong Kong in the 1840s. On this splendid waterfront site was developed the Excelsior Hotel, in a district very much on the map with the construction of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the first for vehicular traffic, due to surface in close proximity. This first class hotel with it's 1,000 rooms and many public facilities, was completed in August 1972, coinciding with the opening of the tunnel. The Company took a 26 percent interest in East Point Hotels Ltd., the owners of the hotel.

Last edited by clansey1973; Oct 10, 2018 at 8:34 am Reason: References siting facts added
clansey1973 is offline