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Hitchcock’s LondonWith a side-trip to Hitchcock’s MarrakeshBy Lucy KomisarAlfred Hitchcock fans walking into the lobby of the old Coburg Hotel must shiver a bit. This was the place in the 1972 thriller “Frenzy” where Dick Blaney (Jon Finch) took his girlfriend, the barmaid Babs Milligan (Anna Massey), after his soon-to-be murdered ex-wife (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) slipped him some cash. The bellhop led them through the square paneled glass doors, to room 322, “the cupid room.” Ask for the Dome Suite.
Something else has changed. In the dining room is a
fine painting of the old Coburg Hotel. The cream-colored stone hotel, which
has the air of a villa, was built in 1905 by the same designer who built the
Queensway tube station in a part of London called Bayswater. But the
nameplate outside announces that now it’s the Hyde Park Hilton. One is the Globe Pub on Bow Street, where Dick and Babs worked. You can still have a pint at the Globe and enjoy its 18th century interior.
If you’re a serious Hitchcock fan and want to see eleven locations connected with the old man and his work, including Brompton Oratory where he was married, his Earl’s Court walk-up, and sites chosen or rejected for “Frenzy,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956 version) and “The Paladine Solution,” you can book a 3-hour tour run by American film critic Sandra Shevey. It departs with groups of four or five on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11 a.m.: first stop the Coburg Hotel. Shevey, who is preparing a book on Hitchcock`s art and design, imparts a wealth of Hitchcock, film and site lore and anecdotes.
So out of the chill, back to the Coburg….um, the Hilton. If you think Hiltons are all five star and pricey, you’re wrong. This one is 4-star and has a friendly demeanor, starting with a cozy living-room-style lounge with easy chairs and a fireplace where you can take tea and drinks. Rooms are small but comfortable. Just around the corner on Queensway are several cyber cafes (about $1 for 30 minutes), there are numerous eateries (none very expensive), and just past the Bayswater tube station is a shopping mall with a Vodaphone shop in case you want to buy a GSM cell phone or a sim card.
The Hilton London Hyde Park The Mamounia Hotel Reservations also via Leading Hotels of the World or Concorde Hotels. Rack rates start at 2040 MAD low season ($224) – 3540 MAD ($388) holiday season. Highest is 30,040 ($3,299) for a villa Rack rates are published rates. Often you can get discounts via the internet. The best concise (and lightweight!) travel book on London for sites, maps, food, shopping and events is “Top 10 London” $10 from DK Eyewitness Guides. Eyewitness’ “Morocco” ($25) is more detailed, filled with glorious color photos and just the right amount of detail for the sites you want to see as well as detailed information about restaurants, shopping and “survival.” Both at http://www.dk.com. Images by Lucy Komisar. Except The Globe pub image by Selwyn Ray, http://ilmot.co.uk/. |
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You might get the same chamber if you go there today.
You’ll see the same lobby and the halls Hitchcock shot. You’ll get the view
of Hyde Park through the entrance door. But the bellhop will not call the
police to arrest you. Nor will – forewarned by a garish newspaper headline –
you exit through the window and down the fire stairs.
Hitchcock’s London! The old master liked to put his characters in places
familiar to him. He set the murderers flat in a nondescript Covent Garden
building with a sign plate for Duckworth Publishers at the front.
Hitchcock’s father had been a Covent Garden merchant and he knew the produce
market well. It’s gone now, but one locations are still there.
Hitchcock shot the “The Man Who Knew Too Much” with
James Stewart and Doris Day in 1956 in London and Marrakech. An American
couple Dr. Ben MacKenna (Stewart), with his wife Jo (Day) are staying at the
legendary Mamounia Hotel meet a mysterious Moroccan who is murdered in the
market at Marrakech. (Now you’re more likely to meet upscale tourists than
shady characters.)
As he is dying of a knife wound in the market square,
the Moroccan – who turns out to be a secret agent -- whispers to MacKenna (a
medical doctor, of course) about an assassination that is going to occur.
After two Brits who have “casually” joined the day’s outing witness the
whispering, they kidnap the couple’s young son Hank (Christopher Olsen). The
clues lead the Americans to London. 
The assassination is plotted for Royal Albert Hall,
easy to spot. But many of the sites said to be in one location are really
someplace else. The building used to represent the Ambrose Chapel in
Bayswater is really in Brixton. The most interesting locations for that film
are in Marrakech, especially the big market square, the gate to the Medina
and the legendary Mamounia Hotel. I’d been there by chance just six months
before.
This tour is recommended for Hitchcock devotees in good
weather. The cost: £25 ($45) plus a £4.30 ($7.70) one-day tube card which
you can use for other travel that day. For information go to
And, “Yes,” said the Hilton desk clerk, “People do come
here to check out the location used in Frenzy.”