The New York Times printed an article today about luxury hotels in China (including Hong Kong).
Call me old-fashioned, but I kind of miss the old school hotels in Hong Kong. Sure, I like luxury just as much as the next person, but when it comes to hotels, there’s something to be said for charm and character that doesn’t always translate into sleek, glassy, modern monstrosities.
Many hotels like the Merlin (left) are long gone, but a few still survive in Hong Kong. Back in the early 1960s, the Merlin was the place to stay. Many British government workers boarded there with their families until permanent accommodations became available. Even my uncle stayed at the Merlin in the mid-1960s.
The Merlin is no more, and the Kowloon Hotel now stands in its place, a shadow of the stately Peninsula Hotel.
But all is not lost. The New York Times article also reported that the octogenarian Peace Hotel in Shanghai is about to come out of a multi-year renovation. Now that’s what I call keeping up with the times.
I worked at the Merlin (Hollywood, CA) in the early 1980s. It was near the Hollywood Bowl, close to Sunset Blvd. I bartended there and met lots of celebrities, mostly rock stars. Can’t believe it’s been more than 40 years.
Dan when did you work at the Merlin? I was there in 1984 -1985. It was so much fun to work there! So sad they tore it down. Were you married to Henrietta? Were the Fongs and the Chongs there?
Hey, Linda. I worked there till late 1983, IIRC. Sorry, I was barely 22 then and a bachelor. Yes, if my memory serves me correctly the Fongs and the Chongs were still there. My immediate boss then and I would shake like leaves every time one of them would show up at the bar and measure the bottles. They were so strict and obsessed with us not “overpouring” the customers. I mostly recall all the rock stars that came through there. Everyone else there is pretty much a blur to me now. Life goes on.
I stayed at the Merlin Hotel in 1969. It was part of my out of country, Vietnam RR.
It did have some obvious class back then and I enjoyed my very short three night stay.
Sorry to hear it is now gone, but considering a place to last over fifty years might be asking a lot of a hotel.
Thank you so much for your comment! I was slow in approving it and am sorry about that.
My Aunt was there in the late 50s and early 60s working as head house keeper. I had many toys and dolls sent to me from her during her time there. Here name was Gladys Hirst who passed away 31 years ago. I would love to have heard her memories of her time there.
Great memories of Hotel Merlin. My first time traveling on R & R. I was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division in Bien Hoa, Vietnam in 1968-69. My first choice for R& R was Japan, however the quota was filled for the time I wanted to go. Hong Kong was my next choice, and I am very glad I went. Hotel Merlin was an amazing adventure for a 20 year old. One memory really stands out. Having dinner in the hotel and watching the waiter roll a cart up to a guests table. He went through an amazing ritual in preparing Irish Coffee. To this day I can remember each step. Especially adding the heavy cream by pouring slowly over the back of a spoon and gently floating the cream on top of coffee. The manager of the Hotel Merlin was so kind to me. My stay was only 5 days, the first time! I returned for 7 days a month later! I still have the letter from the manager thanking me for staying at the Hotel Merlin.
What a great memory! Thank you for sharing that story. It sounds so Hong Kong, with the great customer service. I never knew there was a special way to make Irish coffee. And to see that in Hong Kong makes it all the more special. I’m glad you could go there during Hong Kong’s heyday! Sadly, that area of HK is pretty generic now. The neon signs are mostly gone, and if you look down Nathan Road, there are no signs at all. It looks like it could be anywhere in the world. Sigh.
Thanks for the memory, Richard. I also have fond memories of having dinner in the restaurant. For an 18-year-old boy from Indiana, it was one of my first experiences in being treated special… there were 3 or 4 waiters that seemed ready to meet any need I might have and the food was wonderful. I stayed there in August of 1969 for 5 nights. I went back just a few years ago and, as Susan indicates, very little is there that doesn’t smack of a generic big city anywhere in the world. The ferry and the HK Island tram were two of the things that brought back memories for me. And I the British influences I saw there 50 years ago, in particular, all the red phone booths. I feel so bad for all the people who are now under the thumb of Communist China…. I’ve spent some time on the mainland and made good friends there. They have never known freedom of speech so the government doesn’t seem so onerous to them. But the HK folks have had a taste of freedom. and they know what is being taken away. Again, thanks for sharing… it’s good to know it wasn’t just a dream I had…
Thank you so much for your comment! Thank goodness for the Star Ferry and trams. I just read a fascinating book about the protests last year, City on Fire, and the author, Antony Dapiran, notes that Hong Kong’s hope is that people from China have always absorbed into HK life, and not the other way around. So HK culture has a great chance of surviving even if the laws change. It’s the most hopeful thing I’ve read in a while.
just found your site! – stayed at the Merlin in 1977 for a week I believe with wife and two kids before getting a lovely 3000 sq foot flat in Ma Ka Li Y yuen as a resident tutor. loved the Merlin great big rooms – my wife and I had one and the two kids another and we were always darting out into the night foraging for food in the surrounding areas, I believe there was another Merlin Hotel in Malaysia , and owned by the same person I believe? In those days we were amazed; scared ; challenged etc until we finally became resident gweilos and vanished into the surrounding populations! – God how I could do it all again!
just found your site! – stayed at the Merlin in 1977 for a week I believe with wife and two kids before getting a lovely 3000 sq foot flat in Ma Ka Li Y yuen as a resident tutor. loved the Merlin great big rooms – my wife and I had one and the two kids another and we were always darting out into the night foraging for food in the surrounding areas, I believe there was another Merlin Hotel in Malaysia , and owned by the same person I believe? In those days we were amazed; scared ; challenged etc until we finally became resident gweilos and vanished into the surrounding populations! – God how I could do it all again!
