A Turkish business group in London has leased and restored a historic library building from the early 1900s, turning it into a boutique hotel with a library and culinary arts school.
Following a decadelong restoration project that involved a substantial financial investment, the hotel opened its doors to guests last year.
Each hotel room is named after 75 influential Turkish and foreign figures who have made noteworthy contributions to various fields such as literature, culture, art, science, philosophy and politics.
Önder Sahan, the chairperson of the Limehouse Library Hotel, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they leased the historical library, which had been idle since 2003, from the municipality for 200 years and opened it as a boutique hotel last year.
"Since this location used to be a library in the past, we decided that it should be a project that carries the names that contribute value to this world into the future. In this regard, we created a long list. We conducted research on the stories and contributions of these individuals to the world," he said.
Sahan mentioned that the design and interior architecture applications, as well as the furniture and objects that tell the stories of the personalities for whom the rooms are named, allow the guests at the hotel to see them up close and be informed through books and anecdotes.
He pointed out that there is a special library in a part of the hotel, where guests have the opportunity to work and read. Sahan expressed the joy of reopening the doors of a library, emphasizing that their decision to include a culinary arts academy within the Limehouse Library Hotel was based on the belief that education requires continuity.
Sahan also mentioned his personal interest in reading and writing, stating that in 2005, they built a primary school in the Güllüce village of the Sarıkamış district of Türkiye's eastern Kars province, and they opened a nonprofit college in London called Docklands Academy in 2011.
Sahan pointed out that the school in London enables many young people from different countries to develop and allows Turkish children living in the U.K. to receive Turkish education.
"The continuity of the world depends on the emergence of more educated individuals. I am trying to support education and culture to the best of my ability."
The hotel pays homage to numerous distinguished personalities whose legacies are honored within its premises. These include Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, the political and spiritual figurehead of India's independence movement.
Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, esteemed British authors, share the spotlight with the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, along with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Nazım Hikmet, Yaşar Kemal and Zülfü Livaneli that represent the rich tradition of Russian and Turkish literature.
Rumi, Haji Bektash Veli, Yunus Emre and Pir Sultan Abdal, symbolize Islamic philosophy and folk literature, while Socrates, Galileo Galilei, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mimar Sinan and Omar Khayyam, esteemed individuals from ancient Greece, Italy, Austria and the Ottoman Empire, are others whose memories are cherished in the hotel.
The hotel offers guests staying in the rooms named after these individuals a trip through time with the help of interior design, furniture, objects, books and multimedia applications that share their stories and legacies.
In the hotel, examples of the rich cultural treasures of Anatolia and Mesopotamia are also narrated through reliefs and paintings, and guests from different countries are introduced to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Legend of Shahmaran, the traditional shadow play Karagöz and Hacivat, and satirist Nasreddin Hodja in separate rooms, with specially prepared objects and visuals.