Hotel Metropole aan Trafalgar Square in Londen c. 1880 - 1910

This photograph of the Hotel Metropole on Trafalgar Square in London was captured by James Valentine. Valentine, who lived during the Victorian era, documented the expansion of the British Empire, of which this luxury hotel provides just a glimpse. The image encapsulates the era's ambition, technological advancements, and social stratification. Hotels like the Metropole catered to the burgeoning upper class, whose wealth was often derived from colonial exploitation. The photograph, with its carefully composed street scene, subtly reinforces the era's ideals of progress and order. It presents a world of horse-drawn carriages and grand architecture, masking the stark inequalities beneath the surface of imperial London. It prompts us to reflect on how spaces, like the Hotel Metropole, become stages where class, power, and the weight of history intersect.