History

The Hotel d'Angleterre and Pension opens its doors on Venice's elegant promenade, the Riva degli Schiavoni, in response to a growing demand for accommodation due to the recent rail link with the mainland.

Designed by Venetian engineer Giovanni Fuin in Neo-Lombardesque style, the luxurious Hotel Beau Rivage is inaugurated next door. The two hotels are separated by a narrow passageway.

In December, Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stays at the Beau Rivage while working on his Fourth Symphony, which he describes in a letter as “undoubtedly the best that I have written”. On Christmas Day,Tchaikovsky described his sojourn to a friend with these words: “I think, I dream, I read, I remember – in a word, I rest”. Our Junior Suite 106 is dedicated to his memory.

Travelling incognito, Jules Verne arrives at the Hotel d’Angleterre in July for a two-night stay. But the secret is soon out. The city lays on a firework display for the illustrious French writer, and the hotel spells out his name in candles on its façade. The Londra Palace Venezia’s suite Jules Verne, 504, pays homage to the spirit of this great man.

During his first visit to Venice, decadent Italian poet and novelist Gabriele D'Annunzio stays at the Beau Rivage. He will return to the city again and again, but this first encounter, captured in the view across the lagoon from the window of his room, is one D'Annunzio will never forget.

The Hotels Angleterre and Beau Rivage are finally linked to create a “hotel with a hundred windows” that takes the name of Hotel Londres et Beau Rivage.

Foreign words and place names are no longer viewed with approval in Mussolini’s Italy – so the hotel briefly changes the Beau Rivage part of its name to ‘Bella Riva’.

The Babini family inaugurates its long and proud association with the world of hospitality by acquiring the Hotel D’Angleterre et Beau Rivage, laying the roots of a passion that lives on at Londra Palace Venezia.

The hotel takes on its current exterior appearance after work on the upper storeys that finally give its two wings a unified roofline.

The Hotel Londres et Beau Rivage becomes the Hotel Londra Palace.

A major refurbishment will slowly yet steadily transform Londra Palace into the stylish luxury hotel we see today. Along the way, bedrooms are enlarged and reduced in number from 73 to 52 – one for each week of the year.

Alain Bullo begins working at a hotel that is part of his family history. In 2011, he becomes General Manager. Alain’s father Aldo worked here for 56 years, for most of that time as Head Concierge. He met Alain’s French mother when she was a guest at the hotel: it was love at first sight.

The Londra Palace becomes a Relais & Chateaux hotel.

The ‘Hotel Londra Palace’ becomes ‘Londra Palace Venezia’. At the same time, it becomes one of the three pillars of The Hospitality Experience: a portfolio of unique Italian hotels that share a single vision. At the heart of The Hospitality Experience's fresh new approach is The Place of Wonders, a foundation that aims to make its guests engaged stakeholders by connecting them with local creative communities.

A fresh new design scheme by Venice-based architects Ruberti & Cutillo, working closely with local artisanal firms that include Rubelli and SICIS, transforms the hotel's entire ground floor. It is inspired by the Art Deco style of the early 20th century, when the Londra Palace Venezia took on its current shape.