The Wartime Hotel

Hotels are places of work and leisure. In the context of social and economic upheaval, they also exceptionally adaptable places.

We are interested in the ways that the spaces of hotels, and their symbols, implicate them in war. They are enemy targets; they are also requisitioned for the war effort as government offices, as hospitals, and as centres of convalescence. Often soldiers are billeted in hotels. They are also used in more familiar ways in wartime—for leisure travel.

We are exploring the way that British hotels in World War One were used for these purposes—and many more.

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