The Ashcombe Hotel

The lobby of the Ashcombe is all marble and gilt, a cavernous room designed to make guests feel important and everyone else feel slightly out of place. A chandelier the size of a small carriage hangs from the painted ceiling, throwing scattered light across the chequered floor, while deep velvet armchairs gather in quiet clusters around low tables, the perfect spot for being seen without appearing to want it.

A long mahogany front desk stretches across the far wall, a bell and a ledger waiting at one end and a clerk with a practised smile at the other. Off to one side, a pair of glass doors opens onto a hushed little bar, and the revolving doors at the front lead back out onto Grand Avenue.