A view of the front elevation the Burlington Hotel on the east side of Cork Street, Mayfair, shortly before its demolition in 1936. The hotel gave its addresses as 19 and 20 Cork Street and 29 and 30 Old Burlington Street, the parallel street, and it occupied a large area between. To the right of the hotel is the premises of Lenygon & Morant, makers of Howard easy chairs, whose address was 31 Old Burlington Street. The design of the Cork Street "garden front" of the grand house that became the hotel in the 1830s was based on ideas by Palladio by Richard Boyle, the third earl of Burlington. The building began as a small palazzo at 29 Old Burlington Street, built by Lord Burlington for General (later Field-Marshal) George Wade that was much modified and expanded over later years. In the picture, an estate agent's board on the facade says the freehold has been sold. The hotel comprises three separate houses, the one to the left four windows wide and the other six. Each has a shallow portico with double Ionic columns at each side. Each is topped with a flower box. One of the best known residents of the hotel was the nurse Florence Nightingale, who first took rooms there in 1842 with her family. Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist, made his London home there after his appointment as prime minister of the Cape in South Africa in 1890. A Ford Model C car is parked in the street with registration number BLW819. A hand cart is partly visible on the left. A later commercial block occupies the site.
