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57-529: The Peninsula Hong Kong is a colonial-style luxury hotel located in Tsim Sha Tsui , Kowloon , Hong Kong . It is the flagship property of The Peninsula Hotels group, part of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group. The hotel opened in 1928 and was the first under The Peninsula brand. Expanded in 1994, the hotel combines colonial and modern elements, and is notable for its large fleet of Rolls-Royces painted

114-462: A balustraded parapet . The principal block is flanked by two lower asymmetrical secondary wings that contribute picturesque massing, best appreciated from an angled view. The larger of these is divided from the principal block by the belvedere tower. The smaller, the ballroom block, is entered through a columned porte-cochère designed as a single storey prostyle portico . Many examples of this style are evident around Sydney and Melbourne, notably

171-476: A distinctive "Peninsula green". Founded by members of the Kadoorie family , The Peninsula was built with the idea that it would be "the finest hotel east of Suez ". Originally planned for a 1924 opening, the hotel opened on 11 December 1928 and was the successor of Hongkong Hotel . The Peninsula was located in Tsim Sha Tsui , Kowloon, Hong Kong at the junction of Nathan Road and Salisbury Road , directly opposite

228-535: A loose style of an Italian village. It is now owned by a charitable trust. Williams-Ellis incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of other architects. Portmeirion's architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late 20th century. The Italianate revival was comparatively less prevalent in Scottish architecture , examples include some of

285-474: A modest spate of Italianate villas, and French chateaux" by 1855 the most favoured style of an English country house was Gothic, Tudor, or Elizabethan. The Italianate style came to the small town of Newton Abbot and the village of Starcross in Devon, with Isambard Brunel's atmospheric railway pumping houses. The style was later used by Humphrey Abberley and Joseph Rowell, who designed a large number of houses, with

342-698: A number of Italianate lighthouses and associated structures, chief among them being the Grosse Point Light in Evanston, Illinois . The Italianate style was immensely popular in Australia as a domestic style influencing the rapidly expanding suburbs of the 1870–1880s and providing rows of neat villas with low-pitched roofs, bay windows , tall windows and classical cornices. The architect William Wardell designed Government House in Melbourne —the official residence of

399-566: A place to spot celebrities. Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, who were Hollywood stars of the 1930s classic Modern Times , were among the hotel's guests. On 25 December 1941, at the end of the Battle of Hong Kong , British colonial officials led by the Governor of Hong Kong , Sir Mark Aitchison Young , surrendered in person at the Japanese headquarters on the third floor of The Peninsula. The Governor

456-740: A prominent collection of Rationalist buildings, including the Bank of Albania , the Prime Minister's Office , and the National Theatre . Italianate architecture The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture . Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism , the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture with picturesque aesthetics. The resulting style of architecture

513-694: Is an example of this further evolution of the style. As in Australia, the use of Italianate for public service offices took hold but using local materials like timber to create the illusion of stone. At the time it was built in 1856, the official residence of the Colonial Governor in Auckland was criticized for the dishonesty of making wood look like stone. The 1875 Old Government Buildings, Wellington are entirely constructed with local kauri timber, which has excellent properties for construction. ( Auckland developed later and preferred Gothic detailing.) As in

570-859: Is designed in the Italianate style . The lobby's design is a combination of Edwardian and Second Empire styles and includes ornamental stained glass , woodwork, and carpets and draperies dating from 1928. The hotel's food and beverage outlets include the gourmet French restaurant Gaddi's , which has one of the first chef's tables in Hong Kong, and the Philippe Starck -designed 'Felix'. Others are 'Spring Moon', 'Imasa', and 'Chesa', which specialise in Cantonese, Japanese, and Swiss cuisine respectively. The Lobby serves traditional English-style Afternoon Tea, reminiscent of Hong Kong's colonial era. The hotel has one of

627-606: Is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. The Italianate style was further developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s. Barry's Italianate style (occasionally termed "Barryesque") drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance , though sometimes at odds with Nash's semi-rustic Italianate villas. The style

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684-775: Is most visible in Brazil , Madeira , North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa , Macau , the Malaysian city of Malacca , city of Goa in India, and Moluccas and Java in Indonesia. British colonial architecture are most visible in North America , the British West Indies , South Asia , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa . French colonial architecture is most visible in North America and Indochina . Dutch colonial architecture

