Carlton Hotel, building in South Africa
The Carlton Hotel is a former luxury hotel in Johannesburg that opened in 1972 as part of a major urban development project with skyscrapers and a shopping complex. The building featured an elegant lobby with palm court, multiple restaurants, an ice rink, and offered views from the top of the Carlton Centre.
The Carlton Hotel opened in 1972, replacing an earlier Carlton Hotel from the early 1900s as part of a major city center transformation. It closed in the late 1990s and has remained vacant since, reflecting the city's shifting economic fortunes.
The Carlton Hotel served as a gathering place for celebrations and special occasions in Johannesburg, where locals and visitors marked important moments like weddings. Its elegant restaurants and grand lobby were central to the city's social life during the 1970s and 1980s.
The building is not accessible today as it has been vacant and deteriorating since the late 1990s. For those interested in city history, it remains visible as a landmark tied to Johannesburg's urban development and 1970s architecture.
Photographers documented the hotel's abandoned spaces in 2013 with empty rooms, dusty halls, and peeling walls, creating a visual contrast between its former grandeur and current decline. These images show how rapidly a symbol of Johannesburg's prosperity transformed into a silent, deteriorating structure.
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