One of the oldest hotels in St Petersburg located in the very center of City, next to the St Isaac’s Square. The hotel was founded on this place in 1840s by Napoleon Bokin and was known as Napoleon’s. That was three-story building. In 1845-1846 architect Adrian Roben (1804-after 1872) reconstructed the house and it became a 4-storey building known as the S. Poggenpol’s house with apartments for rent. In 1876 the house was again reconstructed and there opened a hotel Schmidt-Anglia which belonged to Teresa Schmidt, 1800-1883). It was generally known as Anglia (England in Russian). In 1911 it was reconstructed and in 1912 another reconstruction followed. In 1911, the hotel dropped the Schmidt in its name. In the official documents it was known as the “house of the heirs of Medem family” although it still belonged to the Schmidts. By 1917 there were 75 rooms in the hotel and in the city guides it was mentioned as one of the most luxurious.

In 1917-1924 the English legation had their headquarters in the hotel. Until October, 1925, hotel was known as “International” and after that became Angleterre again. 

Famous poet Osip Mandelstam (Angleterre Hotel for some reason attracted poets) rented a room in this hotel where he met the woman of his fancies – Olga Vaksel in 1920. Osip, unlike other guests, left a description of his room. One evening he waited his lover in “a most commonplace hotel room with burning fire-place and the table set for supper”.

In 1926 Angleterre Hotel was included in the Hotel Trust together with four other remaining city’s hotels. In 1928 the hotel had 91 rooms and on the whole the building was ruining: there was no ventilation, no escalator, electrical bells did not work, only one telephone on the 2nd floor. Rooms were made in the restaurant with the help of partitions but then the administration thought better of it and granted the restaurant on lease.

In September, 1941, three months after the war began, there opened a hospital in the Angleterre Hotel. The name “Angleterre” was banned from all official and unofficial correspondence and letters were to be forwarded to: Leningrad-1, Post Box 244. In the summer of 1942 the hospital was closed and until 1945 the building was uninhabited.

Reconstruction works started after the end of the war in 1945. On December 30, 1948, the hotel was named Leningradskaya (Leningradian) and a few years after in 1975 it become a part B of the Hotel Astoria. In 1959 repair works were going on in the “Leningradskaya” hotel with the goal to open 25 rooms more for 140 beds.

In 1985, the building was closed for another renovating, this time it was completely rebuilt, retaining only the facade.

In 1997 Rocco Forte Hotels took over the Hotel Astoria and in 1999 the block “B” was reborn under its original, century-old name - Angleterre Hotel.