Manchester is awash with hotels in buildings originally designed for other purposes. Apart from the many hotels in the southern suburbs which occupy one or more converted large houses, knocked together, extended and modified in various ways, outside the city the Cresta Court at Altrincham is an hotel conversion as it occupies a building designed to be an office block.
Back in the city centre, the Gardens Hotel occupies 55 Piccadilly, the former home of Manchester Corporation Transport Department's Head Office. I wonder if the ghosts of Messrs Mattinson, Pilcher and Neal look down from the windows and shake their heads at the lack of red and white or cream buses and the often chaotic scenes of buses jostling for road space below, which is a direct result of deregulation, and contemplate their many battles with the City of Manchester Police regarding the numbers of buses permitted on Market St and Piccadilly in less liberal times.
The Britannia Sachas is in the old C&A building on Oldham St. The Hollywood International on London Rd and the Dominion on Princess St both occupy buildings which, in a former life, housed offices and warehousing.
The Place on Ducie St is a grade 2 listed building which was once the London Warehouse of the Great Central Railway.
The Palace Hotel on Oxford Rd was once the Refuge Building, headquarters of the Refuge Assurance whilst the North Tower (formerly Highland House) now houses a Premier Travel Inn and apartments instead of the Inland Revenue for which it was built.
There are a few more which I'll leave for other members to find.
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