(Former) Grand Hotel, Aytoun Street, Manchester

The Grand Hotel, Aytoun Street, was originally built in 1867 for Alexander Collie, a notorious shipping merchant.  It was designed by Mills and Murgatroyd, and cost £42,000. However, the warehouse operated for less than a decade.  A spectacular bankruptcy occurred on 16 June 1875, when Collie and Co. collapsed with liabilities estimated at about £3 million.

In 1880 the Grand Hotel Company was formed 'for the purpose of meeting the great want that has been felt in the city, by providing a building specially constructed for hotel purposes. It was to be based on American and continental models. William Dawes was employed to prepare the plans. The Chatham Street side was to be extended and a fourth street frontage onto Circus Street planned. This was to increase the size of the building from 2174 square yards to 3288 square yards. Alterations to the existing building were almost entirely internal.  The servants’ quarters were placed in the roof and the kitchens on the top floor “so that the lower portions of the building will be free from the offensive odours”. The hotel opened with a flourish on 19 October 1883. Its facilities were numerous, boasting of billiard saloons, conservatories, oyster saloons, cigar saloons and a post office. A series of ornamented stalls were even placed along the principal corridor to sell stationery, toys, flowers, hosiery and linen.  Handsome suites were prepared for commercial travellers and various Masonic lodges, whilst general clubrooms were provided for societies. This mammoth project was estimated at a cost of £40,000. By 1983 the building had reverted to its original size.  Sadly, it has lost the tall imposing chimneys and gained an additional storey under an ugly mansard roof.

A PROPOSED GRAND HOTEL - It is proposed to convert the large warehouse originally built for Messrs. Collie & Co., in Aytoun Street (illustrated in the Builder for 1868, pp. 640, 641) into a monster hotel, from plans prepared by Mr. W. Dawes, architect. The estimated cost of the works is £40,000. The warehouse was erected from the designs of Messrs. Mills & Murgatroyd. [Builder 13 March 1880 page 325.]

THE PROPOSED GRAND HOTEL, MANCHESTER - As the increase in the hotel accommodation in Manchester has not kept pace with the increased demand either in quantity or quality, it has been decided to form a Grand Hotel Company, for the purpose of meeting the great want that been so long felt in that city, by providing a building specially constructed for hotel purposes, and conducted on the principle adopted in the best American and Continental hotels.The promoters of the new Company have appointed Mr. WILLIAM DAWES, of No. 2 Cooper Street, Manchester, architect for the proposed building. Designs have already been prepared, and the necessary preliminaries will be carried out without delay so that the work may shortly be commenced. The plans of the new building have been approved by the Licensing Committee of Magistrates, and a licence has been granted. 

The site for the proposed Grand Hotel is situated a few yards from Piccadilly on the one side and Portland Street on the other. These streets form two of the most important thoroughfares, the former a continuation of Market Street and the line of route from the London Road Station to the other stations in the city, and the latter a street of palatial warehouses, well known to every visitor as the finest in the northern metropolis. An advantage is claimed for this site on the ground that, although seen from then principal thoroughfares, yet it is set back sufficiently from them to be free from the noise of the traffic in those streets—a source of much annoyance to persons sleeping, or trying to sleep, in other hotels placed prominently to the front, both here and elsewhere.

The size of the proposed hotel may be gathered from the area of the site, which is 3,288 square yards, 2174, of which are already covered by the substantial and well-known warehouse built a few years ago for Messrs. COLLIE & Co., at a coat of over £42,000, exclusive of the machinery in the basement which cost a further sum of £10,000. This building is for the most part admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is proposed to use it, and can be altered to meet the new requirements without much cost. It is well built, faced with stone, and freely ornamented on the principal fronts. That to Chatham Street is shown in our illustration.

As will be seen from the change in detail, it extends from the extreme left to a little beyond the centre of the long front. The remaining portion to the right is not yet built, and it is for this part of the building that Mr. Dawes has prepared designs. The alterations to the existing building will be nearly all internal alterations, and will not affect the exterior to any great extent.

