The Alan, one of Manchester’s newest hotels, is giving away hundreds of rooms for just £1.
The hospitality newcomer has transformed the old Princess Street Hotel into a design-led space that blends the building’s existing industrial details with luxury touches like marble and velvet.
The striking six-storey hotel has a bar and restaurant on the ground floor, with an open kitchen and pop-up event space.
There are 137 rooms at The Alan, ranging in size from ‘the standard’ to the Alan Suites. Each one features high ceilings, warm textures and shades of blush pink, sage green and taupe.
The Alan is giving away rooms for £1. Credit: Supplied
Every room comes with an Emperor-sized bed, 200 thread Egyptian cotton bedding, 50″ Samsung Smart TVs with Google Chromecast, fast WiFi and Audio Pro Bluetooth speakers.
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And now, to give Mancs a chance to experience the building’s makeover, The Alan will be giving away overnight stays for just £1.
There’ll be 365 rooms up for grabs for a quid – to enter, all you need to do is sign up to The Alan’s newsletter to be entered into the raffle.
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The Alan in Manchester. Credit: Supplied
The winners of the raffle will be chosen on Friday 15 April, and sent details of how to book their £1 room.
The Alan opened back in February, showing off a beautiful new interior, including a huge patchwork floor in the lobby made up of different slabs of marble.
Interior design agency Red Deer, which worked on the project, said it wants to ‘counter-act the wastefulness of the construction industry, creating intriguing touchpoints that celebrate the inherent value found in old materials that may be classed by some as ‘defective’ or ‘broken’’.
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Bathrooms in The Alan suites. Credit: Supplied
The Alan is championing local businesses in both its rooms and its communal spaces, with Ancoats Coffee Co and Bohea Teas stocked in the rooms and Pomona Island and Cloudwater beers behind the bar.
Its new restaurant and bar space serves an all-day seasonal menu, headed up by Iain Thomas, formerly of the Edinburgh Castle.
Iain has worked in kitchens since he was 16 and will use some ingredients from his own allotment in his menu, which features dishes like Cheshire beef tartare with confit egg yolk, salt-baked celeriac, and lamb fat cabbage.
The Butcher’s Quarter provides the meat for the larger plates, from grass-fed sirloin steaks to free-range pork and Gatehouse Farm lamb chops.
Through providing this platform for these businesses, The Pop Up Club has managed to help its traders earn £1.5 million across all their previous events which run up and down the UK.
The brilliant pop-up retail space was previously on King Street in Manchester, but this time The Pop Up Club is moving into the Manchester Arndale.
Shoppers will be able to choose from the curated traders on offer, such as beautifully handpainted watercolour illustrations from By Tilly, celestial and nature inspired jewellery by Sian Mellor designs and beaded bracelets from That Wild Feeling.
It’s also helping to promote local talent as it shares the work of Manchester based unique printed homewares from Lydia Meiying.
Moonshine Prints, a trader who creates a variety of fascinating and eclectic wall art for everyone to buy and display in their homes, will also be at The Pop Up Club when it returns to Manchester.
The Pop Up Club will offer a chance to browse local traders who normally wouldn’t have a platform as big as this, while also supporting art and culture direct from the north.
Tillie Peel, creator and founder of The Pop Up Club.Inside the incredible retail space providing opportunities for small businesses.Peel, admiring works by small creators which are part of her small business initiative.Credit: Publicity Pictures
The businesses The Pop Up Club uplifts and works with may be small but the amount of traders definitely isn’t – they’ve shone a spotlight on more than 500 independent retailers since setting up the social enterprise.
It’s also nice to hear that creatives who have worked with them in the past would more than likely consider working with The Pop Up Club again as according to the statistic on their website, ‘100% of traders said they would return’.
The venture was founded by Tillie Peel, who says: “Manchester has always welcomed us with open arms, and the friendly Northern spirit was calling us back once again.
“Utilising an empty space at the Manchester Arndale is a dream come true for us, as it puts us at the heart of shopping in the city and with events such as the Christmas Markets returning, the footfall of the city centre will be highly welcomed by us and all our traders in our Manchester store.
“With over 5 million small businesses in the UK*, there are so many that deserve attention and shopping small can bring huge benefits to the economy as well as supporting local income. This Christmas is the perfect time to shop from small businesses and independent traders, where a purchase can make a real difference to that brand.
“Our network of independent businesses have found being in our stores offers real value, as well as allowing them to speak to customers, see the reactions in real time to their items and to get a taste of what the high street has to offer.”
Shoppers who just can’t wait to get on down to The Pop Up Club can browse the shop in person on 16 November at Manchester Arndale.
This little hidden Manchester cinema is screening loads of classic Christmas films this festive season
Emily Sergeant
Elf, Love Actually, and Home Alone are just some of the classic Christmas films soon hitting the big screen at a hidden cinema in Manchester.
With the nights drawing in, the temperatures dropping by the day, and the most wonderful time of the year now firmly in our sights, film fans and families looking for some wholesome festive fun are being invited to get themselves down to one of Manchester’s most popular hotels in the lead-up to the big day itself.
King Street Townhouse‘s very-own exclusive cinema will be screening a jam-packed lineup of fan-favourite festive films over the next two months to celebrate Christmas in style.
The Christmas screenings will be taking over the little cinema from this Saturday (16 November), right through to Christmas Eve.
This little hidden Manchester cinema is screening loads of classic Christmas films this festive season / Credit: KSTH
With a marathon of three films set to be screened on each day of the event, the Christmas screenings schedule kicks off on Saturday 9 December at 2pm with the absolute cult-classic that is Elf, all before you can sit down to watch Love Actually, and Home Alone on the same day.
Other festive favourites on the lineup across other weekends include It’s a Wonderful Life, The Holiday, The Muppet Christmas Carol, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Die Hard.
Tickets to each of the Christmas screenings are now on sale, and start at just £16.50 each.
You can also complete your seasonal experience with festive-themed cocktails, popcorn, pick n mix, and a whole host of other treats beforehand too, if you’d like.
Daisy Jackson -
12th April 2022 
