Lord’s Hotel coming down

This old Ras Beirut hotel has been abandoned for a few years and now looks to be coming down for good. Notice the top floor has already been demolished:

Also notice the archaic concrete and steel telephone pole (right) which is probably from a similar era, as they’re aren’t many left in the city.

Lord’s Hotel gained a reputation as a seedy motel in its later years.

The name “Lord’s” is also interesting. There are a few old clothing stores in Hamra that still carry the same name. I wonder if they are owned by the same person and where this odd title comes from.

Does anyone have any memories they would like to share?

The hotel is just across the street from the Mediterranean boardwalk or corniche, a prime location today, probably worth tens of millions of dollars. Lord’s stands next to the old Tokyo restaurant, whose days also seem to be numbered:

The two establishments are among the oldest in the area, which is now dominated by luxury towers, parking lots and snarls of traffic. I’m guessing there was quite a different feel to this corner back when it probably boomed in the 1960s.