Proposed New Wing: Midland Hotel, 20, Mount Street Manchester

LARGEST HOTEL IN EUROPE - The plans for the new wing of the Midland Hotel, Manchester. which will cost nearly £400,000, have now been submitted to the Corporation, and within two years Manchester will probably have the largest hotel in Europe.   …  The decision to add a new wing to the hotel was taken nearly a year ago, and the original idea was to build it in the courtyard of the Central Station. This plan had had to be abandoned, and that the new wing would be on a site in Mount Street. The Company has been fortunate enough to get the large block of offices at 20, Mount Street, which is now occupied by such well-known firms as Messrs Simon-Carves, Ltd. The new wing will occupy a little more than half of the island site bounded by Mount Street, Peter Street, Museum Street, and Windmill Street, and will stop where the Y.M.C.A. building begins. Sir Edwin Lutyens, who is now on his way back from India, is the architect, and he has designed a building that will be 115 feet high (the hotel is about 100 feet), and will be connected with the Midland by an arched bridge over Mount Street. This new wing will hold some 260 guests, so that when it is completed the whole hotel will be able to take nearly 700 people. All these guests will have their meals in the present Midland Hotel, for there will be no dining-rooms in the new wing. The ground floor will be kept for shops and showrooms, and there will be a garage, probably facing Museum Street and Windmill Street. The rooms in the new wing, which will all have bathrooms, will be let for 17s. 6d. a night. [Manchester Guardian 6 February 1930 page 11]

THE MIDLAND HOTEL EXTENSIONS - Although he has only just returned from his notable work in Delhi, Sir Edwin Lutyens has already started on a new venture—the designing of the extension to Manchester's Midland Hotel—and yesterday he visited the city to inspect the site. This will be Sir Edwin's first commission of its kind, for although he has helped in the designing of smaller hotels be has never designed a hotel himself on the lines of the Midland Hotel's new extension. He therefore hopes, as he puts it, for the patience and kindliness of Manchester to support him. In an interview last night Sir Edwin gave some indication of what the new building will be like. He expressed his pleasure at the site, although he said it would be a difficult one on which to build, being narrow. Judging by Sir Edwin's description of his plans for the new building, it will not only be a valuable addition to the city's architecture, but it will supply in the most artistic and efficient manner Manchester's need for further hotel accommodation. It is his endeavour, after consultation with the company's architect— Mr. S. Adams—to surpass the best American designs. The building will be modern but on very traditional lines - "and that won't please anybody" said Sir Edwin whimsically. "It will be built of black or wine-coloured glazed bricks on a sub-base or podium of stone, and have silver coloured slates that will shine pink in the early morning sun, and gold In the sunset." The whole building, interior and exterior, will be modest and quiet. "I am working on the motto 'Comfort without self-consciousness,' " continued Sir Edwin. "It will be the kind of hotel in which a man will not feel over- awed, but one in which he will be able to sleep comfortably as if It were his own little bungalow." There will be about 280 rooms, each bedroom having its own bathroom. It will be a building with comparatively small rooms that will look like a palace with large rooms, and it will be connected with the present Midland Hotel by a bridge across the street. This bridge. however, will be in keeping with the surroundings. It will be like a well-dressed gentleman one meets in the streets and doesn't notice, unless it be to admire the cut of his trousers." From the large garage under the building an owner-driver will be able to enter the hotel without going out into the street. An interesting feature of the new building will be that it will have no north wall. One corner will face the north, and the other three walls will catch the sun which Sir Edwin seemed confident would visit Manchester when the new building is completed. There will be a number of high-class shops in the building. [Manchester Guardian 8 March 1930 page 15]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 6 February 1930 page 11 with site plan
Reference     Manchester Guardian 8 March 1930 page 15