YouSaid · the spoken record

Richard E. Grant

lines on the record: 40
first: 2025-09-25
most recent: 2025-09-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Because for Singaporeans, Raffles isn't just a place for tourists or visiting celebrities, it's part of local life in its own quiet way. Generations have come here to mark special milestones, a wedding reception, an anniversary dinner in the Tiffin Rom, or a first Singapore sling savoured at the Writers' Bar. It's almost a rite of passage, a way of stepping into history while marking your own moment in time. And to stay there even for a bit feels like you're adding your own memories to this tapestry.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Outside the Singapore which Sir Raffles once knew has transformed beyond anything he could have imagined. The beach is long gone, and that sleepy trading post is now a thriving city of skyscrapers, a global hub for finance, tech and culture always moving forward, but never quite letting go of where it began.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So it meant I actually checked both in and out in the comfort of my own room and I learnt the butlers have to actually undergo an intensive two to three month training period before they can serve guests independently. This comprehensive program includes passing product tests and mastering extensive knowledge about the hotel. I have to say it was magnificent to experience. They just knew everything.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ah, yes. Well, when I arrived, I was surprised to not come across a front desk in any capacity. I learned that after the twenty nineteen reopening, Raffles had eliminated traditional front desk operations with guests being serviced almost exclusively by butlers.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now we spoken about plenty of hotels with both amazing bars and sparkling literary guests, but very few who intentionally intertwine them. Something I loved hearing about at Raffles is how deeply they have embodied their reputation as a literary haven and continued to create the next legacy of creatives. Following its twenty nineteen restoration, Raffles launched a formal writers residency program, explicitly aimed at reinvigorating the literary heritage that is embedded deeply in the Raffles ethos, and each writer in residence gets a cocktail created in their honour at Raffles Writers Bar.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pretty pink hue which is so characteristic of the sling is a colour choice that was entirely deliberate. In colonial Singapore at the turn of the century, strict etiquette dictated that ladies could not consume alcohol in public. Yam, ever insightful, recognised a clear niche in the market. He decided to create a cocktail that cleverly looked like plain fruit juice but was in fact infused with gin and liqueur.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Speaking of icons, we would be amiss not to mention that Raffles is the birthplace of a bar menu staple, a cocktail that has become synonymous with Singapore itself.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My personal favorite touch was that every night at 8pm Noel Coward's I'll see you again is played on an antique record player. It became something I looked forward to every evening, and it turned out it's a beautiful nod to the old tradition of a pianist playing the song nightly for guests with its soothing tones floating up the bell wood staircase.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Another unique transformation occurred in 1953 when the grill room was renamed the Elizabethan grill in honor of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. It was given a tudor inspired makeover, complete with wood panelling, false timber beams, and the coats of arms of noble English families.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I heard so many hilarious, quirky anecdotes during my stay that had become part of Raffles folklore. Take, for instance, the Shanghai Jar mishap of nineteen oh four. Before modern plumbing was fully installed, Raffles Hotel provided large earthenware vessels known as Shanghai jars for guests to bathe, a guest famously mistook one for a bathtub, climbed in, and became hopelessly stuck. His cries for help led a rumour tenant to break the jar with a hammer to free him”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“hero of this extraordinary tale was Mr Charles McGowan Phillips, the headmaster of Raffles Institution and a member of the Singapore rifle team. He arrived on the scene still dressed in his pajamas and armed with his rifle. The tiger had slipped under the bar and billiard room.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Narajan Singh has been a dormant raffles since nineteen ninety two. He was truly hospitable, and he actually told me he is one of the most photographed dormant in the world. Can you believe that?”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it was definitely dramatic, Jules, but this whole trip was dramatic to be honest. Even Jackson's arrival. About four hundred fans gathered at the hotel driveway, forcing him to enter through the staff entrance while hotel staff lined the corridors to greet him.