As will be seen from our illustration, the main horizontal lines of the old portion have been carried round the new, and, broadly speaking, the massing and general outline followed, so as to avoid giving the whole block, when completed, the appearance of a large building formed of two smaller ones. The whole of the detail, however, in the new portion will be entirely from that in the old, and the internal design will of course be quite distinct in its character. The hotel will have four street frontages, so that the light to the whole of the rooms and the circulation of air round the whole of the building will be perfect.

The building will be five storeys high, exclusive of servants' bedrooms, etc., in the roof, and the double cellars under the existing building, which will also be extended under the proposed new portion. The kitchens and the various offices in connection with the culinary department are arranged on the top floor, so that the lower portions of the building will be free from the offensive odours inseparable from this department. The hotel, as proposed, will have bars, dining-halls, smoke-rooms, billiard saloons, coffee-room, ladies' coffee-room, drawing-room, conservatories, private billiard-room, reading-room, and a large number of sitting-rooms and bedrooms. It is also proposed to provide, in connection with it, a handsome suite of rooms for the use of the various Masonic lodges, and a general club-room to accommodate the various societies in the city, to be also used for property sales or as a special show-room. There will be wholesale and retail wine departments, restaurant and luncheon bars, oyster, cigar, and coffee saloons, hair-dressing saloons, post office and key room, telegraph and telephone room, bell and speaking-tube rooms, lifts for visitors well upholstered and decorated, working lifts of various sizes for luggage and supplies of all kinds to all parts of the building, baths, lavatories, and all conveniences constructed on the best sanitary principles, and perfectly suited to the requirements of a first-clue modern hotel.

One very important feature in the plan is the special provision made to meet the wants of commercial travellers. In hotels generally the accommodation for commercial gentlemen is very poor and insufficient, and there is no hotel in Manchester where rooms suitable, either in size, number, or convenience, are provided to meet the increasing demand for a specially arranged and complete suite of apartments adapted to commercial requirements. In the proposed hotel the rooms set apart for commercial purposes will be kept distinct from the other portion of the building, although of course they will not be walled off from it, and will comprise a large dining-room, library, smoke-room, billiard-room for two tables, lavatory, bath-rooms and conveniences, A number of large and small stock and sample-rooms—the whole of which will be well lighted—small rooms for private interview with customers and friends. The bedroom accommodation to this part of the hotel will be specially arranged. Single-bedded rooms sufficiently large for one person, and sufficiently numerous to meet any probable requirement, will be provided. A hoist, with staircase adjoining, will be constructed for the special use of the commercial visitors to the hotel, for whose comfort and convenience every possible provision will be made. A somewhat novel arrangement is to be introduced in this hotel, viz., a series of stalls for the sale of stationery, books, toys, flowers, hosiery, linen, fruit. These stalls, which will be ornamentally treated, are ranged along the principal corridor, and are attached to and worked in connection with a series of shops fronting the principal street. They will, however, be on a higher level, and will be screened off from the public portion of the shop, so that they will be kept perfectly Intimate, and will be devoted solely to the use of the visitors in the hotel. By this arrangement several advantages are secured. The stalls being worked from the shops will involve no outlay in wages for the necessary attendance, and the shops being worked in connection with the hotel will secure an outside custom that will form an important addition to the profits of the company. As convenience to the visitors, there can be no doubt the introduction of these stalls will be found valuable, the absence of such facilities for purchasing small articles so often required by persons travelling being an inconvenience and annoyance to which we all familiar.

In these, as well as in other matters of detail, it appears to be the intention of the company to consult in every particular the comfort and convenience of their future visitors, and to introduce every novelty that will please and satisfy the traveller who may at any time make the Grand Hotel his home. The estimated cost of erecting the new portion and altering the old is £40,000. [The Architect 21 February 1880 page 133]

Reference     Builder 13 March 1880 page 325.
Reference     The Architect 21 February 1880 page 133