The Fairmont Empress is, like a lot of things in Victoria, named after Queen Victoria, the Empress of India. January 19th marked the 100th anniversary of the day she opened to the public, and it's still the jewel of the Inner Harbour and a unique establishment that sees over 100,000 visitors a year for high tea.
The Empress and the buildings around it are part of the reason I am so attracted to this place, the Victorian English-ness of it. Maybe it's just that as I get older, I want to be surrounded by things much older than me (!), but old buildings really do give me some comfort as well as generally being better-designed and built to last more than most modern buildings.
I was reading about this anniversary, by the way, in the local "establishment" newspaper, the Times-Colonist. It was established in (and has been published since) 1858, so it's celebrating it's own 150th anniversary.
I'm starting to see a trend here ...
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1 comments:
On occasion I read your local newspaper and read the same story, what was interesting was the woman who turned 100 on the same date and the graciousness of the hotel to treat her and her family to tea. Looking forward to seeing the Empress and all the other sites one of these years.
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