The Tibetan Key and Other Stories from the Hotel Metropole

With Julian Rowe
(In collaboration with Matthew Andrew, Paul Crawley, Diane Dunn & Ben Fletcher)

There is a strangeness about hotels. They project an illusion of permanence, and yet their business by its nature is transitory. On the heights of the Leas, along from Folkestone Harbour stands the Metropole, an opulent Victorian hotel now converted into apartments. The glittering ballroom and bars of its palmier days are long gone, as is the wealthy clientele. Beyond the nostalgia however, there is also a darker, stranger side to the hotel’s history.

Opened in 1897, the Metropole was soon rivalled by the Grand Hotel next door. Trade fell away in the early 1920s and it was decided that it would operate only during the summer months from then on. After service as a hospital in World War Two, the hotel staggered on through the 1950s until its closure in 1959. However, this wasn’t the end of the story for the Metropole. In 1960, the building was converted into The New Metropole, a complex of flats with a leisure centre, restaurant and arts centre.

This exhibition at kollectiv brings together 3 collaborative projects led by Terry Perk and Julian Rowe: ‘The Tibetan Key’, ‘Jonah Shepherd, Euphratean Architect’ and ‘Arthur Ducklin, Failed Demagogue’.