King David Hotel

The hotel faces the walls of the Old City across the Hinnom valley, and that view decided its site. King David Hotel, on King David Street in Jerusalem, opened in January 1931 as the first grand hotel in the city, built in the pink-tinged limestone that the British Mandate authorities required of every new building. It has had the same name, the same building and the same view for more than ninety years.

History

Palestine Hotels Ltd, a company backed by Egyptian Jewish financiers including the Mosseri family of Cairo, commissioned the hotel in the late 1920s. It opened in 1931 and quickly became the residence of exiled royalty: King Alfonso XIII of Spain stayed in 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1936, and King George II of Greece during the Second World War. The Dan Hotels group of the Federmann family bought it in 1958 and has run it since, adding wings and a pool in the 1960s and restoring the public rooms in the late 1990s. Visiting presidents, prime ministers and monarchs have stayed on state visits ever since, and the hotel is where their delegations are housed.

Architecture and design

The Swiss architect Emil Vogt designed a six-storey block in a restrained classical style, with a long symmetrical facade, a raised centre and loggias. The interiors were the work of G.H. Hufschmid, who borrowed motifs from Assyrian, Hittite, Phoenician and Islamic art for the painted ceilings and columns of the lobby and the lounge. The lobby floor carries the signatures of heads of state who have stayed, set into the stone. The gardens behind the hotel slope towards the valley, with lawns, the pool and a view of the Old City walls and the Tower of David.

Rooms and suites

The 237 rooms and suites divide between the Old City side, facing the walls and the gardens, and the street side facing the YMCA tower opposite. Rooms were renovated in stages through the 2000s and 2010s, keeping high ceilings and adding marble bathrooms. The suites on the upper floors include the Royal Suite, with a terrace over the Old City.

Dining

The hotel is kosher. La Regence is the fine-dining restaurant, with a long wine list and a formal room. The King's Garden restaurant and terrace serve breakfast and dinner with the Old City view; breakfast is one of the hotel's set pieces. The lobby lounge serves tea and drinks beneath the painted ceiling.

Wellness

The outdoor pool in the garden is open in the warm months, with lawns and a children's pool beside it. The spa has treatment rooms, saunas and a fitness centre.

Weddings and events

The gardens are the main setting for weddings, with the ceremony on the lawn facing the Old City walls and dinner in the garden or indoors. The hotel has a ballroom and meeting rooms for conferences and state dinners, and the public rooms of the ground floor are used for receptions. All catering is kosher under the hotel's supervision.

Location

King David Street runs along the western edge of the Hinnom valley, between the Old City and the newer western districts. The Jaffa Gate is about a kilometre on foot; the Mamilla pedestrian street and the YMCA are at the door. Ben Gurion Airport is about 55 kilometres west, a drive of 45 minutes to an hour; the Yitzhak Navon railway station has trains to the airport and Tel Aviv. As the first luxury hotel in Jerusalem it set the standard the city's later hotels have measured themselves against.