The hotel reached its peak under the management of Carlo Chateau, and his son, pioneer aviator Flight Lieutenant Clive Chateau, from 1907 to 1925.Ĭarlo Waldemar Muller Chateau (1858–1921) was born in Paris and had been a chemist at Copenhagen’s Carlsberg Brewery and an officer in the Danish Hussars before emigrating to Australia in 1884. The Grosvenor opened with a splash by hosting two visiting American baseball teams, the All American and the Chicago. An ice-chest is filled with aerated -waters and communication is established with the ground floor, so that a request made there in a speaker's ordinary voice is sufficient to ensure prompt attention from below. The smoking room is so cosy that it invites indulgence.

Whiting points with pardonable pride to this room as 'all Australian.' The furniture is blackwood, and upholstered in leather the long seats are ranged so as to give onlookers an excellent view beyond is a little cardroom with Chippendale furniture, and lavatories with the latest appliances for comfort attached.

Gentlemen were particularly well catered for: There is every inducement to let the hours slip by, as the spacious lounges or the cosiest of chairs invite one to rest, and when exercise is needed the billiard room, 36 x 40, with three of Alcock's best tables, is not far off. The first floor had two sitting rooms, a family dining room, a ladies’ dining room and a very grand drawing room., with gold and green velvet-covered seats, chandeliers and many mirrors. The two lower stories were public, with an ultra-large dining room on the ground floor. All fixtures were of the best quality, with the name of the hotel on all linen, and toilet ware was ‘of cream tint edged with gold’. On the top two floors were bedrooms, with communal bathrooms on each floor. There was a lift, of course, in the centre of the building, the landing space flanked by staircases and lit by stained glass windows.

The grosvenor hotel