Nice comments about Merlin Hotel Susan! I used to spend 1 month a year(Christmas/New Year usually) there in the 70s when I was a kid. The late Lim Foo Yong was the owner of the hotel…he passed away in 2016 at the age of 102. Interestingly, quite a few famous Hong Kong singers came out from the restaurant/pub there…only if you know Canto pop 🙂
I loved the Russian Borsch soup that they served!
Thank you for your comment! I know Canto-pop, but only going back to 1998 and before. I was just talking to my uncle last night and he had stayed at the Merlin several times in the 60s and 70s. I wish I could have seen the hotel or at least the restaurant. Russian Borsch with vegetables is great! I’m not so into the beet version!
I was there for three months August to December 1979 – Working at KGV school and waiting to move into permanent accommodation that the ESF (who had just taken over the government schools) . Fond memories of the Merlin and TST – when I go back I still think of that area as my old stomping ground, though it has changed greatly.
Thank you! It has changed so much,but there are still some traces of the old days. I like the Swindon Books on Lock Road. It’s like stepping back in time. The Kowloon Hotel stands on the same space where the Merlin once stood.
Wow lovely to see a photograph of the Merlin Hotel. I remember it well. I stopped over there in 1966 on my way back to UK following a business trip to Australia, as a young engineer. A never forgotten experience of the excitement of Kowloon and Hong Kong with groups of USA military guys who were staying there during their R&R periods. Thank you for publishing the photograph.
Thank you for your comment! It’s certainly changed since then, but TST is still kind of seedy and you can see traces of what it was. I’m not sure for how much longer that will be the case. Nathan Road in TST is unrecognizable and has no signs—neon or otherwise—attached to the buildings.
In 1967 I took my RR in Hong Kong and stayed 5 days here at the Hotel Merlin. I was a combat soldier in Vietnam with the First of the seventh Cav Divison- Air Mobil. It was the fastest five days of my life here in Hong Kong and returned to finnish my tour in Vietnam! Many years have passed and I am still so thankful of my return to the USA alive. God Bless the USA!
Thank you so much for your comment and your service! That’s so great you could go to the Hotel Merlin during its heyday!
Myself (as young child) and my mother remember the Merlin Hotel, back in the day, more as a passing-by landmark reference, as the majority of the time we lived around the corner in ChungKing Mansions.
My mother was a stage entertainer (dancer) and toured with her duo and solo acts in Asia from 1968-1976. She did a few U.S.O. shows for American serviceman on R&R from Vietam at the Mirimar Hotel (Chinese Theatre) and the Mariners Club (basement room) between late 1968 to late 1969. A lot of U.S. servicema on R&R from Vietnam would also stay in the Hyatt (same location as today).
The building and location of the Miramar Hotel c.1968 is no longer there, as with the Merlin! The Building and location of the Mariners Club, TSS, is still the same (perhaps minus some interior refurbishments). Well-known Amabassador and Marco Polo hotels have either gone or moved location.
Around 1973-1976 we lived on-and-off in a family-run hostel in ChungKing Mansions called ‘Hoover Guest House’ (advertised using the hoover vaccuum cleaner company logo!) It was popular with western artistes. Today there is a hostel in Chunking called ‘New Hoover Hostel’. I have a feeling it is from the same lineage, from the original family that owned it.
Hope I didn’t digress from the OP and was interesting. Thanks.
Your family is so fascinating! I didn’t know about the theatre at the Miramar. Do you know if the Miramar building was still there in 1995? I stayed there on my honeymoon and thought it was the same building from the 60s. I know it’s now called the Mira and is completely different! So interesting about the Hoover Guest House and the New Hoover Hotel. No digression at all! This is all such great information!
Thanks for your info on the hotel – I stayed there as a soldier on leave from Vietnam for 5 days in August of 1968. It seemed plush to me (of course, compared to where I was living in Vietnam at the time, most hotels would :-). I will visit HK next March and will be staying near there – of course it won’t look familiar but I still will enjoy seeing how the area has changed and knowing I had been there as a young (19 yrs) man (in another life!)
Wow, what a great comment! Thank you! That’s so exciting you’re going back to Hong Kong in March and will be staying near the old Merlin. I went back for the first time in 14 years (so not that long of a break) the previous April and stayed in the spot where the Merlin used to be. It’s now the Kowloon Hotel. There are still some things from the late 60s in Hong Kong, but so much more congested and modern. You’ll have a great time. The further you go into the Kowloon, the more unchanged it is, or relatively speaking. Thank you again and thank you for your service!
as kids this was a pretty good place to hang out when friends returned from ‘leave’ – we invaded the stairwells and their rooms, ordering plates of chips from room service, life in the fast lane!
Fun! My uncle and an airline coworker stayed there once in the late 60s. They decided to go to Bangkok for a few days, but the boy who kept the left luggage key was out to lunch. They could either wait to get their luggage and miss their flight or go to Kai Tak sans luggage. So they chose to go to Kai Tak and told the Merlin front desk staff they’d be back in several days to pick up their luggage!