Hotel Majestic, Neoclassical hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Hotel Majestic is a hotel complex on a hillside opposite the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station. The original 1932 block, designed by Keys and Dowdeswell, mixes Beaux-Arts and Art Deco elements: arches, pilasters and a cornice on the main block, a double-storey annexe, and an extended Art Deco porte-cochère running downhill. A 15-storey Tower Wing with 253 rooms stands directly south of the restored 47-room Majestic Wing.
Opened in 1932, the 51-room hotel was commissioned by the Trustees of the Estate of Loke Wan Tho and designed by Keys and Dowdeswell as a Beaux-Arts and Art Deco building facing the railway station. During the Japanese occupation it served as a transit camp; a soldier reportedly killed himself in Room 48. On 17 September 1951 Onn Jaafar held the inaugural meeting of the Independence of Malaya Party here, presided over by Tan Cheng Lock. Closed in 1983, it housed the National Art Gallery from 1984 and reopened as a hotel in 2012.
The hotel's name comes from its 1932 role as a grander alternative to the railway station's own hotel, and its roof garden once held a dance floor with seating for 350. The National Art Gallery occupied the building from 1984 until 1998, before it was restored and reopened in 2012.
The Kuala Lumpur railway station, served by KTM Komuter and ETS, stands directly across the road from the hotel. A pedestrian bridge over the Klang River links that station to Pasar Seni LRT/MRT station, and Muzium Negara MRT station is about a 500-metre walk along Jalan Damansara.
The National Art Gallery occupied the building from 1984 until 1998, after the hotel closed in 1983 and was gazetted a historic landmark. A Japanese soldier is reported to have killed himself in Room 48 when Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.
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