It started as a bar and restaurant, and a hotel with twenty bedrooms for summer visitors opening about the same time as the Peak Tram, in 1888.

[1] About 13 years earlier, in 1875, N.J. Ede had built a house named Dunheved on the property.

It was sold and completely rebuilt into an imposing three-story building, reopening in 1890.

It boasted of commodious and well-appointed accommodation, and the hotel was deservedly popular.

The hotel commanded views of the city and Victoria Harbour in one direction, and of Pok Fu Lam facing Lamma Island in the other.