The Excelsior, Former hotel in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
The Excelsior was a four-star hotel at 281 Gloucester Road in Causeway Bay, opened in 1973 and designed by Eric Cumine in a modernist style with Japanese Metabolism influences. Its 865 rooms and 21 suites, most facing Victoria Harbour, occupied a tower whose cream facade was lined with square windows and topped by an orange-red "San Miguel" sign. The wider glass-panelled base held restaurants and bars, including the basement Dickens Bar and the 34th-floor ToTT's and Roof Terrace.
The hotel opened in 1973 on a plot sold shortly after Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841. Its decades as a landmark in the business district concluded in 2019 when demolition made way for a new office tower.
The basement Dickens Bar was described as a wood-panelled British gastropub and became Hong Kong's first base for jazz. Yee Tung Heen, the second-floor Cantonese restaurant, held a one-star Michelin award. On the 34th floor, ToTT's opened in 1979 as the disco Talk of the Town and gained an outdoor terrace in 2009.
The hotel stood at 281 Gloucester Road, opposite the Noon-day Gun, and closed on 31 March 2019. Its site is now occupied by One Causeway Bay, a 24-storey office tower with four retail floors, due for completion in the second quarter of 2025. The nearest MTR station is Causeway Bay.
The hotel's air conditioning ran on seawater drawn from the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, a system shared with several other buildings along Victoria Harbour. The 34th-floor bar opened in 1979 as a disco called Talk of the Town, was renamed ToTT's Asian Grill in 1995, and gained an outdoor terrace in 2009.
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