741-630: Is most visible in Indonesia (especially Java and Sumatra ), the United States, South Asia , and South Africa . In Indonesia, formerly Dutch East Indies, colonial architecture was studied academically and had developed into a new tropical architecture form which emphasizes on conforming to the tropical climate of the Indies and not completely imitating the architectural language of the Dutch colonists. Eritrea

798-613: The Italian Rationalist and Neoclassical styles. Starting in 1938, the colony's Public Works Department sponsored the building of 27 new villages meant for Italian settlement, mostly in Cyrenaica , which epitomized a Rationalism informed by local Arab architectural mores. Giovanni Pellegrini , one of the most prominent designers of these agrarian villages, attempted to synthesize Arab and Italian architecture to settlements best fitted to Cyrenaica's arid climate. Italy's occupation of

855-859: The Lazio and the Veneto or as he put it: "...the charming character of the irregular villas of Italy." His most defining work in this style was the large Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden , while the Reform Club 1837–41 in Pall Mall represents a convincingly authentic pastiche of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, albeit in a 'Grecian' Ionic order in place of Michelangelo 's original Corinthian order . Although it has been claimed that one-third of early Victorian country houses in England used classical styles, mostly Italianate, by 1855

912-624: The Medici . Upon his return to Lebanon in 1618, he began modernising Lebanon. He developed a silk industry, upgraded olive oil production, and brought with him numerous Italian engineers who began building mansions and civil buildings throughout the country. The cities of Beirut and Sidon were especially built in the Italianate style. The influence of these buildings, such as those in Deir el Qamar , influenced building in Lebanon for many centuries and continues to

969-544: The Old Treasury Building (1858), Leichhardt Town Hall (1888), Glebe Town Hall (1879) and the fine range of state and federal government offices facing the gardens in Treasury Place. No.2 Treasury Gardens (1874). This dignified, but not overly exuberant style for civil service offices contrasted with the grand and more formal statements of the classical styles used for Parliament buildings . The acceptance of

1026-663: The Philippines . In Mexico, it is found in the Historic center of Mexico City , Puebla , Zacatecas , Querétaro , Guanajuato , and Morelia . Antigua Guatemala in Guatemala is also known for its well-preserved Spanish colonial style architecture. Other cities known for Spanish colonial heritage are Ciudad Colonial of Santo Domingo , the ports of Cartagena, Colombia , and Old San Juan in Puerto Rico . Portuguese colonial architecture

1083-460: The governor of Victoria —as an example of his "newly discovered love for Italianate, Palladian and Venetian architecture ." Cream-colored, with many Palladian features, it would not be out of place among the unified streets and squares in Thomas Cubitt's Belgravia , London, except for its machicolated signorial tower that Wardell crowned with a belvedere . The hipped roof is concealed by

1140-585: The 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun starring Roger Moore , the hotel's fleet of Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows is mentioned. The hotel was frequently featured in the TV series Dynasty and was the site of a number of negotiations over oil leases in the South China Sea. It was also prominently displayed in the 1988 NBC television miniseries Noble House . In the same year, Michael Palin visited

1197-533: The Civil War. Its popularity was due to being suitable for many different building materials and budgets, as well as the development of cast-iron and press-metal technology making the production more efficient of decorative elements such as brackets and cornices. However, the style was superseded in popularity in the late 1870s by the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. The popularity of Italianate architecture in

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1254-577: The Dodecanese bore a significant amount of modernist and art deco buildings throughout the archipelago. Colonial architects also constructed several new towns and villages, such as Portolago, now known as Lakki . Contrasting with much of the built remnants of Italian colonialism in Africa, Italian architecture in the Dodecanese often remains in good repair. Italy's brief colonial undertaking in Albania resulted in

1311-523: The Hong Kong / Macau leg. The Spring Moon Chinese restaurant of the hotel is sometimes credited with the invention of XO sauce . 22°17′43.05″N 114°10′17.51″E  /  22.2952917°N 114.1715306°E  / 22.2952917; 114.1715306 Colonial architecture Spanish colonial architecture is still found in the former colonies of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and in

