A thousand and one nights in Syria
The Weekly Telegraph 08/07/2002

'Welcome!' beamed Amin, Sally Masloumian's only son, as he showed me into the graceful oak-panelled bar of the Baron Hotel. Sinking into the well worn leather sofa, I could see the place was made for a G&T. Was I sitting where queens and celebrities had clinked glasses in the elegance of the most talked about hotel in the Middle East? Attracted by the high standards of European luxury at the Baron, the rich, famous and interesting had arrived in Aleppo in droves, many on the Orient Express, which once terminated here.

Jumping the puddles on uneven Baron Street, I must admit, it had been hard to imagine it. But in 1911, when the distinctive building was completed, this was the fashionable outskirts of Aleppo, surrounded by wild countryside. Then, the esteemed explorer, Richard Burton would have been among those shooting duck for the dinner table in the nearby marshes. Later, speeches were delivered from the terrace by Kemal Ataturk into the subsequent square. Now, a stream of yellow taxis file down a busy street where jostling crowds were queueing to see Killing time in Beverley Hills playing at one of the luridly-painted cinemas that week.

Amin's great grandfather, an Armenian from Turkey, opened the first hotel in Aleppo, inspired by the Inns he had found on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His grandfather and uncle opened another where his father, Coco, was born and where Gertrude Bell and the Shah of Persia stayed. The Hotel Baron took with it a distinguished clientele.

'My father bought nothing but the best for the hotel at that time,' said Amin proudly, as I eyed the Tonnet chairs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the dining room.

Past famous guests of the Baron Hotel are too numerous to mention, but among them number the pilots Amy Johnson, Charles Lindbergh and Sir Charles Kingford-Smith. Later on, came the Duchess of Bedford, the Mountbattens, the Roosevelts, and Joyce Grenfell. More daring guests include Christine Granville the British agent who penetrated enemy lines in the second world war and Kim Philby, the famous spy.

But the two most dashing and celebrated guests were expatriates: archaeologist T. E Lawrence (of Arabia) and Agatha Christie, accompanying her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan. The men were employed by Sir Leonard Woolley, head of the British archaeological mission in Syria.

Agatha Christie's regular room on the second floor, with its original art deco furniture, remains unchanged, apart from a 21st century lick of make-up. Wandering through, I thought of her there, scribbling the first part of Murder on the Orient Express while her husband uncovered Syria's incredible layered history preserved by the shifting desert sands. 'Another letter from this beautiful hotel' T. E Lawrence had written from his room down the corridor, in Letters Home during the first world war.

This was all before Sally arrived, in 1947, just after the second world war, at the age of 25. She came to nurse at the Altounyan Hospital, founded by an Armenian doctor. The hospital was immortalised in Arthur Ransome's book Swallows and Amazons (1930), inspired by the five children of Ernest Altounyan and British Dora Collingwood (the daughter of Ruskin's biographer), who lived between Syria and the Lake District.

'I'm the oldest British senior citizen in Syria,' laughed Sally, who is 81-years-old this year. She recalls writing in her first letter home: 'This is a Thousand and One Nights'.

While England was in the grip of rationing, Aleppo's expatriate elite were enjoying an endless round of cocktail parties. 'My eyes were wide open, and life suddenly took on a different perspective,' says Sally. 'I came to Aleppo the year after Syria gained independence from France. I was too young then to realise how interesting life was going to be.'

Most British expatriates then worked in the large textile industry or staffed the British Council, the Aleppo College and the British Embassy. But when the Embassy closed in 1967 when Britain broke off relations with Syria, Aleppo's heyday was largely over.

An honorary consul remains, headed by British-Syrian, Alexander Akras, but now the main employer of foreigners in Aleppo is Escarda - the International centre for agricultural dry areas. Long term expatriates can be counted on two hands. Most like Sally, married Syrian men. Expatriates still come, as they always have, to drink at the Baron's bar, usually on a Thursday night, before the Islamic weekend on Friday.

Sally met her Armenian husband, Coco Masloumian, through her boss at the hospital and soon had her hands full with three small children and the responsibility of running the Baron when her husband was away.

'People liked to come to the hotel because of the family atmosphere,' says Sally. 'My father-in-law was the host in the centre, and we brought our children up to know that the guest is always right.'

Dignitaries continue to flock here. Prince Michael of Greece had stayed a couple of weeks before I arrived and British Ambassadors to Lebanon and to Afghanistan were among recent guests. Household names include Paddy Leigh Fermor and Eric Newby. Julie Christie visited three years ago having starred in Dr Zhivago, about the Armenians, with Omar Sharif. 'It had been her lifelong ambition to see it,' explained Sally.

Freya Stark, the great traveller, was a friend of the Masloumians, and stayed for many summers. Sally remembers her Gladstone bag rattling with pills, and her telling fascinating stories around the lunch table. De Galle had lunch here, and gave a speech from the balcony. 'Everyone did,' commented Sally casually.

The lunch crowd on this day was, sadly, just the three of us. The Baron has been quiet following September 11. But the Masloumians are used to difficult times. The year after Sally arrived the Israeli-Palestinian war began, and revolutions and coup d'etats followed.

'Those who claim the hotel hasn't changed since the 1920s and that staff have an average age of 80, obviously haven't visited recently!' Amin said crossly, pointing out our waiter who was in his twenties. Amin now runs the hotel following his father's death and recent renovations on the third floor mean there are now suites here, complete with marble bathrooms.

'I miss spring mornings, bluebells in the woods and gathering roses,' says Sally of England. 'I used to go to Oxford Street every year to see the Christmas lights, so I set about making a fairyland here for my children.'

Sally's children didn't fare so well when faced with the reality of England. Amin recalls being called a 'wog' in a pub in Hertfordshire, where he was studying hotel and catering, and bad treatment by immigration reduced her daughter to tears when she went to study there at a French Lycee.

A look of sadness comes over Sally's face as she talks about her missing daughters. Having followed in their mother's footsteps, both have become resident expatriates elsewhere. One married an American and moved to the US. The other married a Swiss man and lives in Geneva.

Then she brightens, and leans over to me. 'People often ask me, would I have done the same with my life if I had my time again,' she says. 'The answer is, I would.'

The Baron Hotel (Tel: Int 963 2122 10880, Fax: Int 963 2121 8164)

Nicki Grihault travelled to Syria courtesy of Explore Worldwide (www.exploreworldwide.com) and British Mediterranean (www.britishmediterranean.com).

Publication: The Weekly Telegraph.