The Deansgate (Temperance) Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester

The Deansgate Hotel is the  only known work by the Moffat-Bentley partnership outside Cumberland. By April 1894 the walls were up to roof level. It was further extended about 1898 (architect C Caine) and by 1903 when it was in the ownership of the Manchester Hotels Company Limited, it comprised 100 bedrooms and well-lighted stock rooms according to the Directory of that year. In February 1942 the building was gutted by fire, resulting in a number of deaths. Speaking two days after the event the fire officer noted:

Deansgate Hotel is a building of six floors of an irregular shape fronting on Deansgate and backing on the River Irwell. It was a particularly high fire risk because of the large amount of timber in its internal construction and the large central staircase with passenger lift adjoining which extended from the basement level upwards. This aided the spread of the fire, which, according to statements by members of the staff, originated in the basement, probably in the boiler-room or stock-room. Lord Gledds [Manchester Guardian 14 February 1942 page 8]

The fire started in the basement of the hotel about five o’clock in the morning of the 11 February and spread rapidly. The register of guests at the hotel was destroyed in the blaxe but it was estimated that there were about 86 guests and 45 members of staff in the building at the time. Initially the death toll was given as five but by 21 February sixteen people were believed to have died in the blaze. Fourteen bodies had been recovered, but only four could be positively identified. On 24 February 1942 the bodies of eight men and two women were buried in two communal graves at Southern Cemetery. Not until 4 March was recovered at Mode Wheel the body of Ernest George Brown general secretary of the Doncaster Co-op who had jumped into the River Irwell and drowned. [MG 5 March 1942 page 3]

The hotel never re-opened. Although the ground floor shops on Deansgate were reinstated by the mid 1950s, the roofless and gutted shell of the building’s upper floors remained untouched until its final demolition in early 1971. A photograph of the river side of the hotel taken in 1965 shows this side of the building apparently unaffected by the fire. However, close examination shows numerous broken windows and no signs of occupancy.

In 1971 the site became part of the Market Place development (architects Cruikshank and Seward) which stretched from Market Place/ Old Millgate to the river. On the west side of Deansgate a slab block of offices above a podium and underground car park was built in their beloved white concrete, the only remaining part of the development. For many years the building remained empty and unoccupied before part was converted into the Renaissance Hotel. Premier House was still advertised to let in 2012.  It was linked to Shambles Square on the opposite side of Deansgate by a concrete bridge. Here the Old Shambles was raised some fifteen feet to accord with the proposed levels. It was perhaps the worst of all Manchester’s post-war redevelopment schemes. Following the IRA bomb of 1996, the opportunity was taken to again redevelop Shambles Square and to reinstate pavements on each side of Deansgate.

Archive        Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives: GB127.M900/1/1/2/1/514.Plan number 514.; GB127.M900/1/2/1/Box 4
Reference    Manchester Guardian 20 April 1894 page 8
Reference    Manchester Guardian, 12 February 1942 page 6 – five dead in Manchester Hotel Fire
Reference    Manchester Guardian 14 February 1942 page 8 – criticism of fire service
Reference    Manchester Guardian 24 February 1942 page 2 – five more bodies found
Reference    Manchester Guardian 25 February 1942 page 2 – funerals
Reference    Manchester Guardian 21 February 1942 page 8 – inquest opening
Reference    Manchester Guardian 4 March 1942 page 2 – inquest, fire precautions
Reference    Manchester Guardian 6 March 1942 page 6 – inquest result
Reference    Manchester Guardian 5 March 1942 page 3  - recovery of body at Mode Wheel

Image        https://flickr.com/photos/chethams_library/with/8533453083/ #rebuildingmanchester
Image        Manchester libraries archive - Victoria Gardens