1368-604: The Hotel for the BBC's Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days . In 2007, The Peninsula was used for a scene in the superhero film The Dark Knight , involving actors Morgan Freeman and Chin Han , who played Lucius Fox and Lau, respectively. In 2015, The Peninsula was featured in the eleventh episode of the 27th season of The Amazing Race , serving as the location of the first route marker of

1425-495: The Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of his London terraces. Cubitt designed Osborne House under the direction of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , and it is Cubitt's reworking of his two-dimensional street architecture into this freestanding mansion which was to be the inspiration for countless Italianate villas throughout the British Empire. Following the completion of Osborne House in 1851,

1482-629: The Italianate style for government offices was sustained well into the 20th century when, in 1912, John Smith Murdoch designed the Commonwealth Office Buildings as a sympathetic addition to this precinct to form a stylistically unified terrace overlooking the gardens. The Italianate style of architecture continued to be built in outposts of the British Empire long after it had ceased to be fashionable in Britain itself. The Albury railway station in regional New South Wales , completed in 1881,

1539-737: The Italianate style, such as the James Lick Mansion , John Muir Mansion , and Bidwell Mansion , before later Stick-Eastlake and Queen Anne styles superseded. Many, nicknamed Painted Ladies , remain and are celebrated in San Francisco . A late example in masonry is the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Los Angeles . Additionally, the United States Lighthouse Board , through the work of Colonel Orlando M. Poe , produced

1596-474: The Japanese shipping anchored in Hong Kong harbour, conducted 25 October 1942, and the lone attack he personally made in his Curtiss P-40K Warhawk (nicknamed Old Exterminator ) upon the famous Peninsula hotel: "So, I looped above Victoria Harbour and drove for the Peninsula Hotel. My tracers ripped into the shining plate-glass of the penthouses on its top, and I saw the broken windows cascade like snow to

1653-521: The Peninsula Tower was completed. New features include digital enhancements ranging from touch-screen tablets, a DVD library of 3D movies to high-definition televisions. The decor of the rooms is in pared-down Oriental chic, with plain cream upholstery, vintage luggage-inspired drawer handles and Chinese ink painting-inspired ornaments. However the renovation did not include the iconic lobby, restaurants and bars which all remained unchanged. The Peninsula

1710-711: The United States, the timber construction common in New Zealand allowed this popular style to be rendered in domestic buildings, such as Antrim House in Wellington, and Westoe Farm House in Rangitikei (1874), as well as rendered brick at "The Pah" in Auckland (1880). On a more domestic scale, the suburbs of cities like Dunedin and Wellington spread out with modest but handsome suburban villas with Italianate details, such as low-pitched roofs, tall windows, corner quoins , and stone detailing, all rendered in wood. A good example

1767-688: The case in Italy, and utilises more obviously the Italian Renaissance motifs than those earlier examples of the Italianate style by Nash. Sir Charles Barry , most notable for his works on the Tudor and Gothic styles at the Houses of Parliament in London, was a great promoter of the style. Unlike Nash, he found his inspiration in Italy itself. Barry drew heavily on the designs of the original Renaissance villas of Rome ,

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1824-666: The construction of Tripoli's Cathedral , built in a Venetian Gothic style. Following the founding of Italian Libya , Italian Fascist architecture became the standard for the massive infrastructural and settlement-related projects that Mussolini's Italy undertook. In cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi , colonial architects and urban planners undertook large-scale urban projects, such as the construction of Benghazi's monumental Lungomare (sea-walk), new urban districts for Italian settlers, and Catholic religious buildings, including Benghazi's and Tripoli's cathedrals . The fascist government's constructions were usually characterized by use of

1881-405: The dowager Lady Ashburton as a country retreat, this small country house clearly shows the transition between the picturesque of William Gilpin and Nash's yet to be fully evolved Italianism. While this house can still be described as Regency , its informal asymmetrical plan together with its loggias and balconies of both stone and wrought iron; tower and low pitched roof clearly are very similar to

1938-567: The early work of Alexander Thomson ("Greek" Thomson) and buildings such as the west side of George Square . The Italian, specifically Tuscan, influence on architecture in Lebanon dates back to the Renaissance when Fakhreddine , the first Lebanese ruler who truly unified Mount Lebanon with its Mediterranean coast, executed an ambitious plan to develop his country. When the Ottomans exiled Fakhreddine to Tuscany in 1613, he entered an alliance with

