Grand Pacific Hotel (Fiji)
Encyclopedia
The Grand Pacific Hotel is located on the main sea front, on Victoria Parade in Suva
. It was built by The Union Steamship Company
in 1914 to serve the needs of passengers on its transpacific routes. The design of the hotel was to make the passengers think they had never gone ashore, for rooms in the GPH were like first-class staterooms, complete with saltwater bathrooms and plumbing fixtures identical to those on an ocean liner.
It has been a popular place to stay for many famous guests such as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Somerset Maugham, James A Michener and Queen Elisabeth II.
All rooms were on the second floor, and guests could step outside on a 15 feet (4.6 m)-wide veranda overlooking the harbor and walk completely around the building — as if walking on the deck. When members of the British royal family visited Fiji, they stood atop the wrought-iron portico, the "bow" of the Grand Pacific, and addressed their subjects massed across Victoria Parade in Albert Park.
The hotel was built on the landing spot for the original Suva village, called Vu-ni-vesi after the trees nearby. There was a hotel on the site previously called Hotel Suva, which was little more than a shack.
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...
. It was built by The Union Steamship Company
Union Company
The Union Company, Union Steam Ship Company , or Union Line was started in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1875, when it was floated by James Mills, who had been clerk to Johnny Jones and his Harbour Steam Company....
in 1914 to serve the needs of passengers on its transpacific routes. The design of the hotel was to make the passengers think they had never gone ashore, for rooms in the GPH were like first-class staterooms, complete with saltwater bathrooms and plumbing fixtures identical to those on an ocean liner.
It has been a popular place to stay for many famous guests such as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Somerset Maugham, James A Michener and Queen Elisabeth II.
All rooms were on the second floor, and guests could step outside on a 15 feet (4.6 m)-wide veranda overlooking the harbor and walk completely around the building — as if walking on the deck. When members of the British royal family visited Fiji, they stood atop the wrought-iron portico, the "bow" of the Grand Pacific, and addressed their subjects massed across Victoria Parade in Albert Park.
The hotel was built on the landing spot for the original Suva village, called Vu-ni-vesi after the trees nearby. There was a hotel on the site previously called Hotel Suva, which was little more than a shack.