The Hotel des Indes was established in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) in 1829 by a French man named Antoine Surleon Chaulan. Originally named Hotel de Provence, it was renamed Hotel des Indes in 1856. The hotel survived until 1971, when it was demolished to make space for a shopping mall. This postcard of the interior of its dining hall shows its lavish art deco style, popular in Europe in the early 1900s. This postcard emphasizes the symmetry and order of the dining hall, using the carpeted walkway as a central pivot from which the set tables and chairs fan out, each side mirroring the other. The dining hall was a key part of the hotel, with British Anthropologist Alfred Russel describing ‘an excellent table d’hote breakfast at ten, and dinner at six’, served in the dining hall.
