Victoria Hotel

CITY OF MANCHESTER – NEW HOTEL IN VICTORIA STREET – The Corporation of the City of Manchester invite TENDERS for the ALTERATION and COMPLETION of PORTIONS (intended to form part of the above Hotel) of the Existing VICTORIA BUILDINGS, bounded by Victoria Street, St Mary’s Gate and Deansgate. Plans may be inspected at the office of the architect, Mr William Dawes, 2 Cooper Street, Manchester from whom bills of quantities may be obtained. Sealed tenders endorsed “Tender for Completion of Existing Portions of New Hotel,” addressed to the Chairman of the Improvements Committee are to be delivered at the Town Clerk’s office not later than Friday the 7th day of December next.  Joseph Heron, Town Clerk.

VICTORIA BUILDINGS MANCHESTER - Messrs. Robert Neill and Sons' tender for the completion of the buildings on the Victoria site has been accepted by the Manchester Corporation, and the works in connection with the superstructure are now being proceeded with. The designs have been prepared by Mr. William Dawes, architect, Manchester; and are being carried out under his superintendence. Externally, the new portions will harmonise with the existing buildings, which were commenced in 1875, and will complete this important block in accordance — broadly — with Mr. Dawes's original intention, although not quite so rich in ornamental details as at first proposed. The foundations of the new buildings are very extensive. [Building News 2 March 1883 page 267]

THE VICTORIA HOTEL. In point of architectural beauty, completeness of detail, and general convenience and utility, the Victoria Hotel in this city has few equals and may fairly be said to be surpassed by no similar establishment in the kingdom. This conclusion was irresistibly forced upon us as a result of a “private view" of the hotel which we were favoured with yesterday. The artistic embellishments are unique, the furniture elegant, and the arrangements and accessories as whole as perfect as possible to human taste and ingenuity to devise. The external design of the building differs somewhat from the architect's original intention. Several beautiful features have been omitted on account of their cost, and many of the details have been much simplified. From illustrations the Victoria Buildings that appeared some years ago, we notice that the two corner pavilions of the St. Marys-gate front have not been yet carried out, and only one over the hotel entrance in any way approaches the first idea. The grand dome, again, over the central arcade, shown in the original design, does not exist, and cannot now be carried out as the roof has been constructed on plainer and less beautiful lines. The Campanile form intended for the ventilating shaft, with its effective ornament and graceful outline has also no place in the existing work, and in numerous other instances the first design has been stripped of some its intended magnificence and beauty. In the case of the corner pavilions, it is not too late to remedy the effect of incompleteness, and it would be a pity to leave off at a point so important to the design. The stone employed in the new block has been obtained from three quarries—that in the basement from Mount Tabor, and that in the general facing of the superstructure from the Ackworth and Spinkwell quarries. The main stairs, from the ground floor upwards, are constructed with Hopton Wood stone polished, and the two principal stairs down to the basement are constructed of red polished granite. The Hopton Wood stone was substituted for marble on account of its comparative cheapness, and not with a view to effect; indeed, its introduction arose out of this unfortunate necessity of keeping down the cost. The columns, caps, and bases of the archways opening out from the main staircase to the corridors, and a portion of those opening into the passenger hoist lobby are also from the same quarry. The carvings round the exterior of the whole block are well worth noticing. Those on the old portion were executed by Messrs. Williams and Millson, and those on the new by Mr. Bonehill. For the most part they illustrate Aesop’s Fables, and are good specimens of bold carving and quaint treatment. In the spandrils over the entrance in Viotoria-street the legend of the " Smithy Door" forms the subject. and in those over the entrance to St. Marys-gate the carving illustrates the granting of the charter of the first fair in St. Mary's Churchyard. There are 25 of these carvings round the old portion and 12 over the piers in the new portion, and the latter were executed by Messrs. Bonehill and Sons, of this city. A complete system of ventilation has been followed throughout the whole of the building. Every sitting room and bedroom, as also every shop and office, is connected by flues with the main trunk in the roof conveying the whole of the foul air to the ventilating shaft, into which it drawn and forced upwards to the outlet by rarification. The necessary heating power lor this purpose is supplied by the hot surface of the large iron smoke fine from the boilers that is carried inside the foul air shaft from its base to its summit. The engineering works not being yet completed the first results are not expected to be perfect, ultimately, when the whole plan is in full working order, the ventilation must be exceptionally good. Tobin's tube inlets are provided in the sitting-rooms and bedrooms and entertaining-rooms for the admission of fresh air, and should an increased supply required at any time it can be obtained to any extent by opening windows and fanlights. The admission of fresh air to the dining-hall and grill-room, which have no outside walls, but, as before pointed out, are both placed in the centre of the new portion of the hotel, has been a matter of some difficulty, but the difficulty has been overcome by a system of air channels formed in the walls and connected with a larger system of fresh air channels carried to the outside areas. The air before entering the smaller flues that convey it to the ornamental inlets of these rooms cleansed by passing through muslin screens, movable frames, that can be taken out alternately as they require cleansing. The corridors on all the upper floors are supplied with fresh air through iron casements in the ornamentally glazed screens that surround the central area over the dining hall roof. Sanitary matters have been very carefully and effectively treated, and the hotel may be considered free from any dangers arising from sewer gas or defective drainage. All the drains empty themselves into an intercepting trap that is ventilated into the foul air shaft, and thus any gas or impure air would at the same time be extracted from the drainpipes themselves. The hoists and elevators have been provided by Messrs. Benham and Sons, of London. There are four small service hoists to the kitchens, one larger hoist for heavier goods, two wine hoists from the wine cellars to the bars, one heavy goods hoist for the heaviest packages, and one passenger elevator with handsomely decorated "cage." The corridors, staircases, and balconies are fireproof throughout, and it would be practically impossible for anyone to be cut off from escape should fire occur in any part of the building. The first floor over the shops also is entirely fireproof, and special provision has been made by hydrants and hose to suppress immediately any fire that might break out anywhere in the hotel. The boiler-house is situated in a sub-cellar in the centre of the buildings, and is connected with the hotel by a sub-way cut out of the sandstone rock. Beneath this passage is carried the smoke flue from the boilers to the vertical smoke flue in the ventilating shaft, and hanging from the roof of the passage is the main steam supply pipe for all the services required in the working of the engines, for pumping, laundry work, heating the building, and for the various purposes to which is applied in the kitchens and service rooms. The two boilers have been supplied by Messrs. Adamson and Co., of Dukinfield. They are Lancashire boilers of 50 horse-power each. In view of the electric light, which will ultimately be adopted these boilers have been specially considered. The boiler-house is fireproof, spacious, and well lighted and ventilated. The kitchens and offices attached, though not the largest, are probably the most complete, compact, and convenient of any hotel kitchens the kingdom. They have been fitted up by Messrs. Benham and Co., of Wigmore-street, London, with the newest and best cooking ranges and stoves. Situated at the top of the building, as usual in all well-designed public buildings, the odours, pleasant or unpleasant, will at once pass out of the hotel, and not rite up through it would have been the case the kitchens had been placed the basement or mid lie floors. For the present the hotel will be lighted with gas only. In the public rooms, such the dining hall, grillroom, smokerooms, drawing-rooms, staircases, and corridors, the light is most brilliant. In the smokerooms and grillrooms Sugg's sunlights are adopted. These act also as ventilators and draw off the vitiated air into the foul air chambers connected with the ventilating shaft. The various entertaining rooms, when lit up as they were last night, present a splendid appearance, and the effect of the varied and richly coloured decoration by gaslight is perfectly charming. It may be here distinctly stated that the whole of the furnishing has been done the expense of the lessee, Mr. Macgregor, and not by the corporation. The architect to the corporation has not been engaged on the furniture designs, nor have the contracts passed through his hands. Indeed, the positions of landlord and tenant have been clearly defined and strictly adhered to from first to last. The corporation are simply the owners of the property and are not any way connected with the working of the hotel. In finishing the building in the best style of modern art, and meeting, as far as possible, the requirements of modern taste, the corporation have, most people will agree, acted wisely in the interests of the ratepayers, and have raised what would otherwise have been a failure into a permanent success. To have followed the old error of "spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar" would have been folly that would have entailed a fearful cost in time to come. should be stated that Mr. Edminson prepared the designs for the beautiful mosaic work in the grillroom and the dining hall. Messrs. Alston and Elliott, of Deansgate. supplied the grates and chimney pieces in the basement and other necessary fixtures and have given the greatest satisfaction. The hotel may be said to have been formally opened last night when a conversazione was held in the building. About 5,000 invitations were issued, and some 2,500 ladies and gentlemen were present. Refreshments were served in the commercial room on the Deansgate side. Mr. F. Vetter's band performed capital selection of music in the Arcade. [Manchester Courier 7 July 1885 page 8]

BUILDING NOTES - The new Victoria Hotel, at Manchester has been opened. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak more particularly concerning its internal fittings and decoration, but we may here state that everything seems to have been carried out on a very lavish scale. The hotel, as we have before said, has been built by the Manchester Corporation in completion of the original design of the Victoria Buildings, Mr. W. Dawes, of Manchester, being the architect. Grill room in the basement, and the dining-hall on the ground floor: These occupy the centre of the building and are 72ft. by 42ft. The first floor, on the Victoria Street side, is occupied by a series of private sitting- rooms and by the drawing and coffee rooms, and other apartments. The dining-hall: The glass roof is filled with pictures of fruit trees, springing from an undergrowth of foliage. The decorations of the room consist of a marble surbase made up of Rouge Griotte, Grand Antique, and Rouge Roi marbles, surmounted with a dado of rich bluish green tiles, and finished eff with a double moulding of walnut-wood enclosing a band of tiles of a brownish hue. In the drawing-room, coffee-room, and reading-room the woodwork is American walnut, the panelled dado being filled in with patterns of Lincrusta Walton in high relief, gilded and glazed. The same materials have been liberally used in the main corridors. There is a large cafe approached by a separate entrance from Deansgate. It may be of interest to add that the entire block known as the Victoria Buildings (including the hotel), now the property of the ratepayers, comprises 28 shops, 88 offices, and 43 cellars. Two hundred and thirty-one rooms in the old portion of the building are devoted to hotel purposes, and 14 cellars are used for the same purpose. This is exclusive o: the billiard-room. There are 1,500 feet of balcony round the arcade, more than half of which belongs to the hotel. Two hundred and thirty-one rooms in the old portion would have had to be fitted up as offices if the hotel had not been built, and as a large proportion of these are on the fourth floor, the chances of letting them would have been very small. There are 1,559 windows in the entire building, 408 of which are for offices or shops, the remaining 1,051 belonging to the hotel, and the height from the street pavement to the top of the flagstaff on the pavilion is 133ft. There are 151 bedrooms, 34 sitting rooms, 14 stock and show rooms, besides the principal entertaining rooms already described. The frontages aggregate to the huge total of 940 feet, divided as follows: Victoria Street, 375ft. ; Deansgate, 360ft. ; and St. Mary's Gate, 205ft. The entire superficial area covered by the various floors is near upon 280,412ft., or above 64 acres. [British Architect 10 July 1885 page 23]