1995-410: The fascist era, during which Benito Mussolini encouraged architects and planners to transform the city into a "Little Rome". Somalia also contains a wide range of Italian colonial architecture, dating back to its colonial era . In Mogadishu , the residence of most of the colony's eventual 50,000 Italian residents, colonial architects undertook large planning projects and erected monuments such as

2052-560: The forecourt, the lobby and the front facade. The hotel remained in operation while construction took place. The new Peninsula Tower is topped with a helipad . It is used to transport VIP guests to the Hong Kong International Airport , a seven-minute flight away. World-record holding Australian helicopter pilot Dick Smith , accompanied by Director-General Peter K N Lok of the Civil Aviation Department, piloted

2109-438: The fully Italianate design of Cronkhill , the house generally considered to be the first example of the Italianate style in Britain. Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of Palladian -style building often enhanced by a belvedere tower complete with Renaissance -type balustrading at the roof level. This is generally a more stylistic interpretation of what architects and patrons imagined to be

2166-514: The ground, or even flat roofs with a wide projection. A tower is often incorporated hinting at the Italian belvedere or even campanile tower. Motifs drawn from the Italianate style were incorporated into the commercial builders' repertoire and appear in Victorian architecture dating from the mid-to-late 19th century. This architectural style became more popular than Greek Revival by the beginning of

2223-458: The inaugural certifying helicopter flight onto the helipad in 1994. The redevelopment increased the total number of rooms to 300 with the addition of 132 rooms and suites. Other new features included 10 floors of office space, shops and hotel facilities. To celebrate the hotel's 85th anniversary in April 2013, it launched a HK$ 450 million refurbishment programme. In September 2012, the first phase of

2280-598: The new railway station as the focal point, for Lord Courtenay, who saw the potential of the railway age. An example that is not very well known, but a clear example of Italianate architecture, is St. Christopher's Anglican church in Hinchley Wood , Surrey, particularly given the design of its bell tower . Portmeirion in Gwynedd , North Wales, is an architectural fantasy designed in a southern Italian Baroque style and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in

2337-467: The oldest fashion arcades in Hong Kong. Throughout the years, it has housed international luxury brands such as Chanel , Dior , Hermès , Chrome Hearts , Gucci , Prada , Shiatzy Chen , Louis Vuitton , Cartier , Piaget , Roger Dubuis , Goyard , Franck Muller , Bvlgari , Tiffany & Co. , Baccarat , ST Dupont , Harry Winston , Davidoff , Van Cleef & Arpels , Jacob & Co. , and Ralph Lauren . Apart from international fashion houses, it

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2394-423: The present time. For example, streets like Rue Gouraud continue to have numerous, historic houses with Italianate influence. The Italianate style was popularized in the United States by Alexander Jackson Davis in the 1840s as an alternative to Gothic or Greek Revival styles. Davis' design for Blandwood is the oldest surviving example of Italianate architecture in the United States, constructed in 1844 as

2451-428: The preservation of this impressive collection, with large-scale renovation efforts beginning to repair urban blight. Cincinnati's neighbouring cities of Newport and Covington, Kentucky also contain an impressive collection of Italianate architecture. The Garden District of New Orleans features examples of the Italianate style, including: In California, the earliest Victorian residences were wooden versions of

2508-525: The quays where ocean liner passengers disembarked and near the terminus of the Kowloon-Canton railway . Following the opening of the hotel, The Peninsula held Sunday concerts, nightly dinners on the terrace and twice-weekly dinners in the Rose Room. Dinner dances were held every night, with regular Afternoon Tea Dances. The Peninsula then became a popular meeting place for the entire community. It also became

2565-462: The residence of North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead . It is an early example of Italianate architecture, closer in ethos to the Italianate works of Nash than the more Renaissance-inspired designs of Barry. Davis' 1854 Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park, Brooklyn is an example of the style. It was initially referred to as the "Italian Villa" or "Tuscan Villa" style. Richard Upjohn used

