Waterloo Hotel

The Waterloo Hotel, Tavern and Coffee House

Notable guests and events

• The Waterloo Hotel opened on Saturday 21 August 1819 to commemorate the visit of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. He was in the first carriage ever to travel down Waterloo Place.
• Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey was given the Freedom of the City at a ceremony at the Waterloo Hotel in 1834.
• A large-scale breakfast was held at the Waterloo Hotel in 1834 to celebrate abolition of slavery.
• The Grand Caledondian Curling Club was formed during meetings at the Waterloo Hotel in 1838.
• Asa Gray, the famous American botanist and friend of Charles Darwin, stayed in the hotel in 1839 and described it as 'the finest hotel I have seen yet' in his journal.
• Charles Dickens stayed at the hotel many times during 1861, at the time he was writing Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Evidence can be found of this in letters written by Dickens while staying at the hotel.
• In 1898 the hotel ceased trading and was turned into offices. It remained as offices for the next 120 years, until it was re-developed by Apex Hotels in 2009 as the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel.