Let’s get one thing straight – there is only one official Titanic Hotel in Liverpool and it is not the one I thought it was. The real authentic Titanic Hotel opened last Saturday (5th July 2014) overlooking Stanley Dock in Liverpool. The Titanic Hotel and The Rum Warehouse is a converted brick-built former bonded warehouse on Liverpool’s dock-front.

The other hotel, which is known locally at ‘The Titanic’, is located in the headquarters of the former White Star Line shipping company, the inventors of the Titanic, and in an altogether more salubrious location facing the Liver Building in the centre of Liverpool. Officially the name of this hotel is 30 James Street and then below and in much smaller lettering is ‘The Home of the Titanic’ – with 64 ‘titanic-themed’ rooms. All very confusing.

Back at the authentic Titanic Hotel. If you like industrial architecture you will love this hotel. You can sit on the hotel terrace and look across Stanley Dock to the Tobacco Warehouse – it’s the largest brick-built warehouse in the world (27 million bricks since you ask) but it’s in a sad state of repair with half its windows broken and shrubs growing out of the walls. Despite it straightened circumstances it is still a fabulous building and a perfect backdrop (especially lit at night) for any event at The Rum Warehouse. The tobacco warehouse is scheduled for a revival in the not too distant future.

You enter Titanic Hotel off Regent Road (the Dock’s road) between two stone turrets and into a cobbled courtyard which is the car park for around 100 cars. You could be excused for thinking the building was a prison, except prisons in my experience don’t have flower displays at the front door nor do they have glass fronted balconies attached to the cells.

Internally a large bar and restaurant is directly behind reception on the ground floor – a huge open plan space which has been informally partitioned and with a fabulous barrel-vaulted ceiling. It is industrial chic at its very best with the bare brick walls and steel pillars but it has been thoughtfully and stylishly restored. The bedrooms, and there are 153 of them, are large and well equipped with super-size bathrooms and power showers. Majority of the rooms also have barrel-vaulted ceilings and all are fully equipped with the latest ‘must-haves’ including free wi-fi.

Attached to the Titanic Hotel is The Rum Warehouse. The main feature is a ground floor room with a high ceiling plus floor to ceiling windows down the one wall overlooking Stanley Dock. The room is hugely spacious, fully carpeted and will accommodate up to 1000 delegates for a theatre style meeting. It is equipped with the latest AV and technical support including 100mb broadband throughout and has direct access through two doors into the car park. Alongside the main room is a dedicated reception together with a facsimile of a staircase from the RMS Titanic which leads up to a mezzanine level and further meeting rooms and boardrooms. In total The Rum Warehouse encompasses 1400 sq-mt of conference, exhibition and banqueting space.

Future developments at the Titanic Hotel include a spa.

On the downside although the Titanic Hotel is located in the city centre it is not walking distance from the station. In fact driving or taxi is the only realistic way to arrive – but if you want the space and the style you will have to make a few sacrifices. However the Titanic Hotel and The Rum Warehouse have a ‘wow factor’ which will be hard to beat. Go take a look. I promise you will be impressed.

Details: www.titanichotelliverpool.com

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Published: 09 July 2014

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Booking agents get to view hotels on a very regular basis yet rarely get to see inside the kitchens. Perhaps hotel managers don’t trust agents not to ‘fill their pockets’ with the vol-au-vents. It’s different at Northcote, the Michelin-starred restaurant and country-house hotel in Langho, Lancashire, as I discovered when I went to view the recently refurbished and extended hotel.

Northcote have opened a new state of the art kitchen which incorporates a chef’s table and a cookery school which will accommodate up to eight guests for a theatre dinner. It is separated from the main kitchen by a sliding, sound-proofed glass partition – just in case the language in the kitchen gets a little too spicy. Guests can witness the ‘vibrancy, drama and skills’ which combine to create a modern Michelin-starred kitchen.

The Northcote Cookery School offers a variety of half-day and day-long courses, covering basic skills and techniques through to master classes. It is ideal as a small corporate activity or as a team-building activity with a difference or as a client incentive. Northcotes will tailor-make the day to suit individual requirements.

 

The kitchen is not the only new development at Northcote.  The restaurant has been extended and revamped and it is worth going just to see the stunning chandeliers. Four new luxury individually-styled bedrooms have been added bringing the total number of guest rooms to 18. Don’t forget to take your ‘cotton thread counter’ with you. You will need it to check the sheets and I suspect you will get a very high reading.

Northcote is a small hotel and primarily ‘gourmet-driven’. However the two private dining rooms are available for boardroom-style meetings or seminars during the day. They are fully equipped with the latest AV and meetings technology with plasma screens artfully disguised as mirrors and artwork.

Northcote is located in the Ribble Valley. It is a part of the country widely regarded as one of Britain’s ‘best-kept secrets’.  Just visiting the hotel in its own grounds and gardens on a lovely sunny morning in early summer was a treat in itself. Go take a look before the world discovers Northcote.

Details: www.northcote.com

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Published: 27 June 2014

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Serena Hotel has submitted plans to transform a 1930’s warehouse in Birmingham into a 40 bedroom four star hotel. The warehouse is Ladbrooke House in Digbeth, at the junction of Bordesley Street and Oxford Street. Plans for the hotel include leisure facilities, a spa plus conference and banqueting suites.

The location is on the edge of Birmingham’s Eastside which has undergone a transformation in the last decade, a transformation which hasn’t reached Digbeth just yet.  However it is the possibility of the HS2 Curzon Street Station being built a short walk away from the hotel which is probably a greater attraction.

Furthermore plans to develop a new public area linking Birmingham's New Street and Moor Street stations are set to go before city planners in the near future. The £5.5million 'One Station' scheme would also link both stations to the proposed HS2 Curzon Street hub.

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Published: 30 June 2014

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Earth Ball is a new-to-the-UK team building activity from the Lenbury Hotel which will be launching during the Meetings Show at Olympia next month. Earth Ball is designed for a minimum of 12 people and a maximum of around 60 and a session can last around 90 minutes. Example games include volleyball, zone football and ball crawl. See the video
The grounds and facilities at the Lensbury are ideal for corporate fun days and motivational team building activities. Having direct access to the River Thames at Teddington also helps - it enables the Lensbury to offer both land and water-based team-building activities.

The Lensbury has a newly refurbished conference centre with 30 rooms accommodating meetings of two to 225 delegates, all with free wi-fi, video conferencing and the latest conference and AV equipment.

Details: www.lensbury.com

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Published: 26 June 2014

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