If you could name Manchester’s most historic building, which would you choose?
Perhaps the John Rylands Library, the Victorian Gothic masterpiece on Deansgate that is home to the oldest known piece of the New Testament.
Or would you pick the 15th-century library at Chetham’s, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world that was briefly used as a prison during the English Civil War in the 1640s.
And don’t forget that Castlefield is not just a place of converted warehouses and summer gigs – it’s also the only reminder of Manchester’s Roman beginnings with the ruins of the Mamucium Roman fort, dating back to AD79.
But if you’re talking historic in the truest sense of the world, of cultural and political as well as architectural importance, then you would do well to out-historic The Edwardian Manchester.
Relaunched in 2019 after a multi-million-pound renovation, a visit to this incredibly smart hotel is immeasurably improved by an appreciation of the history that has happened on this site, which as any attendee of school speech nights in the 1980s will attest, was originally the Free Trade Hall.
Built in the 1850s on the site of the Peterloo Massacre – the 1819 peaceful protest that turned into a slaughter and paved the way for parliamentary democracy and, two years later, the Manchester Guardian newspaper – the Free Trade Hall packed enough historical moments to last a millennium.
From Dickens and Disraeli to Churchill and Wilde, the Free Trade Hall also played host to two seminal cultural moments: Bob Dylan’s infamous ‘Judas’ show in 1965, and the legendary Sex Pistols concert in 1976, the so-called gig that changed the world.
So there is an almost tangible sense of history in the air as you enter the cavernous reception area at the Edwardian, as well as some kind of fragrance that does actually succeed in lending the interior a degree of instant opulence and exclusivity.
Upon arrival I was given the especially delightful news that our room had been upgraded to the 14th-floor penthouse. This being an event that had never happened to me before, I miraculously suppressed my instinctive desire to hug the receptionist and perform a double knee-slide along the smooth lobby floor, and instead accepted the unexpected promotion with something approaching a grateful nod.
The penthouse was indeed stunning, but you can detect a notch-above level of splendour at any of the 263 rooms and suites here: down pillows, Italian marble bathrooms and wall-to-ceiling windows that give you a great view of the 21st-century Mancunian cityscape. There’s a spa and gym down in the basement.
In my book, a hotel is hugely diminished if it doesn’t have a bar that instantly transports you to the set of a classic 1950s movie. Furniture, music selection, service, quality of glass, presence of huge tomes about art, small bowls of nuts: all these play a part in creating that experience. The Edwardian comprehensively delivers on this front – I could have happily stayed in its Library Champagne Bar for hours.
But our table awaited at the Peter Street Kitchen, the Edwardian’s in-house restaurant, which I’d wager is one of the world’s only Japanese-Mexican restaurants. Apart from the gyoza tacos, the two styles of food are largely kept apart on the menu, which plays to the strengths of head chef Amir Jati. Jati previously worked at the Savoy and Nobu, and all our dishes – which included grilled lobster with chilli and cilantro and skewered beef tenderloin served on a hot lava stone – were beautifully delivered in a manner that spoke to his heritage.
With fairly loud electronic music filling the impressive dining and bar space, this is perhaps not the restaurant if you’re looking to treat your elderly parents to dinner. But as somewhere that made you feel at the very throbbing heart of modern Manchester, with its history colliding so magnificently with Radisson’s luxury, the Edwardian is hard to beat.
The Edwardian Manchester, A Radisson Collection Hotel, Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5GP.
