Hotel „Regina“ and Cabaret „Britania“, business meetings and night entertainment on the same street of Constanța Vechi

"Britain" cabaret: "Moulin Rouge" from Constanța Veche

Today it is a dull ruin, of a dirty gray, with dark, broken windows and a courtyard, once a terrace, untidy and full of garbage. It looks more like an abandoned warehouse, but you wonder what it can look like on one of the most beautiful, once and most luxurious, streets of old Constanta. When you have a drop of patience you can look at the facade and something catches your eye: no, it is not an old grain silo because it says 1909 on the frontispiece. cities and, most often, in the capital. When money in Constanta was easy and spent at a dizzying pace, when the need for luxury in a cosmopolitan port devoid of political and social dilemmas had begun to defy the old European capitals of entertainment. In 1909 it was only a few years before the Casino and the elite hotels opened, but the people who came to Constanţa had money to shred and the local entrepreneurs had no reason to miss such a blessing.

The "Britain" cabaret, because it is about us when we look at the shabby building of today, has nothing in common with the English but the name. The fashion for summer seaside tourism, beach fun and all sorts of curiosities brought from London had just begun. The British were few in Constanta and did not have much chance of opening a club because their older neighbors - Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, French or Germans - adapted more easily to the incomprehensible rigors imposed by the Romanian state administration and tax authorities. "Britain" was, in 1909, an exotic name, unique on the shores of the Black Sea and in Romania and the owner, a Misu Georgescu, whom the press kept secret, knew from the opening that he had struck.

The "Britania" cabaret in Constanţa is the first variety show in Romania and the Balkans and, being specially built for shows and leisure, it has characteristics that today, unfortunately, you can hardly guess. A kind of "Moulin Rouge" in a world that was still dazed by the new fashion.

The architectural style is very modern for that time, a less complicated Art Nouveau but without a doubt. Only the dome above the former entrance and the character of the unbroken inscription are still witnesses of the beginning. Rectangular, geometric and not very spacious windows were an innovation of the time. It didn't even need much daylight because the owner had hired a company that provided electricity, and on the other hand, the schedule was strictly night work. Even customers didn't need too much street view. The corner of the building is chamfered and leads to two arteries, one of which, at that time Lascăr Catargiu 7, very lively. On the cabaret floor, a semicircular balcony was originally placed, made of decorative hardware, which ensures a good view of the intense circulation of potential customers. Today, after wild modifications and renovations, we can no longer find the balcony or the specific frames of the entrances and windows. A spacious ground floor with a huge reception room provides most of the business. The basement of the building was divided both for the kitchen and dishes and for the large wardrobe of the bands of artists who came on tour from different cities and countries. The only floor of the building had a small number of rooms, where, surprisingly, no one had time to rest or sleep.

In the extension of the cabaret there was a beautifully fenced terrace with a stone fence and hardware, tables set among flowers and ornamental shrubs and a circular ring in the middle for dancing and performances. Someone in the local press, after visiting it several nights in a row, wrote to those who wanted to believe that the garden of "Britain" was located "in the healthiest and cleanest center of the city."

The vast hall on the ground floor offered, for high prices, Romanian, French and German cuisine. The drink was brought directly from the port and came from French and Italian cellars, from Greek cities and, sometimes, when an owner wanted to pay for a show for advertising, and from Romanian vineyards. The show always started after 9 pm and not infrequently ended at dawn. The cost of an entrance ticket was very high for regular salaries: 40 lei per person, but "Britain" never lacked customers. Concerts, balls, social gatherings, small pieces of art (what people know today about stand-up comedy), trendy songs, terrible jazz music (which you listened to snobbish because no one at the tables could understand a word of black speech Americans), masked balls. All were on schedule throughout the week, Monday through Sunday. Spectators most often came from the world of Constanta's financial potentates, from well-paid sailors who stopped at the port, from foreigners living in the city (many didn't know exactly what they were doing) and, when summer came, from the mundane elite of Bucharest. The fame of "Britain" was so great that not infrequently the fast trains brought, at the weekend, a part of the half-worlds of the Capital, together with their impresarios. Who would have wanted to miss a moment with the famous Parisian star Zurka, with the Viennese star Lizzi Moree, with the Italians Norina and Leonilda or with the voluptuous blonde from Warsaw, Malwa Czerkowska?

The glory years of "Britain" are set in the restless mad age of the two world wars. The musical performances, with artistic numbers, included bands and soloists from Bucharest, Europe and the USA generously paid by the owners because they came with the latest news: here, in Constanţa Veche, Charleston was sung on a stage for the first time in Romania. How much would a ticket cost then?

"Britain" was not immune to gossip and accusations, but if you understand marketing better, this was also the best advertisement the owners offered. On the ground floor, indecent performances scandalized Puritan families and jealous wives. To reconcile them, entrepreneurs often gave them justice: they agreed to host, without rent, artistic soups and old-fashioned parties. Moreover, in 1915 they persuaded a group of ladies from the good world, with the prejudices of the century just ended, to found an innocent local Society of Arts, Letters and Sports.

But upstairs? This is where the daily complaints to the local authorities came from: unloved wives claimed that their beloved mistresses lived there. And they weren't wrong.