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ah yes, one of the hotel's more surreal chapters of celebrity, I might say. In nineteen ninety three, Michael Jackson requested to have the Singapore Zoo all to himself for a day. When this extraordinary request was denied, zoo officials offered a unique compromise. They brought A Meng, Singapore's famous orangutan mascot, to meet Jackson Poolside at Raffles.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's not just the literary elite. After World War II, Raffles attracted the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner, and apparently Chaplin caused a near riot of excitement in 1933 when he appeared in the Raffles dining room.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Maum, Kipling, and Conrad were all immortalized in the fabric of the hotel, having suites named after them. Morm suite even features a personal letter from the author praising his time at Raffles.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Joseph Conrad is rumored to have been one of Raffles Singapore's very first guests in eighteen eighty seven. Legend has it that his presence helped establish the hotel's literary tradition from its very inception. Rudyard Kipling was a guest in eighteen eighty nine, and James A. Mitchener immortalized the hotel with his poignant observation to have been young and had a room at Raffles was life at its best.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bold and brave act from the staff, but something that does not come as a surprise to me, having spent some time at this hotel.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This was not the end of the words for this hotel, just a few years later the world plunge into World War II and Singapore suffered greatly.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The scale of their financial distress was immense. Within four months of Archak's death in january nineteen thirty one, Raffles Hotel was even taken to court by Singapore's oldest department store, John Little and Company, for debts amounting to about half a million pounds in today's money, making it the largest bankruptcy affair of that time. The palace”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This could easily be just a simple anecdote, but I think it demonstrates exactly what makes Raffles so special. It's a concerted effort to embed local history and heritage directly within the hotel's physical fabric. Even a grand institution like Raffles was not immune to the seismic shifts of global history. The Great Depression in particular spelled severe financial troubles for the hotel. Yes.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I loved about Raffles was the attention paid to the outdoors as well. The palm garden offers a serene oasis featuring tall palm trees and an ornate cast iron Victorian fountain, also crafted by Walter MacFarlane and Company.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, think immensely pleasing symmetry, stately Corinthian and Doric columns, punctuated by graceful round arches, wide verandahs, and rows of palladian windows, both attractive and practical to keep out the tropical heat, and we must talk about the portico jewels.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In its first Three new buildings were swiftly added to the original beach house. First a pair of elegant two-story wings were completed in 1890, each containing 22 guest suites. Soon afterward, the Sarkis brothers leased a neighboring building at number three Beach Road, meticulously renovated it, and by 1894 the beautiful Palm Court Wing was completed.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wasn't it? Slightly jewelled, slightly. Let's call it a modest bungalow, offering just ten bedrooms in a prime location overlooking both the beach and the South China Sea. And despite their then isolated position, their opening advertisement boldly proclaimed, please remember we are no better than the best, but better than the rest.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is true to say Realize without Local But the spirit of resourcefulness and openness that the Freeport idea set in motion is certainly something that is celebrated and carried on to this day. And Sir Thomas's name lives on throughout Singapore, in Raffles institution, Raffles Place, the financial district, and of course the Raffles Hotel.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cosmopolitan city And this is exact Raffles was a complex figure. While he certainly had vision and ambition, his legacy is tied to British colonial expansion in Southeast Asia, which brought both opportunity and exploitation.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just as Raffles wanted Singapore to be a free port open to all, so the Sarkis created a hotel that welcomed the world's wealthy travellers in lavish style. Sir Raffles was actually a bit of a radical in his day. Concepts like free trade and urban planning were still relatively new ideas. Regulated envision Than just a trading post.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Emers Dr. Charles Emerson leased the building. His death Emerson's hotel closed The Raffles Instit Singapore Stepp Until Dr. Emers When the lease expired, the brother stepped in and just a few months later on December 1st, 1887, Raffles Hotel officially opened its doors. The name Raffles itself actually carries immense historical weight. