Cecil Hotels, Their Connection To Cleopatra’s Needle And Their Rather Odd Legacies

Although I am sure there are a few Cecil Hotel’s or Hotel Cecil’s in the world today that are successful, there have been several hotels with ‘Cecil’ in their title name that have had a lot of mystery, misery and/or upheaval attached to them.

One of the most notorious is the Hotel Cecil, in Los Angeles where a few years ago a Canadian Chinese student was found dead in the water tank on top of the building. No one has really said how she got there. Then there was the tragedy of the pigeon lady – a woman who lived at the Cecil and fed pigeons. A number of other highly notorious persons stayed at the place too, which sadly became run down and shabby.

There was however another Hotel Cecil in London that began having problems even before the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. The London Cecil, an 800 room hotel near The Strand, was built between 1890 and 1896 and the manager, who was called Jabez Balfour, a well-connected businessman ended up going bankrupt and being sentenced to 14 years in jail. This hotel was pulled down in 1930 but some of its frontage was kept for another building.

Then there is yet another Cecil Hotel – this time one built in 1929 in Alexandria in Egypt on the site of where the monument Cleopatra’s Needle used to be. This also went through difficult times and ownership changes, when the real owners were thrown out of the country, even though Winston Churchill, the writer Somerset Maugham and Al Capone all stayed there once.

Could Cleopatra’s Needle (any of the three) have exerted some strange force on Hotel Cecil’s throughout the world? Cleopatra’s Needle is an obelisk with a twin in New York and an obelisk from a different pair at a site in Luxor is also erected in Paris. The London and New York obelisks were made in the 18^th Dynasty and the Paris one is from the 19^th Dynasty so it is newer than the other two.

There is a time capsule box buried under the London obelisk and it has exerted a dark and depressing force on many people. A number of people have committed suicide near to the London Cleopatra’s Needle and others have reported feeling depressed and dizzy if they have stood near it for too long. This obelisk was near to the London Cecil Hotel. It was also removed with its twin that went to New York, from near the site in Alexandria, Egypt where the Egyptian Cecil Hotel is now. So there is a connection with these obelisks and hotels called ‘Cecil’. It is still possible that this influence could have had an effect on the Los Angeles Cecil Hotel because of the twin obelisk in Central Park, which admittedly is nowhere near Los Angeles, but nonetheless time and distance mean nothing to spirits or members of the supernatural.

One thing is certain though. It is probably best not to name a hotel ‘Cecil’ just to be on the safe side.