Grand Pacific Hotel (Fiji)
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The Grand Pacific Hotel is located on the main sea front, on Victoria Parade in Suva. It was built by The Union Steamship Company in 1914 to serve the needs of passengers on its transpacific routes. The design of the hotel was to make the passengers think they had never gone ashore, for rooms in the GPH were like first-class staterooms, complete with saltwater bathrooms and plumbing fixtures identical to those on an ocean liner.
It has been a popular place to stay for many famous guests such as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Somerset Maugham, James A Michener and Queen Elisabeth II.
All rooms were on the second floor, and guests could step outside on a 15-foot-wide veranda overlooking the harbor and walk completely around the building — as if walking on the deck. When members of the British royal family visited Fiji, they stood atop the wrought-iron portico, the "bow" of the Grand Pacific, and addressed their subjects massed across Victoria Parade in Albert Park.
The hotel was built on the landing spot for the original Suva village, called Vu-ni-vesi after the trees nearby. There was a hotel on the site previously called Hotel Suva, which was little more than a shack.
[edit] Restoration
The hotel has been closed since 1992 and has changed hands several times. It is currently being restored to a 5 star hotel with the help of the Fijian government's Fijian Investment Corporation Ltd(FICL) and was due to be re-opened in late 2008. [1]. As of th 6th February 2008, this development was still waiting to occur.[2]
[edit] External links
- South Pacific Blog on the Grand Pacific Hotel
- Pictures of the Grand Pacific Hotel
- Fijian Government link on the Grand Pacific Hotel
- Pictures and notes on Fiji Audio Visual
- Frommers walking tour of Suva
- About Suva at Hibiscus.com.fj
