Page 90 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

Fig. 9
range made it possible to supply the whole hotel with hot water. LIGHTING AND HEATING on a par with the newest first-class hotels. Noblesse oblige: Beau-Rivage to Switzerland, but to the fact that they are staying longer and spending
By 1880, the latrine system was also showing its limitations. To Lighting techniques evolved rapidly in the nineteenth century. has to introduce those improvements today. These include electric lights.’ less, and above all to the large number of hotels that have been built and
43
eliminate the offensive odours, the toilets were progressively At first, the desire to vanquish darkness was expressed mainly in In November of the same year, an extraordinary general to the fierce competition this has caused. Finally, we have missed out
equipped with water-closet systems. However, building bathrooms the public spaces of large cities, where nightlife was becoming meeting approved the project and the budget. A 40-cv hydraulic on the winter season two years running. The same applies to Vevey and
and toilets on each floor meant reduced profit. The directors were more intense. Considerations of policing and road safety, but turbine, operated by the waters of Lake Bret, was to drive a dynamo Lausanne. Have the new hotels of Montreux perhaps lured away our
37
loath to sacrifice the revenue of several rooms to satisfy hygiene also of attractiveness and prestige, prompted an improvement in able to power 800 incandescent lamps and 10 electric arcs. At the former guests? Has the harshness of these two winters perhaps also driven
requirements. public lighting, until then provided by oil lamps. In Switzerland, instigation of the municipal authorities, the Ouchy bandstand was them away?’ 46
At the turn of the century, the model of the American the towns of Bern (1843), Geneva (1844) and Lausanne (1846) also lit with this new energy source. Several solutions were consequently suggested: simply
room with en-suite bathroom and toilet started to be emulated were the first to be equipped with gas systems. But the new The decision to build the Palace, taken in 1905, called for a closing during the winter months, operating at a more modest
38
in some big European hotels. As we have already seen, the need lighting method was little used indoors; here candles and then oil new choice of technology, because the installations in use were level, operating another Lausanne hotel or even buying a hotel
to compete was one of the reasons for building the Palace, lamps dominated the market. Luxury hotels were an exception, no longer able to satisfy total consumption needs. The question on the French Riviera. However, it was decided to leave things
44
fitted with the very latest sanitation facilities. In 1905 and 1910, however; for reasons of convenience and prestige, it was considered was whether Beau-Rivage wanted to continue to produce its own as they were.
major renovation work was also carried out in the original appropriate to introduce gas lighting. Installed in Beau-Rivage in electricity or be supplied by the municipal network set up in As soon as the new manager Tschumi arrived at the helm
buildings: ‘Mr de Crousaz, then Mr Dapples, on behalf of the works 1861, this luxury mode of illumination underwent only a few 1901. A midway solution was finally adopted. The construction of of the hotel in 1889, he was unstinting in his efforts to revitalise
committee, cited the foreign guests’ and Mr Tschumi’s insistence as the alterations in the following decades. These mainly concerned a plant with storage batteries made it possible to purchase energy the winter season. An initial programme, in 1890, envisaged the
reason for the speed with which these works were carried out, as their improving the lighting of the hotel’s surroundings, in particular from the municipal utility company at a preferential night tariff creation of a kursaal (a sketch played out in a spa hotel) in Lausanne
execution was of the utmost urgency’. Many rooms were sacrificed the park and the promenade. 39 of 5 centimes/kWh. According to the estimate, it would cost or Ouchy, dances and the installation of a lounge, billiards room
34
in order to install water-closets and bathrooms on each floor. During the belle époque, adapting to the progress of 36,000 fr. a year, instead of the estimated 45,000 fr. and 73,000 and games room, as well as the construction of a terrace, carried
47
In 1908, a new laundry was also built in the basement of the electric lighting was a major challenge. The Edison system of an fr. for the other two options. As for water, the public utility made out in 1893. By 1897, a new campaign was presented to the
original building. incandescent lamp, exhibited in Paris in 1881, produced a less it possible to reduce operating costs considerably. In 1911, the board of directors. Apart from putting in a central heating system,
Water was the guests’ basic drink and a personal hygiene dazzling light that could be used in interior spaces. Despite its installation was already no longer sufficient to meet the rise in considered to be indispensable, Tschumi proposed the development
40
requisite, but it was also important for generating power. Before high cost, electricity met with interest from the hotel business, consumption, partly due to the mechanisation of Beau-Rivage, of a spa and leisure centre in Ouchy: ‘The proposed scheme consists
electricity could be transported over long distances, which where its hygienic and practical qualities were appreciated. But which increased daytime electricity usage. Between 1903 and of building in Ouchy, on the north side of the Longchamp land, a bathing
became possible in the late 1880s, pressurised-water networks the various management bodies were primarily motivated by its 1914, the hotel installed electric clocks and a refrigerated cabinet, establishment offering all the latest advances in hydrotherapy, plain baths,
provided many Swiss towns with cheap power. In Lausanne, capacity to fascinate guests, which made it an excellent promotional and acquired a vacuum cleaner and a silver-cleaning machine. electric baths, electric massage treatment, alkaline water treatment; then, on
35
this service was provided from 1876 by the privately owned asset. And so it is not surprising that the Lake Geneva area was Rather than boosting production, it was decided to reduce the the southern side of the terrace, a casino with reading rooms and billiards
company Lausanne-Ouchy et des Eaux de Bret. Beau-Rivage one of the pioneering regions in Switzerland and even in Europe. power consumed by the lighting. The carbon-filament lamps rooms, a bar for cold drinks in summer and tea in winter, a large auditorium
started to use it from 1888, to improve mobility inside the hotel. Tourist demand effectively motivated technology transfer here. were replaced by 2000 metal-filament lamps which consumed for concerts and plays – everything, in fact, that might healthily interest
41
48
The directors finally decided to install a lift after having refused In Lausanne, where a small power station was installed in 1882, the less energy. 45 and entertain the public without introducing them to games of chance.’
to do so on several occasions. A hydraulic motor was chosen Grand-Pont and Ours hotels were among the first subscribers. Heating was another indoor comfort factor, especially in the Despite the purchase of an alkaline spring in Renens,
42
36
because of its advantageous installation and operating costs: the All the same, the Swiss electricity company’s network remained winter. Until the mid-1890s, stoves were used, but their limited whose waters were conveyed to Ouchy, in the end the project
cost of one journey was estimated at 2 centimes. In 1901, a goods confined to the town centre, where the concentration of customers effectiveness did not solve the chronic difficulties suffered in the was abandoned. The principal reason for this defeat, which
lift was powered in the same way. Shortly after the introduction made the installation of the necessary infrastructures cost effective. cold season. By the end of the 1870s, the combined effect of the had significant financial consequences, seems to have been the
of the hydraulic lift, this technical innovation was mentioned in In 1894, the board of directors proposed overcoming this problem recession and the competition plunged Beau-Rivage into the red contamination of the spring. 49
the hotel’s advertising, and was even mentioned on the manager’s by constructing its own small generator at Beau-Rivage: ‘We still during the winter months: ‘These results, gentlemen, are truly dismal. The steam central heating, on the other hand, was quickly
headed notepaper (fig. 9). have work to do, gentlemen, to make the necessary progress that will put us They are attributable not to a decline in the number of foreigners coming installed over the course of 1898 (fig. 10). In 1901, it was extended

The hydraulic lift at the Beau-Rivage, used for publicity purposes
on hotel director Jacques Tschumi’s headed notepaper, 1892.

90 91