A grand old odalisque should never deign to turn housewife.

Its oak paneling is rectory English; the marble in its bathrooms sometimes outdoes the tombstones of the Medici; and the salutes of the older bellhops seem imported from Windsor Castle.

A glassy mountain range of exposed offices; on a clear day you can look through the windows and see as many as 6,000 coffee breaks at once.

The guests are often in key with the décor: beautifully preserved, highly pedigreed and finely burnished specimens of the fin de siècle.

On first glance the yard was piled high with scrap metal, but a closer inspection revealed it to be the place where new life was given to old things.

might is right.