Hyde Park Hotel, Knightsbridge

The famous Hyde Park Hotel in Knightsbridge.
Today this hotel is the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, a five star establishment.
It was upscale in 1958, too.
My father, Newlin, lived here for the first part of the time he worked on the Hemel Hempsted project 1958-59.
There is a surprising amount of documentation of this time.  Or maybe not so surprising.
At some point, Daddy sent us a brochure with some pictures of the hotel, showing where he ate breakfast...

And here is the breakfast menu.

We also have several weeks worth of itemized bills:

3 pounds for the room, 6 shillings service charge, 9 shillings for breakfast.

By the fall of 1958,  Newlin had moved to a less posh establishment in Kings Langley, close to Hemel Hempsted rather than close to the DuPont office on Jermyn Street in London.

What I remember is that it was LOUD

Ran across this program booklet today.
I know that we attended this.  I remember nothing of the displays or demonstrations.
It was a hassle to get there.
It was crowded.
It was the first time I had seen a sign saying "In Case of Fire Dial 999." (not comforting)
It was indoors, so VERY LOUD.
We didn't stay for long.

However, the booklet is full of photographs and short histories, and - especially - advertisements with a military spin.

If everyone threw a pebble into the Grand Canyon....

But what if everyone took pebbles out of England?

Somewhat amazed to find that these were brought home and kept.  From the writing on the envelopes, it seems clear that this collection is from the 1958 trip.

The majority are most likely from the beach at ?Lyme Regis? Bognor Regis?, site of a day trip with the Moore's. We were much impressed with the fact that this was considered a beach even though there was no sand, just pebbles.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage:  dunno.. from the parking lot? 

North Wales: either from the seaside at Llandudno or from near the tram stop at the top of Great Orm's Head.
(This is a place I would like to go back to and investigate further someday!)