Quite a few shots ago now we talked about the Ritz. Well, I'll see your Ritz and raise you an equally famous hotel, the Dorchester. Built in 1931 and retaining 1930s ambience, it has been home to the rich and famous over the years. Poet Cecil Day-Lewis, novelist Somerset Maugham... writing must've actually paid a hell of a lot better in those days than it does these days. There are some rich writers around, but most of them made their dough over 20 years ago. These days Amazon has so debased the value of writing that every day I get offers to buy a dozen novels for less than a buck. If I thought that I could support myself in a style that would set me up in a place like the Dorchester through my writing I'd drop my current gig in a heartbeat.

So how much is it? Remember how I said that the rooms at the Ritz start at a little bit over $1000 Australian per night? Well, at most booking sites you won't get change from AU$1500 per night here. Though that said, looking through the site of the hotel itself just tossed up a deluxe Queen room for £505 per night which would translate to about AU$955. Though honestly, the rooms are no better (other than the exclusiveness of the address) than those that you would get for several hundred dollars less at an Australian Hyatt.

Apparently the hotel was home to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at times as well, though that's of less interest to me than the fact that Robert Vaughan stayed here while he was filming the early 70s series The Protectors. "How the hell can you possibly know that?", I hear you ask. Until a couple of days ago I didn't; just by sheer coincidence on You Tube I came across a video of him talking about that time, and how he was put up in that hotel by Lord Lew Grade who met him at the entrance and took his bags.

Would I like to stay in the same hotel as The Man from UNCLE, who is sadly no longer with us? You betcha. Would I pay $1500 Australian a night for it? My currently non-existent writing career (outside of photo captions such as this one) would need to take off like a Saturn V and I would need to have money to burn.

The other thing to note about the Dorchester is that there is always an eclectic collection of high value luxury sports cars out the front which you may or may not be able to see in this shot when it's reduced in size. Nonetheless, they are there.

I'll also mention in passing that the sculpture that you can see in the park separating the two lanes of Park Lane is "Moving Forward" by Jill Berelowitz.