From busy ‘house of sin’ to a bank

Of all the sin corners of Nairobi in colonial times, there was one that had a reputation as the dungeon of sleaze and sex.

But in government documents it was simply Plot 643, Section II – Portion 209.

The owner of the establishment, Col Ewart Grogan — (the man who built Getrude’s Children’s Hospital) named this hotel after its manager Joseph Ewart Torr, dispensing with the tradition that pioneer settlers had adopted of naming their enterprises after themselves.

To the clientele, it was simply Torr’s.

Today housing CfC Stanbic Bank on Nairobi’s Kimathi Street, the Torr’s had in 1928 been given two licences by Ukamba Licensing Area chairman, F.R.C. Marshall: A hotel liquor licence and a general retail liquor license.

But there was more to Torr’s than met the eye.

It was the place for soldiers, the police and railway officers who found their Railway Club too official and Muthaiga Club and Nairobi Club too elegant.

Some of the rare books on Nairobi capture snippets of life at Torr’s. Let us sample Christopher Hiscox’s The Dawn Stand-to: The Life of Peter Mills.

It tells the true story of a Mike Bradley who had a girlfriend twice his age. In his account, Mills recalled how he and his friends used to go to Torr’s to “sample the nightlife until the early hours.”

One day, “just about sundown as we were stirring from a drunken doze (at the military barracks) an African orderly dashed in with an urgent message…it appeared that Mike Bradley’s girl friend…had been spotted on a balcony high up on the Torr’s…she was half naked and to the consternation of passers-by, was threatening to throw herself off…we dressed quickly and dashed into Nairobi and, sure enough, there she was teetering on a high ledge…It seemed that the cause of her distress was the fact that Mike had jilted her the night before. …Mike took one look at her, fled straight up the stairs and suddenly appeared at a window alongside the ledge…
Nobody knows what Mike said but after what seemed like an age, she relented and crawled back in through the window!”

Torr’s had been built to offer an alternative to the more urbane Norfolk and New Stanley – the two watering holes for nouveau riche Europeans – those with money and king-size egos. Torr’s was for the hoi polloi – the soldiers, the just-arrived farmers, backpack tourists and journalists.

Torr’s was the place for night gigs, the concerts, and being at the junction of Hardinge Street (now Kimathi) and Delamere (now Kenyatta) it always witnessed many accidents outside as speeding vehicles knocked down revellers. The police were forced at one point to put empty petrol drums to create “an island” that slowed down the drivers down until they got the right shape of the island according to William Foran in his biographical book, The Kenya Police 1887- 1960.

Grogan turned the first floor lounge into the epic social centre of Nairobi in 1928 when he finally completed the structure.

Constructed by firm of Henderson and Partners which also built Muthaiga Club, this building was unique and still stands out in Nairobi with its red-brick architectural form — that intimidates the neighbouring structures for its beauty and elegance.

Torr’s had a no-nonsense manager at one point. In his travel book, Feet First, Peter Finney writes: “Having no dinner jackets with us, we were relegated to a mezzanine section overlooking the main floor of Torr’s Hotel.”