Once strewn with white flowers and crammed with dozens of journalists, the room where John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged one of their famed 1969 bed-ins is now part of a smart hotel suite, costing up to $1,900 (£1,490) a night.
MailOnline Travel was given a private tour of the swanky pad, located on the 17th floor of the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in central downtown Montreal.
The suite comprises of four adjoining rooms (1738, 1740, 1742 and 1744) knocked into one, and historical artefacts from the hotel vaults reveal what John and Yoko got up to during their seven-day stunt promoting peace, including dining on turtle soup and greeting hundreds of fans each day.
These artefacts, such as room service orders and housekeeping records, are on display in the suite (now labelled room 1742), giving it an almost museum-like feel.
Along with turtle soup, one room service order sheet reveals that the couple also tucked into a ‘broiled filet of sole’ along with and ‘jam, marmalade and lots of honey and butter’ for breakfast. They also ordered ‘their own special bread’.
For lunch, orders included fried natural brown rice, ‘English fish and chips’, grilled halibut and ‘lots of vegetables’.For dinner, along with turtle soup, other delicacies included sirloin steak, lamb chops and fish. This was followed by rice pudding and ‘two-colour jello’ for dessert with ‘lots of tea’.
The records note that liqueurs were for the guests only as John and Yoko abstained from drinking alcoholic beverages throughout their stay.
An entry in the housekeeping book dated May 26, 1969 reveals how the ‘corridor and suite were very dirty and littered with flower petals’ during John and Yoko’s stay and the cleaner had to ‘vacuum three to four times a day, since John Lennon threw flower petals into the air’.
The entry adds that on their day of departure, the housekeepers only had an hour to put the suite straight before the next guests arrived and that John and Yoko were ‘asked several times to leave’.
It was only in the 1980s, after Lennon’s death, that the hotel began to take steps to redo the four rooms and join them together. In 1989 it was officially named the John Lennon & Yoko Ono Suite.
Joanne Papineau, a spokesperson from the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, explained that today the suite front door is one of the most photographed parts of the hotel, with fans flocking from all over the world.
She revealed that the suite – which was given a revamp recently as part of a hotel-wide makeover costing more than $100million (£78 million) – has welcomed celebrities and presidents from all over the world.
The spacious pad consists of a main living room, where John and Yoko staged their bed-in (which doubled as their honeymoon), a lounge/dining area and a kitchen.
There is then a separate living room and another bedroom, meaning the suite can accommodate up to four guests.
Papineau said that the furnishings and artwork around the suite were inspired by their travels, with a ‘mix of east and west’. There are also lots of knick-knacks to entertain guests.
For instance, if you pick up a rotary telephone in the living room, John’s voice can be heard on the other end of the line, explaining his commitment to peace, which was the purpose behind his bedroom lock-in.
There is also a music player which plays Give Peace a Chance, the peace-inspired anthem the couple recorded during their stay.
Papineau added that John and Yoko turned up to the hotel with more than 50 suitcases but no one was sure what they’d packed because they stayed in white pyjamas for the duration of their stay.
During the event, the newlywed couple gave up to 150 interviews every day.
Their second bed-in after the first in Amsterdam was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the United States because of his 1968 cannabis conviction.
Instead the couple held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24, 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Montreal.
A modern, downtown Montreal hotel, The Queen Elizabeth Fairmont has 950 rooms and suites, a health club, spa and indoor pool.Hotel management describe it as within walking distance of an arrange of boutiques, restaurants, cafes, sport stadiums and cultural attractions. In 2010, Montreal unveiled a commemorative artwork in Mount Royal Park commemorating the famous bed-in.
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