Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

The Age of Adaline comes out in theatres today in Canada and the USA (8 May in the UK and 3 December in Germany)!

The period drama spanning eight decades (1925 to the present day) was filmed around Vancouver last spring. One of the film locations that can be seen in the trailer is the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on Burrard and West Georgia.

This is the third hotel to be named Hotel Vancouver, completed in May 1939, on the eve of the Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the current monarch’s parents. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth, lovingly remembered as the Queen Mother.

A thank you note from the Queen Mother

Where the cars go through between Burrard & Hornby

The main entrance & foyer

The lounge pre-2014

Parts of the hotel were recently renovated to bring back the glamour of the 1930’s. What I saw at the end of 2014, however, was more grey and black. (The City of Vancouver seems to have an obsession with painting its buildings grey, as if the sky were not already miserably grey enough.) Nothing of the new interior designs looked anything close to the glamourous 30’s. Shame really.

An example of a lounge by the lifts

Six years ago, I was invited to stay at the hotel for one night with the bridal party (my aunt and cousins). We were on the 14th floor (by the way, there is no floor 13) in a room at the end of the hallway.

Our bed did not look as elegant as the hotel. No doubt the room has been renovated since 2009!

Rumour has it that a Lady in Red floats around on the 14th floor of the hotel. No one knows which room she stays in but one YouTube video showed the door to the room we’d stayed in. Thankfully, I slept peacefully that night and did not encounter any mysterious lady in the room or hallway. Guests need not worry, however, as she is a friendly sort and simply enjoys dancing the night away.

If you ever get a chance to visit the hotel, I highly recommend you visit the ballrooms. These are, in my opinion, the most elegant and glamourous rooms in the hotel. No wonder one of the ballrooms was used as the setting for the Age of Adaline.