The Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool is the city’s most famous hotel, and I featured it, in passing, in Waterloo Sunset. One of the key clues involves a photograph taken outside the hotel and mention is also made of one or two incidents from the hotel’s notable history.
The Adelphi was originally built in 1826, but was extensively rebuilt in 1912 to accommodate passengers from the cruise liners, whose home port was Liverpool. The most famous was the White Star Line, owners of the Titanic, and indeed the Sefton Suite at the hotel is meant to be an exact replica of the Titanic’s smoking lounge.
Quite apart from its brief name-check in Waterloo Sunset, the Adelphi has an odd connection with a famous murder mystery – the ‘White Mischief’, aka Happy Valley case. Sir Jock Delves Broughton, a key suspect, committed suicide in the hotel during the Second World War.
Today it’s a tranquil place and I popped in at the weekend to take a look at the annual gathering of the members of Mensa – all the members I met seemed extremely pleasant and welcoming. If there are any Mensa members who read this blog, I’d be very interested to hear from you.
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