Visiting a luxury hotel you’ve never been to before is always a gripping experience,“16 Peter Street, please”, I tell my taxi driver at Manchester Piccadilly station, when a few minutes later the car comes to a halt in front of a six-storey, late nineteenth-century building. Right across the Gothic Revival-inspired Manchester Central Library, I open the door to the taxi, look up and adorned in an elaborate, golden typeface the words Midland Hotel gleam against the building’s red stone.
The Midland Hotel is the only pre-20th century hotel in the city centre which was designed and built with the intention of it being a hotel – this opposed to the many other hotels in the city which have been reconverted from warehouses. Undoubtedly this is why walking into the Midland feels like you’re walking into Edwardian history; the guest feels part of a completely different century, one that is slow-paced and opulent.
The impressive exterior of The Midland Hotel Manchester
Its magnificent lobby imparts an air of grandeur as its open floor plan is bathed in light coming from the immense skylight crowning the space. As I tour around the hotel’s spaces, it becomes clear that there are a thousand and one reasons to not just stay at but also visit the Midland: weddings, corporate meeting events, conferences, fine-dining, afternoon tea, leisure and a brand-new state of the art gym, pool and spa.
Presidential Suite – Bedroom
Presidential Suite – Sitting Room
With 14 meeting rooms alone, its ground and first floors are fully reserved for events and dining, each of them architecturally phenomenal spaces that exude with historic authenticity.
A deco detail at the Midland Hotel Manchester
But the coupe de grâce of the Midland, for me, has to be its stunning Presidential Suite. Spacious and decorated with a modern flair, large cylindrical chandeliers hang from the common room and the bedroom. The bedroom – as spacious as the dining room, with sitting space and a work area – is decorated with dark shades of brown, pristine whites, deep purples and warm yellows and golds; its king-size bed framed with an enormous white wood and brown leather headboard.
The pool at the Midland, one of its leisure spaces
In the opposite room, separated by a foyer and the bathroom, a dining area seating eight people is placed opposite a seating space surrounded by four, tall bay windows that look out to the Library building. The space catches the last rays of sunset, making the room glow in the most subtle, romantic shade of orange, perfect for enjoying a glass of wine. Take it from me, leaving the bedroom will be the hardest thing you’ll do while in Manchester.
The Midland Hotel’s hallway is designed for two ladies in ballgowns to cross paths without touching
There is no detail that goes amiss at the Midland. Its very wide hallways – designed this way so that women wearing nineteenth and twentieth century ballgowns could cross paths without having their dresses touch – are decorated with framed letters, drawings, notes and paintings. These mementos were all either found in the rooms – left behind by the guests – or crafted by the many generations of hotel staff, fortifying the sense of historical authenticity the hotel has, along with its link to Manchester and its people.
by Regner Ramos
Midland Hotel, 16 Peter St, Manchester M60 2DS
Tel: 0161 236 3333