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Old 14th Dec 2015, 14:36
  #219 (permalink)  
barry lloyd
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Angular - apparently!
Posts: 747
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The hotel was The Ukraine which was a Stalinist monstrosity the rooms were tiny and the facilities in the bathroom consisted of a small piece of cloth that served as a towel, a sliver of carbolic soap and the lack of a plug in the sink! Standard instructions were to take towel, soap and plug with you on these trips.
Are you sure it was the Ukraine? The description is spot-on, although I don't recall there being any chandeliers in the lobby there. (In fact I don't remember it being very well lit at all , but then nowhere was in those days!). The Metropole (near the Bolshoi on Revolution Square) has a magnificent chandelier in the lobby and my understanding is that is was this which suffered the fall. I spoke to the then manager in the early 90s and he confirmed that there was a suite above the ceiling where the chandelier was mounted, which of course was de rigueur for BOAC captains in those days.

I seem to remember that the plug sizes were always a problem, because ours were imperial and theirs were metric. I eventually discovered that you could buy a universal bathplug in the UK, basically a solid rubber ball slightly bigger than a golf ball, which covered all eventualities (and plugholes!).
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