History Book Review – Barbara Frost – Memories Of The Midland

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A self published work by the author who served as a Manchester guided tours and walks expert on the Midland hotel. She was begged to include her anecdote filled history in a book which she did. Opened in 1903 by the Midland Railway Company, Manchester’s poshest and most expensive hotel was built after rich business people and dignitaries used to country estates and mansions visiting the city complained about the lack of comfort and style in the working class Cottonopolis centre of the cotton industry. The hotel was built over five years by the city’s Central railway station. Guests arrived at the station, where coach and horses brought them to the hotel’s two foyers, where orchestras serenaded them while porters took their bags to their opulent rooms. In 1907 Charles Rolls and Henry Royce met for the first time over a business lunch at the hotel. Royce had plans for an exciting new car design. Rolls had money to promote it and build it. Rolls-Royce was launched at that historic meeting. The entire Russian Bolshoi Ballet stayed at the hotel in the 1950’s surrounded by KGB men checking no one was going to defect. TV’s Brideshead Revisited was partly filmed in the hotel. The closure of the Central Station in 1965 hit the hotel hard as it was essentially a railway hotel. The hotel went into decline until the mid-1980’s when the station building reopened as the G-Mex conference, exhibition and festival centre The hotel briefly closed for an extensive refurbishment in 1985 and reopened in 1987. The reopening ceremony was led by the chairman of Rolls-Royce who arrived by Silver Shadow car, but the police wouldn’t let his chauffer drive it as the early Rolls-Royce was untaxed. It had to be pushed in from round the corner. Two ghosts are said to haunt the hotel. A lady in grey who vowed never to leave in the 1930’s stayed even after death. A second spirit is an un-known young girl who has appeared sitting on hotel beds, much to the shock of guests lying in them at the time. Howard Keel, Princess Anne, Sarah Bernhardt, and Tommy Steele have stayed there. The best famous guest story however concerns Liberace who booked two rooms; one for himself and one as a wardrobe for his costumes. A lovely little history of a truly beautiful fascinating building. Arthur Chappell