Lille Langtry, John Betjeman and the arrest of Oscar Wilde
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The Cadogan Hotel, built in 1887 in London’s SW1, off Sloane Square, was soon to find itself
at the heart of Victorian society’s most infamous indiscretions. Within the walls of this most stately of West End
London hotels, some of society’s pre-eminent figures came together in a tumult of controversy.
Society beauty, courtesan and actress Lillie Langtry (read about her
at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry) lived at 21 Pont Street from 1892 to 1897. Even after she had sold
the house, Lillie would stay in her old bedroom, by then a part of the hotel. It was at The Cadogan that Lillie would
court Edward, the future King of England.
Meanwhile, in 1895, Victorian society was rocked by the arrest of
playwright Oscar Wilde (visit the Oscar Wilde Society at
www.oscarwildesociety.co.uk) at The Cadogan Hotel.
The incident, in room 118, was immortalised by John Betjeman in his poem, The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan
Hotel (find out more about the John Betjeman Society at
www.johnbetjeman.com/betjsoc.htm).
Today, there’s a quieter rhythm to life at The Cadogan. The drawing room and inter-connecting private dining rooms smack
of elegantly modernised Edwardian beauty. The hotel gardens offer a leafy and serene escape. The Cadogan sits apart from
its homogenised West End contemporary hotels: a hotel with its soul rooted both in SW1 and in an altogether
more-genteel age.
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