Sarova Stanley Heritage Walk
Nairobi growth was so interlaced with the growth of Sarova Stanley to the point that it was in its bar that the first home of the Nairobi Stock Exchange was established.
Sarova Stanley’s main café was the first pavement café in Nairobi and it has evolved around the famous “Thorn Tree” which was the first “Post office” of Nairobi. In fact the Thorn tree became the bearer of messages that were stuck on its yellowish trunk to be plucked off by travelers even before the city was born.
Walking through the hotel mahogany rotating door, yes you guessed it, it is still the very first original door of the hotel; stepping on the original black and white motif floor, you will feel projected in a gone by era when the first explorers roamed the country.
During the Heritage Tour you will have an opportunity to visit the original rooms where so many personalities stayed, and should you wish to become part of the “Stanley legend” you can still book and enjoy them.
Each enchanting suite is named after an important person or place in Nairobi’s history, The histori- cal suites include; The Windsor – named after the 1928 ball held in honor of the then prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester and which resulted in one week of celebrations for the entire city, The Stanley - named after the famous explorer Henry Morton Stanley, The Karen Blixen – named after the beloved heroine so well represented in the movie “Out of Africa” and who regularly patronized the Stanley, The Lamu Suite - named for the Swahili/Arabic Island and lastly, The Connaught Suite - which commemorates the first visit of a Royal Family to Kenya in 1906.
Even the meeting rooms make part of such a rich history, those include, The Huxley for Elspeth Hux- ley, also a former patron of the hotel, The Hemingway for Ernest Hemingway who stayed at the Stanley while recovering from an illness and where he wrote novels in which the hotel itself is featured, The Baden-Powell named after the founder of the Scouts Movement, Lord Baden-Powell, who spent his last years in Kenya, The Batian and Lenana named after two of Mount Kenya’s three major peaks which were visible from the hotel roof when this was the highest building in town, last but not least, The Churchill ballroom named after Great Britain’s most famous politician and Prime Minister who, as Un- der-Secretary of State for the Colonies, visited Kenya in 1907 and where Her Majesty the Princess Eliz- abeth hosted her state dinner in 1952.
Author: admin
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