Juhász Gyula - Szántó András: Hotels - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

and wooded park covering several acres of land overgrown with exotic vegetation was the pride of Buda before World War I.

An invitation for tenders was issued in July 1928 for the construction of a group of modern, five-storey apartment houses with terraces in a designated section of Keleti Károly utca. The result was a cluster of villa- style buildings visible to this day and, at the junction of two streets, a seven-storey hotel-cum-apartment-build- ing that was to be operated as a “Boarding House,” (at No. 9 Keleti Károly utca, district II) something previously unknown in Hungary.

The closed competition was won by architect Károly Rainer. The companies working on the construction of the new hotel-cum-apartment-house did a first-class job. Eighty one-room and two-room suites were created, with each apartment containing a bathroom and a small cooking-recess, which was supplemented with a kitchen proper on every floor. There was also a fully equipped kitchen featuring a dumb waiter in the basement to cater for those wishing to have three meals a day. A permanent staff working round the clock looked after room service, cleaning and the laundry. There was a parlour, a reading, a wireless room and a telephone box on each floor.

On the ground floor, where the Rózsadomb restaurant is today, there was a fine, elegant restaurant with a terrace open to the street and an open-air section in the courtyard, together with a café. Designed by interior

The courtyard of the boarding house

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