Metropole Hotel Ashtray

"Metropole hotel ashtray - a time when we were all smokers? A time of guilt-free pleasure. A time of elegant hotels before Air B&Bs' invasion! The Metropole itself was a landmark next to the GPO. It was commanded by Oscar Traynor during the Easter Rising and was largely rebuilt afterwards. It had a cinema and a ballroom, a couple of bars, a restaurant, and plenty of smoking customers. The ashtray comes from a time when the splendid hotels in town could well afford to stamp their names on their plates, towels, carpets and so on. But The Met closed in 1972, the building was sold to BHS - the British Home Stores - which demolished the neoclassical building and replaced it with a horrendous modern block. Nothing remains of the hotel today, except the memories of its staff and customers and a few objects like this one. "