2622-650: The still-extant triumphal arch dedicated to Umberto I , the largely destroyed Cathedral of Mogadiscio , and various government buildings. The Italian-built Villa Somalia remains Somalia's presidential residence. Unlike colonial schemes in Libya and Eritrea, Italian colonial authorities built within existing cities in Somalia, not building new villages or towns for settlers. Before the consolidation of Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania , Libya's colonial masters undertook significant building projects in Italian styles, such as

2679-430: The streets, many floors below. I laughed, for I knew that behind those windows were Japanese high officers, enjoying that modern hotel. When I got closer, I could see uniformed figures going down the fire escapes, and I shot at them...I turned for one more run on the packed fire escapes filled with Jap soldiers, but my next burst ended very suddenly. I was out of ammunition." It was restored to its original name after Japan

2736-419: The style became a popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new and wealthy industrialists of the era. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by large but not extensive gardens, often laid out in a terrace Tuscan style as well. On occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these Italianate villas would be topped by mansard roofs , and then termed chateauesque . However, "after

2793-621: The style extensively, beginning in 1845 with the Edward King House . Other leading practitioners of the style were John Notman and Henry Austin . Notman designed "Riverside" in 1837, the first "Italian Villa" style house in Burlington, New Jersey (now destroyed). Italianate was reinterpreted to become an indigenous style. It is distinctive by its pronounced exaggeration of many Italian Renaissance characteristics: emphatic eaves supported by corbels , low-pitched roofs barely discernible from

2850-424: The style was falling from favour and Cliveden came to be regarded as "a declining essay in a declining fashion." Anthony Salvin occasionally designed in the Italianate style, especially in Wales, at Hafod House, Carmarthenshire, and Penoyre House , Powys, described by Mark Girouard as "Salvin's most ambitious classical house." Thomas Cubitt , a London building contractor, incorporated simple classical lines of

2907-481: The time period following 1845 can be seen in Cincinnati, Ohio , the United States' first boomtown west of the Appalachian Mountains . This city, which grew along with the traffic on the Ohio River , features arguably the largest single collection of Italianate buildings in the United States in its Over-the-Rhine neighbourhood, built primarily by German-American immigrants that lived in the densely populated area. In recent years, increased attention has been called to

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2964-438: Was Italy's first African colony . Its first capital, Massawa , contains a large amount of early Italian colonial architecture, characterized by historicism and inspiration from Venetian Gothic and Italian Neoclassical architecture. The colonial architecture and orthogonal street grid of Asmara , the colony's second capital, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. Much of the city's colonial architecture dates to

3021-413: Was also home to Hong Kong brands, such as Betty Charnuis Clemos in the 60s, Dickson Poon in the 70s and Joyce Boutique in the 80s. Since December 2006, the hotel has had a fleet of 14 long wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantoms painted in the hotel's signature green. It was the largest single order placed with Rolls-Royce in the history of the company. It replaced a fleet of Rolls-Royce Silver Spurs . In

3078-446: Was confined for two months in one of the hotel suites before being transferred to a prison in Shanghai. The resort was then renamed "Tōa Hotel" ( 東亜ホテル , "East Asia Hotel" ) , and the rooms were reserved for Japanese officers and high-ranking dignitaries. In his book God Is My Co-Pilot , Colonel Robert Lee Scott Jr. , USAAF, commander of the 23rd Fighter Group , China Air Task Force , described in detail an aerial raid he led on

3135-406: Was defeated and the British regained control of the colony. The hotel today is part of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels group headed by Sir Michael Kadoorie and is the flagship property of The Peninsula Hotels group. In 1994, the hotel was expanded with a 30-storey tower of a similar architectural style as the existing building. The facade of the existing hotel building was preserved, including

3192-454: Was employed in varying forms abroad long after its decline in popularity in Britain. For example, from the late 1840s to 1890, it achieved huge popularity in the United States , where it was promoted by the architect Alexander Jackson Davis . Key visual components of this style include: A late intimation of John Nash 's development of the Italianate style was his 1805 design of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon . Commissioned by

3249-420: Was essentially of its own time. "The backward look transforms its object," Siegfried Giedion wrote of historicist architectural styles; "every spectator at every period—at every moment, indeed—inevitably transforms the past according to his own nature." The Italianate style was first developed in Britain in about 1802 by John Nash , with the construction of Cronkhill in Shropshire . This small country house

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