Harrison’s Hostel

Harrison’s Hostel really did exist. Thomas Cook, who, as a temperance reformer, got into the travel business by using excursions to lure working people away from drink, persuaded Mr Thomas Harrison of Pimlico to turn his furniture depository into a hostel for visitors to the Great Exhibition. From Cook’s point of view, the venture proved a great success in that it protected ordinary travellers from the extortionate rents being charged by private landlords; from Harrison’s, it was a disaster. The hostel bankrupted him. For one and threepence per night up to a thousand residents were to be provided with bed and bedding, soap and towel. A decent breakfast was to be had for 4d, a good dinner for 8d, and for a further penny per item, the visitor might have his boots blacked, his chin shaved and his illnesses treated by a surgeon who visited every morning at nine. The dormitories were partitioned into cubicles, and, in order to prevent pilfering or drunkenness, janitors patrolled the gas-lit corridors day and night. Luxuries were not neglected either:  there was a large smoking room in which a band played every evening, and on top of the building an observation platform from which visitors might enjoy uninterrupted views of the river and the city.

The two illustrations from the London Illustrated News were published to coincide with the opening of the hostel. It is hard to pinpoint the exact location of the hostel in Ranelagh Road, Pimlico, now. During the building of the Bazalgette sewers in the 1860s the Thames was narrowed and the Embankment constructed. It is clear from the picture that the hostel was on the Thames foreshore (note the wharf), a foreshore that is now some way inland.