Built in the late 1930s, according to architectural historian Marko Kiessel, the King George was the first hotel to open on the Varoshia seashore proper. Other hotels, still visible on the abandoned skyline, were built in this period, such as the Florida or the Costantia.
The King George stood out for being one of the first modernist hotels. In its first phase, it was a semi-functionalist building, corresponding to local modernist conventions. It vaguely approximated the International Style pioneered by European architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. A careful look at archival images from the 1960s, however, indicates that the hotel underwent a second phase, reducing its modern features by adding the famous round arches in the ground floor patio and a tiled roof, both imitating Cypriot domestic architecture. It was very popular with tourists and locals and featured in postcards and magazines as one of the best on the island. Now it is in a derelict state, almost collapsing.
This is a self-adhesive luggage label depicting two views of the King George Hotel, and two views from its veranda with the map of Cyprus imposed in the middle. The colours used are: pink, blue, white, brown and green.
mmr-00096 > Luggage label King George Hotel, Print, ca. 1960
You can see this exhibit up close, along with many others, in the 3rd-floor exhibition room of CVAR.
