Angleterre Hotel

Angleterre Hotel stands on St Isaac's Square at the corner of Malaya Morskaya Street, joined to the Hotel Astoria and run with it by Rocco Forte Hotels. It is the smaller and younger of the pair in its present form, yet the name is the older one, and the hotel's story touches two of the defining episodes of twentieth-century Saint Petersburg: the death of the poet Sergei Yesenin in 1925 and the preservation protests of 1987.

History

A hotel has operated on the site since the middle of the nineteenth century, under several names before it settled on Angleterre in the 1870s. By the turn of the century it was one of the leading hotels of the imperial capital, and the Astoria was built beside it in 1912 as a direct competitor. After the revolution both were nationalised, and the Angleterre became the Leningradskaya for a period.

On 28 December 1925 Sergei Yesenin, the best-loved lyric poet of his generation, was found dead in room 5 of the Angleterre. The death was recorded as suicide, and the hotel became a place of pilgrimage for readers of his poetry.

In 1987 the city authorities demolished the old building, which had been declared structurally unsound. Residents gathered on St Isaac's Square to protest, the first open demonstration for architectural heritage in Leningrad, and the episode is remembered as the beginning of the city's preservation movement. A new hotel was built behind a facade reproducing the original, and it reopened in 1991. Rocco Forte Hotels, which took over the Astoria in 1997, has run the Angleterre with it since.

Architecture and design

The facade on St Isaac's Square reproduces the proportions of the nineteenth-century building, with the same window rhythm and stone colour as before 1987, so that the square reads as it did in old photographs. Inside, the building is entirely modern, with interiors in the pale, classical manner used across the Rocco Forte hotels. The ground floor holds a cinema lounge, a bar and a restaurant that open onto the square.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 193 rooms and suites, a figure that contrasts with its intimate scale on the square. The rooms facing St Isaac's look directly at the gilded dome of the cathedral, and the corner suites take in both the square and Malaya Morskaya Street. Guests have access to the facilities of the Astoria through the connecting passage.

Dining

The hotel's restaurant on the ground floor serves Italian cooking, and the bar is a meeting place for the neighbourhood. The Angleterre Cinema Lounge, inside the hotel, screens films in their original language with English subtitles and is a fixture of the city's film scene.

Wellness

The fitness centre with a swimming pool and sauna is open to guests of both hotels.

Weddings and events

The Angleterre has five function rooms, with the largest receptions taking about 100 guests, which suits weddings, private dinners and board meetings of a moderate size. Larger weddings use the ballroom of the Astoria next door, so planners can combine the two hotels for one event.

Location

The hotel is at Malaya Morskaya Street 24, on St Isaac's Square beside the Astoria. Fifteen minutes on foot reaches the Hermitage, Nevsky Prospekt and the Mariinsky Theatre, with Admiralteyskaya metro station close by. The drive to Pulkovo airport takes about 40 minutes.