The Midland Hotel is a grand

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. Opened in 1903, it was built by the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

to serve

Manchester Central railway station Manchester Central was a railway station in Manchester city centre, England. One of Manchester's main railway terminals between 1880 and 1969, the building was converted into an exhibition and conference centre which was opened in 1986; original ...

, its northern terminus for its rail services to London St Pancras. It faces onto St Peter's Square. The hotel was designed by Charles Trubshaw in Edwardian Baroque style and is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building.

History

Built at the junction of Peter Street and Lower

Mosley Street Mosley Street is a street in Manchester, England. It runs between its junction with Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street to St Peter's Square. Beyond St Peter's Square it becomes Lower Mosley Street. It is the location of several Grade II and ...

opposite Manchester Central railway station, terminus for Midland Railway express trains to London St Pancras, the hotel was designed by Charles Trubshaw and constructed between 1898 and 1903 for the Midland Railway Company at a cost of more than £1 million. In 1908 ''The Railway News'' reported that the hotel had over 70,000 guests in its first year and described it as a "twentieth century palace". The hotel had a 1,000-seat purpose-built theatre where opera, drama and early

Annie Horniman Annie Elizabeth Fredericka HornimanHarding, John, Staging Life: The Story of the Manchester Playwrights (Greenwich Exchange 2018) https://greenex.co.uk/ CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937) was an English theatre matron and manager. She establ ...

performances were staged, and a roof terrace where a string quartet performed. The Midland Hotel was allegedly coveted by

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, who maintained a keen interest in architecture, as a possible

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

headquarters in Britain. American intelligence speculated that the area of Manchester around the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

was spared from bombing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

so as not to damage or destroy the Midland Hotel.

Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeron ...

met Henry Royce in the Midland Hotel, leading to the formation of

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his Crane ( ...

in 1904. The

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also ...

dined in the hotel's Trafford Restaurant in November 1959 after attending a

Royal Variety Performance The ''Royal Variety Performance'' is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity (of which King Charles III is life-patron). It is attended by senior members of the British royal ...

at the Palace Theatre.

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

were famously refused access to the French Restaurant for being "inappropriately dressed". Once known as the Crowne Plaza Manchester – The Midland, it was bought by the Paramount Hotel Group (now the Hotel Collection) in 2004. It was upgraded in a £12 million renovation and was transferred to QHotels, formerly Quintessential Hotels, Paramount's sister company. The hotel was sold in 2018 to a partnership of the Swedish firm Pandox and the Israeli firm Fattal Hotels. The new owners undertook a £14 million renovation. , the Midland Hotel was operated by the Fattal Jurys Operation as a Leonardo Royal Hotel.

Architecture

The Midland has a steel structure clad in red brick, brown

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

and several varieties of polished

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and Burmantofts terracotta to withstand the polluted environment of Manchester. This includes some fine modelled panels by the sculptor Edward Caldwell Spruce.''Burmantofts Pottery'' (1983) Bradford Art Galleries & Museums and Leeds City Art Gallery p15 The building shares some similarity with other highly decorative Edwardian Baroque buildings in Manchester such as London Road Fire Station and

Lancaster House Lancaster House (originally known as York House and then Stafford House) is a mansion on The Mall, London, The Mall in the St James's district in the West End of London. Adjacent to The Green Park, it is next to Clarence House and St James ...

. The building has been designated a

building by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. The building was voted

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

's second-favourite building by readers of the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

'' in 2012.

Hotel

The hotel is close to Manchester Central exhibition and conference centre on the site of the former railway station, the Bridgewater Hall and

Manchester Central Library Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the build ...

. The hotel has 312 en-suite bedrooms and 14 suites, a health club and two restaurants – Adam Reid at The French and Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.

Restaurants

The French, once described by '' The Good Food Guide'' as "Manchester's finest dining room", was one of Britain's first Michelin-starred restaurants – awarded in 1974 in the first guide. It re-opened in March 2013 and chef Simon Rogan who stated his desire was to re-establish it to its former opulence and was rated the 12th best restaurant nationally in its first year of opening and awarded the best New Entry award by ''The Good Food Guide''. The French was awarded three Rosettes – the maximum permitted in the first year of opening. The Colony was named after the

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

traders who sold raw cotton to mill owners and referred to themselves as the Old Colony Club. It closed for refurbishment in 2013 and re-opened in the September as Mr. Cooper's House & Garden in tribute to Thomas Cooper, whose house and gardens occupied the hotel site in 1819. The family were coach-makers and their garden was famous for its strawberries, gooseberries, apples and flowers. Following a complete makeover, the restaurant is now called Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * *

External links