Midland Hotel, Peter Street, Manchester

A confection in reddish brown terracotta, red brick and polished granite, this elaborately decorated pile was built to provide hotel accommodation for the adjacent Central Station to which it was linked by a covered, glazed canopy. The exterior reflects the quality of the facilities within, which originally included a Winter Garden, Palm Court, Theatre, Concert Hall, and Continental restaurants. The architecture oozes unrestrained opulence to the detriment of its overall composition. This is a building as an assemblage of details, eclectically raiding and adapting styles as necessary. These include the muses overlooking Lower Mosley Street, an octagonal corner tower with lions rampant holding shields, a side entrance of volutes and heavily embellished Ionic column supporting a vaulted roof, Neo-Dutch gables and Art Nouveau iron work.

NEW HOTEL NEAR THE CENTRAL STATION, MANCHESTER - Before the details of the new hotel proposed to be erected close to the Central Station by the Midland Railway Company are finally decided upon, Mr. C. Trubshaw, FRIBA, the Architect of the Company, and Mr, William Towle, the manager of the Company's hotels and restaurants, are to proceed to America in order to make a tour and inspection of the large hotels in the States. The new hotel, which it is proposed to make one of the largest and finest in the country, will occupy the site at present bounded by Lower Mosley-street, Windmill-street, Mount-street, and Peter-street. One of the chief features will be a large courtyard in the style of a winter garden. To take the place of the Gentlemen's Concert Hall, which is one of the buildings to be demolished to make way for the new hotel, a large concert room will be attached to the hotel, but the entrance will be a separate one. — Manchester City News. [Builder 9 January 1897 page 44]

MIDLAND RAILWAY HOTEL, MANCHESTER — The Improvement and Buildings Committee of the Manchester Corporation have passed the plans for the Midland Grand Hotel, to be erected by the Midland Railway on the site now being cleared close to the Central Station. The hotel will have frontages to Peter-street, Mount-street, Lower Mosley-street, and Windmill-street. Granite is to be the material used in the lower part of the superstructure, and the main building above this will be of terra cotta. A concert hall forms a part of the design. [Builder 3 September 1898 page 215]

THE NEW MIDLAND GRAND HOTEL IN MANCHESTER - An excellent idea of the general appearance of the palatial edifice which the Midland Railway Company is erecting in Manchester, and which will be known as the Hotel Midland Grand, is afforded by the above sketch. The site of the hotel is in close proximity to the Central Station, and is therefore in every way advantageous, Covering an area of about two acres, it is bounded on its four sides by Peter-street, Mount- Street, Windmill Street and Lower Mosley Street. The main front of the building, will be to Peter-street, and the two archways will admit to a central courtyard, possessing a similar exit at the opposite side. Red and grey Aberdeen granite, with a mixture of Shap granite, will be the stone used in the lower part of the structure, while in the upper portion brick and faience will be employed. The hotel Will provide magnificent accommodation, and the section to be first completed will include a fine concert hall. There will also be large public rooms, a winter garden, a rotunda, a roof garden, French restaurant, business and stock rooms, Royal and private suites, and 400 bedrooms. The total cost, including the furnishing, is estimated at a million sterling, and the work is expected to occupy altogether somewhere about three years. Mr Charles Trubshaw, of Derby, is the architect for the building, and is to be congratulated upon the excellence of his design. When completed, the Hotel Midland Grand will be one of the chief establishments the kind in the country, and will constitute a worthy addition to the many magnificent buildings of which Manchester can boast. The first contract, amounting to £80,000 has been let to Messrs William Brown and Son, Of Salford, who have been at work upon the section entrusted to them for some months. We understand that it is the intention of the company to erect the building in four sections, and that at the corner of Lower Mosley Street and Windmill street has been the first taken in hand. [Manchester Times 14 April 1899]