The bands that came to perform at "Britain" usually numbered 25-30 artists. They had their homes secured, either in rooms rented in the city or, by the goodwill of the owners, right on the messy floor of the cabaret. The brothels of Constanţa Vechi were grouped, after the Great War of 1916-1918, on Cuza Vodă, Miron Costin, Smârdan or Mihail Kogălniceanu streets. Sometimes in infamous and poorly maintained hotels, such as "Aurel", "Traian", "Italy" or "Şteflea". The prices here were low, discretion was out of reach, and girls were not immune to sexually transmitted diseases. In "Britain", however, the rules were quite clear. The conditions to become a practitioner were strictly met by artists, most of whom did not have Romanian citizenship: they registered with the Police and the Health Service and agreed to undergo, according to the law, regular medical examinations, at least twice a week. As everything was legal, the soloists paid a fee of 16 lei per month to the local council and 10% of the resulting income to the tax office. This is required by the Law on Direct Contributions, imposed by the Puritan Prime Minister, General Alexandru Averescu.

The gain from "Britain", however, made all the donations paid to the state and to the many scouts who wanted to profit from a generous business. In the good times, ie in the first interwar decade and in the crowded periods by the sea, each artist, depending on the program, could earn an additional 7,000 to 10,000 lei per month. That is, much more than the salary of a lawyer (6,000 lei) or a doctor (9,000 lei). Loyal customers received subscriptions, most often one of 50 lei, with 10 performances. The performance for one hour meant 2 performances and the working day did not exceed 4-5 hours; In this way, the extra salary was quite significant. There were also unwritten rules, of course: the permanent friends of the cabaret could receive bonuses from which it results that "the whole night is considered 2 performances". This time, the soloist had nothing to declare to the tax office because, in general, cash gifts are passed at discretion. Rarely, and only when there was not too much demand, emergencies were accepted: 15 lei per performance, without accepting extensions in the schedule. However, the latter clients did not have priority on busy days from Saturday to Sunday or on public holidays.

The last World War also closed Constanţa, in the summer of 1941, and canceled the variety parties in "Britain". Strict regulations forbade night gatherings and parties, and artists' troupes could no longer travel throughout Europe. Even the money was worthless and the horrors of the front could not sustain the joy and good mood. The building was nationalized with the establishment of the communist regime and in 1949 prostitution was legally banned. Most of the practitioners were forced to work in minor jobs, in boring businesses or in institutions without projects. One by one, "Britain" hosted Soviet soldiers, lawyers' organizations and offices of the "Dobrogea" Mining Enterprise. The last repairs, from the first half of the 70's, came to a head: many of the decorative elements were destroyed, the interior was recompartmented and the garden was transformed into adjoining spaces. Shortly after 1990, "Britain" was completely abandoned after Dobrogea mining also became history.

D`Angleterre - Regina - Intim: A hotel history of more than a century by the sea

It is not surprising that the businessman Mişu Georgescu decided to build the Brittany Cabaret, in 1909, on Lascăr Catargiu Street no. 7. Ten steps to the south, at number 9, the Hotel "d`Angleterre" received its guests since the early 1880s. Misu Georgescu felt, with the fine smell of an experienced businessman, that tourists coming to "d`Angleterre" they will not be able to resist the temptations within the walls of his Variety.

Moreover, he was convinced that if these tourists were attracted in 1886 by the entrepreneur D. Panaitopulo, from d'Angleterre, to the disguised balls and to the cafe-concerts organized in the hotel, surely his cabaret will have passage among the lovers of new, extravagant and western in Constanța at the beginning of the 20th century.

And so Variete Britania appeared, with a name that resonates with its neighbor, behind the fence, the hotel "d`Angleterre". At the same time, in the first decade of the twentieth century, on Lascăr Catargiu Street, accidentally or not, in Constanța Veche was born entertainment tourism, night, door to door with "serious" tourism, compatible at that time, whose clients were people with money, bohemians, who solved their business during the day and satisfied their pleasures at night.

And there were many moments when tourists from England ended their summer nights in the neighboring building, where the shutters were always drawn on the windows.

The Hotel d'Angleterre also has its own story. Romances, business meetings and nights spent in the summer at sea in his rooms came to life in the early 1880s. Even shortly after the opening of the hotel, the young man, at that time, Mihai Eminescu, 32 years old, returned from studies in Vienna and Berlin, sought inspiration in Constanța. He lingered for 10 days in the attic of the Hotel d'Angleterre, writing three letters from here to his beloved girlfriend, Veronica Micle, sharing his thoughts about little Kiustenge, calm and modest. It was in 1882, just 5 years after the entry of Dobrogea between the borders of the country. The land between the Danube and the Sea was still an unimportant city, far behind the great Romanian cities. Anghel Saligny had not yet built the bridge over the Danube from Cernavoda, and Dobrogea was not yet connected in the true sense of the word to Romania. The Danube still separated Dobrogea from the country, and Eminescu was forced to reach Constanța on the great river, from Giurgiu to Cernavoda, and then by train to Constanța. The hotel was not what it was expected either: several more years passed before the owners managed to introduce running water, electricity and telephony into the luxury rooms.

