Porhászka László: The Danube Promenade - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1998)

The Danube promenade at the turn of the century

ners on the south side. These provided a counter of sorts to the effect of the flat-roofed, one-and-a-half-floor tall attic towers topping the Stein House. Its huge exchange hall was on the first floor in the northern section and had a lounge, a conference room, and even a gambling room attached. The reading room of the exchange was decorated with four paintings by Károly Lotz, featuring allegories thematically related to the exchange. On the second, third and fourth floors of the Lloyd building there were rented flats, which were accessible via a staircase separated from the exchange. On the main fagade overlooking the Danube the sign Magyar Kereskedők Háza (The House of Hungarian Traders) proclaimed the building’s function. In 1905 the exchange was moved to its new headquarters on Szabadság tér, the Exchange Palace designed by Ignác Alpár. The old building, which had thus lost much of its former significance, served as a venue for cultural events and balls until part of it was connected to the neighbouring grand hotel, the Danube Palace, in 1937. In 1907 a café-cum-restaurant called Deli was opened on the ground floor. The establishment was, according to a contemporary report, “an eating place patronised by the Danube-side promenaders and the elite of the merchant classes”. The Deli, which functioned as a café in the daytime and a restaurant at night, had a fine patio on the

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