HOTEL, MANCHESTER - The new hotel of the Midland Railway Company at Manchester is nearing completion. The four facades are in the Renaissance style, with vitrified terra-cotta mouldings above a foundation of red and grey Aberdeen granite. It is about four years since the company acquired, at a cost of about £65,000, the land on which the new building stands, and cleared from it the Gentlemen’s Concert Hall, the People’s Concert Hall, the Lower Mosley-street Schools, and other buildings. Then, after the contracts had been let, there were delays on questions of street lines. Something like 2 yards had to be given up to all the four streets which surround the plot, so that the company’s area was reduced to about one and a third acres. The foundations had to be of exceptional strength, and the excavations were carried down to the red rock, and in some places to a depth of 30 feet below the street level. In March of 1899 the operations were actually commenced and there were many delays for material. For six months the laying of strong blue bricks, faced with others of white enamel, went on out of the sight of the public, and then was seen the erection of a framework of girders—a skeleton of steel—going up apparently to a sixth story. This steelwork cost £200,000. The contractors, who have never during the last six months had fewer than 1,000 men engaged on the job at once, were able at times to increase the number to 1,400 or 1,500. The main entrance will be in Peter-street, and will afford wide entrance and exit ways for carriages. A second entrance, with a portico covering the footpath, will be in Mount-street, a third entrance will be in Windmill Street, opposite the Central Station, from which to the doors of the hotel will run a covered way, and there are entrances also on the Lower Mosley-street site. The basements provide for service apartments, hairdressing saloons, baths, and other appurtenances of a modern hotel. On the ground-floor is the octagonal - shaped lounge with music balcony, covered by a dome of coloured glass, a winter garden, a French restaurant, a general restaurant, a coffee-room, and private dining-rooms. On the first floor are provided a ball-room, lounge, and reception-rooms, suites of private-rooms — one of which will be designated “the Royal suite”—and the Gentlemen’s Concert Hall. Of the 480 rooms in the hotel 400 are bedrooms. Access to every floor is by lifts. The numerous rooms in the upper portion of the building look out upon an iron balcony. The contractors are Messrs. W. Brown & Son, of Salford, and the architect Mr. C. Trubshaw. Mr. Stewart has acted for the company as building expert. The fireproof floors, ceilings, and roofs are on the Mark Fawcett system. [Builder 24 January 1903 page 95]

NEW MIDLAND HOTEL, MANCHESTER - The building of a large hotel in the centre of a modern city taxes the energies of both architect and builder to the greatest extent, for not only are there problems of planning and design to be solved but in the construction itself innumerable difficulties and restrictions are imposed by commercial requirements and public convenience. So that a large new hotel offers many interesting and instructive features. In the new Midland Hotel, which has been built outside the Central Station at Manchester there have necessarily been examples of this, but attention has especially been drawn to the building by reason of the rapidity with which it has been erected. A year ago there was little more than its framework visible, with short heights of wall here and there behind the scaffolding, and girders half fixed, while now the huge work is almost completely finished. The builders are Messrs. William Brown & Son, of Trafford Road, Salford. Mr. Charles Trubshaw, F.R.I.B.A., of the Midland Railway Company’s department at Derby, is the architect. As far back as the middle of last December the roof was being put on the topmost storey and the scaffolding taken down: and then for the first time it was possible to see the mass of the building, and how leviathan it appeared in comparison with the surrounding structures. Much warehouse property which formerly stood on the site (about two acres) had to be demolished, as well as the Gentlemen’s Concert Hall, the People’s Concert Hall and the Lower Mosley Street Schools. After these had been cleared away, and the excavations made down to the rock, the foundations were begun in September 1899, but it was not until March 1900, that the actual work of building was commenced. For the first 26 feet, rising from the pavement, the front elevations are built of red Aberdeen granite with Shap granite bands, and thence to the roof they are of terra-cotta blocks.

The basement is confined to the usual stores of an hotel and the necessary appliances for heating and ventilation, the scheme for the latter being elaborate. Baths are also provided. In the intermediate basement are hair-dressing saloons, bathrooms, kitchens, &c. The ground floor on the Peter Street side has an entrance about 19 feet wide leading into a carriage court, with an inward and an outward way for vehicles. From this part it may be noted that access is given to a fine octagonal-shaped lounge on the first floor, which has a balcony for a band. From the lounge one may pass on the extreme left to a large room to be used as a coffee-room, or on the right to a French restaurant. On the Mount Street side of this restaurant is a covered court or winter garden—a large rectangle—having a raised terrace or platform for promenading purposes. Beyond the French restaurant and the winter garden are private dining-rooms. From an entrance to the hotel in Mount Street access is given to a luncheon-room overlooking Peter Street, and to a restaurant—on a larger scale than the French restaurant—with windows overlooking Mount Street. Besides the entrance in the latter street, already mentioned, is another nearer the centre of this side of the block. There is also an entrance for purposes of business and telephone communication. In Windmill Street is an entrance which will be mostly used for conveying luggage into the hotel. Following the line of the building towards the Central Station, one reaches another of the principal entrances directly opposite the station. This leads into an entrance hall for the new Concert Hall, which, under the terms of acquisition by the company, takes the place of the old Gentlemen’s Concert Hall; and here it is hoped that the long-famous Gentlemen's Concerts of Manchester will be resumed with the same success as in days gone by.

