The E&O Hotel: Pearl of Penang Ilsa Sharp

Established in 1885 by the Sarkies brothers, the Eastern & Oriental (E&O) Hotel, and in subsequent years its equally famous sister grand hotels the Raffles in Singapore, and the Strand in Rangoon attracted the likes of Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Hermann Hesse.


By 1927, the E&O was being hailed as 'The premier hotel east of the Suez', boasting more than a hundred rooms, 40 of them with adjoining bathrooms, hot and cold running water, individual telephones and a 842-foot seafront, 'the longest of any hotel in the world'.


Today, more than a century since its establishment, having survived two world wars, and more reversals of fortunes than it has had changes of ownership, the E&O has reclaimed its legacy.


It is thus timely that its story is told at last, so that all may appreciate why, as one writer has put it, 'those who have once visited this famous hotel, regard the E&O as a haven to be sought again and again, as the traveller to the home of his affection'.