19th May 2008 - by James Johnson
The Midland Hotel in Manchester
The Midland Hotel Manchester, my thoughts and my opinion, for
what it is worth.
It's the place where Rolls first met Royce, and has been a
Manchester legend since it was built in 1903, but the Midland
Hotel is showing no signs of falling behind the times. It may
have been slightly eclipsed by the new giants of The Lowry
Hotel and Radisson Edwardian in recent years, but a massive
restoration project that began in 2004 has breathed new life
into the Midland.
This grand hotel was originally built by the Midland Railway
Company to provide respite for weary business travellers, which
is why a hotel in Manchester is called The Midland.
As one of the most familiar buildings in Manchester city
centre, I'm well used to looking at the exterior of The
Midland, usually whilst waiting, waiting, waiting for a tram in
St Peter's Square. So I couldn't really have any first
impressions walking up to the hotel, but the entrance and lobby
area are exactly what you would hope for and expect. High
ceilings, mirrors, stately furnishings and lots of class are
what you get when you walk into The Midland Hotel, and even the
most jaded business traveller would have to be impressed.
Check-in was incredibly easy and it took only a matter of
minutes from arrival to be headed for the wall of lifts at the
end of the lobby and on our way to the room.
The refurbishment process somehow managed to create nine new
rooms - taking the total up to 312 - as well as upgrading all
the rest of them. And it is here where the benefits of the
facelift are most evident. In a century-old hotel, you might
expect the rooms to be rather old-fashioned and dated, but
while they are certainly still classic in design, these rooms
are now far from past their best. The paintwork mostly looks
shiny-new, and the bathrooms are noticeably similar to the ones
you'd find in The Lowry (though the Radisson's wet-rooms are
sadly absent here).
One of the most obvious improvements is in the televisual
department, with a flat-screen TV set on a swivelling stand so
that you can point it in the direction of the sofa or the bed,
depending on where you fancy watching the box. There are the
usual option in terms of channels (basically Freeview plus a
few pay-per-view movie channels plus pay-per-oo-er porn
channels), and it all works very nicely indeed. Wi-fi internet
access is also standard in all the rooms, as is
air-conditioning.
One area where our room suffered in comparison with both The
Lowry and the Radisson was the view. With The Midland being a
big old traditional building, a sizeable proportion of the
rooms only get a view of the rooms on the other three sides of
the hotel, rather than a glamorous vision of urban Manchester
in all its splendour. While this is only a slight problem in a
city-centre hotel (it's not like you're missing out on a view
of a Caribbean beach after all), there was one more serious
issue we had.
That was the bed. At a four-star hotel like this, you expect
comfort at the very least from the most important item in the
room, but The Midland's beds just aren't that comfy. For one
thing, they are too short for a man of by height (6"3), which
is just daft these days. How would Peter Crouch cope? Even more
annoyingly, the mattresses on the bed were not exactly
welcomingly soft, meaning that I woke up early with a bad back.
Beds are obviously a subjective issue, and many people would
find those at The Midland to be perfectly fine, but quite
honestly I didn't.
One of the most popular aspects of The Midland Hotel is its
elegance, and nowhere is this more evident than in The French
restaurant, which was mostly untouched by the refurbishments
because it was decided that altering its classic design would
be a big mistake. And they were right, because it's a
stunningly opulent room, particularly with two new chandeliers
hanging overhead. The menu is equally fancy, so it might not be
the place for people with limited palates, while it is worth
pointing out that four tieless Beatles were once barred from
entering, so don't turn up in a paint-stained pair of
overalls...
A new area of the hotel is The Wyvern, a stylish new bar in
which to relax and unwind, situated at the front of the hotel
overlooking St Peter's Square and the hustle and bustle of the
city centre. Of course, The Midland's excellent location means
that you are never far away from anything in town, least of all
with a tram stop just outside the front door, not to mention
Central Library, which is only over the road.
Article Source: http://bb-articles.com
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