The new Concert Hail, which is entered from Windmill Street, is on the first-floor and is reached by a marble staircase. On the left of the hall are lounge and reception-rooms The lounge, already described as octagonal in shape, is entered from Peter Street. From this entrance passages lead on the one side to a private ballroom and dressing-room and on the other to a billiard-room. Passing into a long corridor, the visitor finds on this floor a number of private dining-rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and sitting rooms running round the various sides of the building.

On the second floor is a winter garden or covered court, with an octagonal roof. The ventilation and efficient lighting of this has been well provided for. There is on this floor a continuous corridor leading to bedrooms and bathrooms. On the third floor is a continuous corridor which runs all round the building. Here the great space representing the open court is well seen. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are practically a repetition of those below, and the top storey is covered by a Mansard roof of steel and fireproof materials. The whole structure has about 480 rooms, of which 400 are bedrooms.

Of the methods adopted by Mr. J. C. Stewart and the builders in the erection of the hotel we have already made brief reference only, for on previous occasions —as when describing the new Westinghouse Works at Manchester—we have dealt in some detail with these methods; indeed, when the matter comes to be set down in print there is not a great deal to tell, because the speedy erection of buildings has resulted more from foresight, close direction of the work and good  wages rather than the introduction of great labour-saving devices. The contractors know what they want and carry out their work in a definite systematic way—that is the pith of the matter. [Builders Journal 20 May 1903 page 203-205] 

MANCHESTER - The new hotel, which the Midland Railway Company have built close to the Central Station, Manchester, was opened on Saturday.  The site covers two acres in Peter street, and five years have been occupied in clearing the ground and putting up the new building. The architect is Mr C Trubshaw, and the contractors were Messrs William Brown and Son, of Salford. The building is of six stories, and is 100 feet in height. For 26ft. from the pavement the front elevations are of red Aberdeen granite, with granite bands, and thence to the roof of terra-cotta blocks. The style is of a rather freely adapted Renaissance, The hotel overlooks Peter Street, Moseley Street, Mount Street, Windmill Street, and the open space of the Central Station yard, with which it is connected by a light iron built, glass roofed way. Blown vitrified terra-cotta is extensively used in the treatment of the building. The lofty walls of the inner building, rising on four sides high above the glass roof of the interior garden, are similarly treated with glazed white tiles. By a series of filter screens of linen and coke hung across the windows all impurities are removed from the incoming air. Within the entrance hall are a post and telegraph office, a telephone exchange, and a railway booking-office. There is a large concert hall, rich in variegated marbles; it will accommodate 850 persons. The panelling is of Cuban mahogany, and the style Louis XIV. There are several dining rooms, including a French restaurant, coffee and grill-rooms, and German restaurant. The grand dining room is panelled in mahogany, with,] embellishments in gold ; the ceiling is painted white, picked out with gold. A feature of the hotel is the arrangement of the rooms in suites, which are self-contained. There are 300 bedrooms. The suites grade into each other according to the periods - Elizabethan, Jacobean, Georgian, Louis XIV., and Adams all being utilised. The fireproof flooring has been carried out by Messrs  Mark Fawcett and Company, of London. [Building News 11 September 1903 page 338]

Sold to Holiday Inn and refurbished by architects, Essex, Goodman and Suggitt between 1984 and 1987.

Terra-cotta    Burmantofts Leeds
Art metal     G Wragge  Princess Art Metal Works Company - balcony guards etc

Reference    Builder 9 January 1897 page 44
Reference    Builder 3 September 1898 page 215
Reference    Manchester City News 27 August 1898 Page 5 (Notes)
Reference    Manchester Times 14 April 1899 with illustration
Reference    Builder 24 January 1903 page 95
Reference    Builders Journal 20 May 1903 page 203-205
Reference    British Architect 11 September 1903 Page 197 
Reference    British Architect 25 September 1903 Page 236 - Princess Art Metal Works Co.
Reference    Railway Magazine December 1909 The Midland Railway New Manchester Hotel
Reference    Building News 11 September 1903 page 338