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, born at sea off Jamaica in seventeen eighty one, was a British statesman widely regarded as the founder of modern Singapore. His name can be found to this day across the island nation. Raffles”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The opening of the Suez made Singapore into one of the world's most vital coaling stations, an essential port of call for steamers to refuel, and the travel revolution created an unprecedented demand for high-quality accommodation.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. The decline of the ancient Silk Road and the subsequent rise of the Suez represented a monumental geopolitical and economic restructuring, and this forced astute merchant families, just like the Sakis, who were established merchants, to seek new commercial opportunities across Britain's expanding colonial empire.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was into this burgeoning world of global travel and opportunity that these four ambitious brothers arrived, and while they didn't note at the time, these Armenian entrepreneurs were soon to become the architects of a hospitality empire. The Sarkis family history is as fascinating as that of their hotels. They had been displaced as part of Shah Abbas I's forced relocation of Armenians in the early sixteen hundreds, an event that paradoxically led to the creation of one of history's greatest trading networks. By the eighteen sixties, however, the ancient Silk Road, which had sustained their merchant families for centuries, was dying due to the very impact of”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Joseph Conrad in The End of the Tether, vividly captured the Sierra describing how the piercing of the Isth of Suez, like the breaking of a dam, had let in upon the east a flood of new ships, new men, new methods of trade.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To set the stage for their story, we must understand that the late 19th century was a period of revolutionary change, marking what many consider a golden age for global travel.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jules has sent me around the world to experience these extraordinary hotels firsthand, and together we will be exploring the history of each property and the stories that transform them into modern icons.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The future is also quietly being written in hotels, deals being sealed over cocktails, love stories beginning over candlelight in the dining room, and memories being stored forever as heads hit the pillow.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I am Richard E. Grant, and the nature of my work as an actor means I am constantly travelling, making me no stranger to spending time within the four walls of hotel rooms of every size, shape and flavour. I've come to be something of an expert in what makes a good hotel great. And like Jewel, I'm fascinated by the history made within these remarkable buildings.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No rushing here, only ritual, afternoon tea beneath punkers, a gin sling and a glass with just the right weight, the rustle of linen, the scent of old paper and jasmine, all in the shadow of a Singapore that's always changing, and yet, within these walls, somehow stand still. Night falls fast in the tropics. One moment the sky is glowing like an ember, the next it's dark as velvet and humming with cicadas and the night is soft and thick with heat. Step beneath the portico, feel hush. The city may swirl around you, but anter raffles, it feels like this place has been waiting for you to step inside and slow down.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Singapore, a sprawling modern metropolis, gleaming towers of glass and steel piercing the clouds, the dense heady green of the botanic gardens after a sudden equatorial downpour, with the iconic gardens by the bay imbuing the skyline with identity and distinctiveness. Let's take a step back from the neon haze of the ever-evolving center. Travel a few blocks from the bustle of Orchard Road, and you'll find yourself on Beach Road. Although the beach is now a distant memory, reclaimed long ago, here stands a relic of another time, a white colonnaded building wrapped in tropical foliage, its verandahs cooled by whispering fans and the scent of Frangipane drifting on the air, appearing almost like a mirage at the edge of memory.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hello, I'm head of programming, Conor Boyle. Today, something a little different, we're excited to share with you a handpicked episode of a brand new series, Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared in partnership with Perone International. From Grand Buildings that hosted royalty to secluded retreats that shaped cultural legends, hotels with history uncovers the remarkable stories behind some of the world's most storied hotels, as well as the layered histories of the places they stand in. In each episode, hosts Richard E. Grant and Jules Perone travel to a different hotel sharing the unforgettable moments that occurred both inside and outside the walls and grounds and how the forces of history transformed entire regions into luxury destinations we note today. Now over to Jules and Richard for hotels with history.”
2025-09-25 · Intelligence Squared · Hotels with History | Raffles Hotel, Singapore, with Richard E. Grant and Jules Perowne · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT