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(ARCHIVE) Vol. XXI No. 16, December 1-15, 2011
A pioneer in hoteliering in Madras – D'Angelis
(By A Special Correspondent)

(Continued from last fortnight)

A 1913 description of Hotel D’Angelis by Somerset Playne states:

“The hotel occupies a central position in the European quarter of Mount Road, the leading thoroughfare in the city. It is near Government House and the Madras Club, and within a few minutes’ drive from the Central and Egmore railway stations.

“A very fine reception-room is noticed on entering the building, whence visitors are transferred to the upper floors by an electric lift, the first in Madras. Too great praise cannot be given for the excellence of the sanitary arrangements, as each sleeping apartment is provided with a bath and toilet-room, in which there is an unlimited supply of hot (another first) and cold water.


An advertisement for D'Angelis hotels in the 1920s.



Hotel D'Angelis' reception room.



Hotel D'Angelis' roof garden

“All the ceilings are fitted with embossed steel, which is not only a preventive against undesirable insects, but is also a practical safeguard against fire. Wide passages and verandahs ensure the circulation of an abundance of fresh air, but additional comfort is derived from electric fans, which are to be found in every room (yet another first). Every inch of flooring is covered with Minton tiles, the utmost cleanliness being thus ensured.

“There is a very handsome dining-hall on the first floor, in which more than one hundred guests can be accommodated with meals at separate tables, and adjoining this are several private dining-rooms and a banqueting hall, which will seat sixty persons. The drawing-room is designed after a Swiss chalet, and decorators and furnishers have vied with each other in producing a cosy retreat amid most delightfully artistic surroundings.

“Billiard players have a choice of three excellent tables, which have been fitted up by J.W. Roberts, of Madras, in a spacious hall measuring 80 feet in length and 30 feet in width, and there are comfortable reading and writing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen. No fewer than four verandahs overlook a charming Parisian garden, which is not equaled in South India for its wealth of shady trees and palms, and here a visiting guest may be served with light refreshments while listening to the captivating strains of a first-class band of music.

“Messrs. D’Angelis & Son are renowned for the excellence of their English, French, and Italian cuisine, and their lengthy experience in catering is a guarantee that the most fastidious customers cannot find fault. An indispensable adjunct to the culinary department of a large hotel in the East has been provided in the shape of a refrigerating and ice-making plant (another first) and there are, in addition, cool chambers for preserving meat, butter, and other provisions.

“A motor-bus is sent to meet the principal trains and steamers, and this vehicle is available for parties desiring to visit places of interest in the neighbourhood.

“Not the least important recommendation of this hotel is a fact that the proprietors take an active interest in securing all possible comforts and attention for their visitors, although an expert European manager has direct control over the small army of servants.”

Giacomo D’Angelis expanded these operations by signing a management contract to run Sylk’s Hotel in Ooty. He eventually purchased and refurbished the hotel and handed over its management to his daughter Marianna.


Marianna of Sylk's.

Marianna married an Italian, Aldo Palazzo Palazzi, who had come to India to work in the hotel business. He was 42 and she was 29. It has been stated that Palazzo was the chef at Sylk’s. In spite of Giacomo D’Angelis’ opposition, the couple married in November 1920. Aldo Palazzo was Marianna’s first husband. They lived in India and she actively helped her father to run the hotel in Madras and, later, managed Sylk’s in Ooty. Marianna was the only one who continued her father’s business after Carlo and Giacomo D’Angelis’ deaths. Giacomo D’Angelis died in Turin (Italy) in the early 1930s during one of his many ‘holidays’ from Madras. Marianna left India after selling her properties and settled in London in 1965 with her third husband, F. Penn, who was the proprietor of a brewery in Bangalore.

Dawson’s Hotel, which opened in Ooty in 1841, was sold to C. Sylks in 1868 and became Sylk’s Hotel. Giacomo D’Angelis acquired Sylk’s Hotel, it is believed, shortly after the Great War (1914-18) and by 1925 renamed it the Savoy. He first ran it as a summer hotel but, later, made it a year-round one. He transferred ownership of the Savoy to Marianna in 1925.

* * *


The Parisian Garden (above and below) with its bandstand



View of the Parisian Garden from the second floor.

Italians never considered India as a final destinations; the country was simply regarded as a land which offered certain business opportunities. The majority of Italians never settled in India permanently, and used to go back home at the age of retirement, or even earlier, handing over their businesses to younger members of the family or relatives-in-law. They always perceived their stay in India as temporary. An exception was represented by those who married non-Italian women in India. Generally speaking, Irish and French girls were preferred because of their Catholic backgrounds. But even Italians who married non-Italian women in India used to take their ‘Indian’ families back with them to Italy when they retired. The links with Italy were always overwhelmingly strong. They were proud of being the nationals of a recently unified country, to build which they had contributed.

Giacomo D’Angelis and his family in India did not fit well into this picture. During the years he and his family spent in India, he did not maintain any close link with his family in Italy and this was rather atypical of his Italian background.

The absence of direct links with Italy culminated in the D’Angelis family moving to different countries, one of them to as far away as Chile. Giacomo D’Angelis was multilingual and a highly cosmopolitan man; he liked to travel and he felt at ease in an international environment. Giacomo’s personality, the colonial context and the mixed marriage greatly influenced the development of his children’s identity. Further, Giacomo D’Angelis’ contacts with France resulted in the children receiving a French and English education, and being bereft of any direct contact with Italy and Italian culture. But from a letter written to Louis D’ Angelis we learn that Marianna, and probably also Carlo and Louis himself, knew Italian. However, there is no evidence to confirm that they used to speak Italian in their everyday life.

Once, D'Angelis was the best hotel in town. Giacomo D'Angelis himself was known, apart from his confectionery and hospitality businesses, as being the first resident of the city to fly an airplane. Suddenly, a couple of years earlier, out of the blue, a great-grandson of his, Jefferis Donald Evans D'Angelis, got in touch with me from, of all places, Santiago, Chile. We have kept in touch since and he has over time sent me a heap of pictures of both hotel and family. A few of them appear in these pages and others had appeared in the last issue. Accompanying them is a text put together from a paper that Dr. Antonella Viola of the Universidade Nova, Lisbon, Portugal, published – Migration across Three Continents: The D'Angelis Family – and which Jefferis D'Angelis sent me, as well as from information my correspondent contributed, and from other published sources.

– THE EDITOR

On the other hand, a picture that Giacomo D’Angelis sent to his son Louis, who had already moved to America, suggests that he preferred to talk English rather than Italian to his children. The photograph was taken in Algiers during a vacation and contains a few lines in English written by Giacomo D’Angelis himself. It is very likely that communication within the family was conducted almost exclusively in English, particularly as they spent much of their lives in an English-speaking environment.

It must also be noted that the Giacomo D’Angelis who lived in Madras till his death was considered by many to be French. Giacomo, in fact, was thought to be Corsican. This was most probably due to the fact that Giacomo arrived in India from France. But Giacomo did not seem to have been particularly disturbed by the fact that he was considered French rather than Italian. Connections with France had a great influence on the family. When asked about his grandfather Louis D’Angelis, Jefferis D’Angelis said that he remembered him as a “true Frenchman.” Louis D’Angelis migrated to Chile in 1923.

* * *

After D'Angelis became Bosotto's

Giacomo D’Angelis sold Hotel D’Angelis to another Italian confectioner in Madras, Bosotto, who renamed it Hotel Bosotto Brothers. In 1950, when Bosotto returned to Italy after World War II, he sold the hotel and confectionery business to Musulipa Chaudhary, who had been his dairy products supplier, for Rs. 15,000.




(Concluded)


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In this issue

A Marina take-over
With first success, will HCC begin to stir?
Heritage destination – Pulicat
Heritage destination – Tranquebar
An association determined to revive Tranquebar
A pioneer in hoteliering in Madras – D'Angelis

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