"Constanţa or Chiustenge is a small town, but quite beautiful. It has nothing to do with Rusciuc (nn Ruse, in Bulgaria, on the banks of the Danube). The houses have some elegance in their building, because the stone is cheap here and the buildings are made of square stone, and the town hall, since the Romanians ruled and there is a communal council, has done a lot for the order and beautification of the city. A terrace on the high shore gives a beautiful view over the whole sea, and when the moon is above the water, it casts a full of faint glow, which floats on one side of the water. The rest remains in the dark, and the sea at night deserves its black name. Life is a bit expensive here, but not as exaggeratedly expensive as it was described to me, especially since a few steels opened ", Eminescu shared with his girlfriend in the letters sent from the attic of the Hotel d'Angleterre.

At that time, Constanța received its tourists only in two hotels: d`Angleterre and Carol.

The time has passed, the new century has found Constanța in an accentuated modernization and in a chase after the alignment to the western standards. Sewerage, electricity, telephony appeared, and the Hotel d'Angleterre also changed its clothes. It has become the Hotel Regina. Dobrogea, like Romania, had also entered another era. A monarchical era, in which the royal family dominated the country's political scene. In Constanța, this aspect was also highlighted. And the Regina Hotel had become one of the most important places in the tourism industry of Constanța, which became the most important port on the Black Sea.

"Opened on June 1, 1906, the owners of the Tîrpa brothers, own premises - modern facilities - First class hotel - Comfortable and spacious rooms and lounges - first class restaurant - Radiator - Electric light - Bae - etc - moderate prices", so showed a advertisement in the Constanța Tourist Guide of 1924.
Until the outbreak of the First World War, a headquarters of the Democratic Conservative Party, led by Take Ionescu, also operated here.

The new Hotel Regina, unharmed from the great world conflagration, offered its tourists quality services. It did not have the reputation of the Palace or the Regnier, the two luxury hotels of Old Constanța, but it was recognized as the meeting place of Constanța intellectuals and not only, a place full of elegance where charity balls, official banquets and meetings between politicians and business people were commonplace.

Also here, at Hotel Regina, was born in 1925 "Intimate Circle", which brought together the families of intellectuals of Constanța, who knotted and untied during dancing teas the future of the seaside city, the development of Romania's most cosmopolitan city and debated, at the offering tables of the luxurious restaurant on the ground floor, the big politics of Bucharest.

After World War II, the building was requisitioned by Soviet troops.

During the communist period, Hotel Regina is luckier than many of the hotels in Constanța Vechi. It is neither destroyed nor transformed into an office building of the communist nomenclature. It was renamed Intimate (after the Circle of Intellectuals that functioned for a long time in this building) and was rebuilt in the early 70's and introduced into the city's tourist circuit.

Today, the spectacular building built in neoclassical style with predominant Art Nouveau decorative elements, by the well-known architect Daniel Renard, who made his mark in the history of Constanța by building the Casino on the seafront, is still standing. Time has damaged many of the hotel's splendid touches, but the building with a history of more than a century still stands.

The two floors of the former hotel, located today outside the tourist network, which surprise by the antithesis between the neoclassical style of the first level and the Art Nouveau style of the second, are still towering and can be admired on Nicolae Titulescu Street today, former Lascăr Catargiu.

The hotel is generous, the large windows, nine in number on each floor, are carefully aligned on the main facade. The hardware is still preserved, both on the former balconies on the first floor and on the grille of the main door from Titulescu Street, above which a communist advertisement still stands: Hotel Intim - Restaurant.

The small courtyard next to the former summer garden of the Brittany Variety still retains the nostalgia of the glorious interwar period. After the wrought iron fence and the locked door you can admire the narrow entrance to the hotel, beautifully arranged, which becomes small compared to the beauty of the balcony and the Art Nouveau motifs on the side facade of the hotel.

The positioning of the Hotel D'Angleterre, which became Queen and later Intim, cannot be better described than Mihai Eminescu has done since 1882: “I sit in an attic and my eyes are open on both sides on the sea, which I would like to float with you. But since this is not possible, I kiss you sweetly, my dear Veronica, and I remain yours Eminescu ”.

The history of the hotel is linked to the memory of the Romanian national poet through the plaque on the facade of Nicolae Titulescu Street of the hotel: Romanians ”.

All that remains today on Nicolae Titulescu Street, at numbers 7-9, are two buildings whose walls hide the stories of a century and better. From Variete Britania, only the walls remain and today it is a garbage dump, with broken windows, overlooked at the intersection of Diana and Nicolae Titulescu streets, opposite the House with Lions. Hotel Intim, formerly Regina and D`Angleterre, is well protected. The current owners want to sell it, along with its stories, but have not been able to for some years. Nobody seems to want to invest in a historic building in the old center of Constanța. The price has dropped, from four to two million euros, but there are still no people willing.

The bohemian life of the oldest city in Romania has long since ended. Today, tourism is done in white tents, with wooden structure, from Mamaia resort, and the variety has moved from cabaret to the street.

(source: www.info-sud-est.ro )