The Hotel Gotham opens
Hotel Gotham has opened, an Edwin Lutyens building on King Street, Manchester, 80 years after the building originally opened.
The hotel is set over seven floors, it will include five inner sanctum suites featuring leather clad walls and a ‘Wonderwall’ for your entertainment.
The architecture of the ‘King of King Street’ provided natural inspiration for the nostalgic yet decadent design direction. The layout of the bedrooms features wonderful travel trunk-style cocktail cabinets and wardrobes. Subtle references are made to the banking past with moneybag style laundry bags and ingot toiletry displays.
Edwin Lutyens designed the building in 1928, with construction finishing in 1935. It has been painstakingly restored and transformed from its previous banking life into the handsome 60-room Hotel Gotham. Internal restoration includes the reincarnation of the main staircase, the brass handrail, its balustrades, mouldings and terrazzo flooring. Other features include the Honey restaurant on the 6th floor and Club Brass, a rooftop bar on the 7th.
Lead-designer, Oliver Redfern of Squid-Inc, comments: “We wanted to pay tribute to a major building designed by ‘one of the greatest British architects’, Edwin Lutyens whilst injecting a distinct fresh personality. I’m sure the guests will have as much fun at Hotel Gotham as we have had in creating it”.
Mandy Sherliker created the distinctive and unpredictable visual language and graphics, taking inspiration from her own memories of Manchester including the Ritz Ballroom and Foo Foo Lamar. The importance of referencing Manchester’s cultural heritage was particularly important for the suite names, for example: The Morrissey, The Sumner, The Adamson, The Cassidy and The Pankhurst.
From the Gotham Bugle in-room directory newspaper, the newspaper-style signage, the vintage van, the business cards, the luggage tags, to the geometric door design, the playful website to the smaller mementoes such as pencils and chocolate, every detail is considered and true to the Hotel Gotham ethos, executed with wit and sparkle.
Photography: © Mark Leeming
