Durrell’s hotel on the corniche – the Moorish-Deco grande dame of the Alexandria Quartet, where Montgomery planned and Maugham observed.
At a glance
- Type
- Hotel
- Period
- 1929
- Style
- Moorish Art Deco
- Location
- Saad Zaghloul Square, Corniche, Alexandria, Egypt
- Coordinates
- 31.2001, 29.8957
- Founders
- Metzger family
Overview
The Cecil rose on Alexandria’s corniche in 1929 – Moorish arches and Deco massing facing the harbour where Cleopatra’s palace drowned – the cosmopolitan city’s salon in its last golden decades. Lawrence Durrell installed Justine’s opening in its lift and mirrors; the Alexandria Quartet made the Cecil literature’s address on the Mediterranean.
History
The Jewish-Egyptian Metzgers’ hotel hosted Maugham, Coward, and the wartime staff conferences – Montgomery’s Alamein planning by tradition in its rooms; Churchill passed, spies listened. Nasser’s nationalizations took it from the family (restitution suits ran decades); the名 remains, the Quartet’s readers still ask for Durrell’s view over Saad Zaghloul’s palms.
Architecture and Design
Horseshoe-arched balconies stack beneath corner cupolas; the period lift cage and stair survive renovations. The terrace’s harbour curve – fishing boats where the Pharos stood – keeps the city’s elegiac geometry.
Cultural significance
The Cecil is cosmopolitan Alexandria’s relic and shrine – Greek, Jewish, Levantine city of Cavafy and Durrell – heritage of a Mediterranean world the 20th century dispersed.
Visiting today
Coffee in the lobby suits pilgrims; Cavafy’s museum-flat and the new Bibliotheca lie minutes apart along the bay.
Getting there
Saad Zaghloul square centers the corniche; trams and taxis reach all Alexandria from its curb.
Sources and resources
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