Grand Hotel (Quality Hotel) 66 Trinity Street, Hanley

The Grand Hotel at Hanley was a speculative venture with F W Maxwell an active participant. However, the project was initially unsuccessful, Maxwell’s estimated losses being in the region of at £8,000. In July 1897 the property on which the hotel was built was purchased for £9,450 by Francis Maxwell, Mr Brooks and a syndicate of the original Hanley Hotel Company. By August 1897 the Hanley Hotel Company was replaced by the New Hanley Hotel Company and a contract for the building of the hotel for £21,095 was entered into in August 1897 between Messrs Brooks and Maxwell of the first part, the New Hanley Hotel Company of the second, and William Brown junior and William Brown senior of the third part. In November 1899 the hotel was to have been sold for £41,132 of which £36,300 was to be paid to Walker and Maxwell but this sale fell through, leaving the hotel company in financial difficulties, culminating in a winding up order. William Brown junior, who already had a mortgage on the property, subsequently purchased the hotel at auction for £18,000, excluding furniture fittings and stock, in order to save a portion of the money he had put into the venture.  The hotel was then held by a private company, the members of which were other members of the Brown family.

To BE SOLD BY AUCTION – by order of the mortgagees – All that valuable plot of land containing 3,395 square yards, fronting Station Road, Hanley and being immediately opposite the Hanley Railway Station, with the newly and substantially built Hotel Restaurant and Stables erected thereon, known as the Grand Hotel, Hanley. The premises have been built from designs by Messrs Maxwell and Tuke, architects, Manchester, and are exceptionally well arranged with every modern convenience. The building is five storeys in height; the exterior walls are of red facing brick, with cement dressings, cornices and ornamental friezes. Hanley may properly be called the metropolis of the Potteries, and is in the centre of the North Staffordshire coal and iron fields. The population of the town and district is large and rapidly increasing. On the land to the rear of the hotel, according to the magistrates’ desire, very extensive stables have been erected, which consist of coach house 62 feet by 28 feet; 20 stalls, with large hay and corn lofts over the stalls. The whole is enclosed in a yard. The stables are approached from Station Road, and also from the back road through the spare ground belonging to the hotel. The premises are adapted for the purpose of a general commercial hotel and high-class business, and contain accommodation for public meetings and entertainments, and are a size and character which exceed anything of the kind at present existing in Hanley or the pottery district. Part of the land is freehold and the remainder is copyhold, and will be sold, subject to the payments, suits and services, according to the custom of the manor. [Manchester Guardian 4 July 1899 page 11]