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.
A restaurant in Ancoats is serving up plates of crispy fried squirrel
Georgina Pellant
A Manchester restaurant is serving up plates of crispy fried squirrel – and their customers absolutely love it.
Taking game dishes to a whole other level, the wild crispy buttermilk fried squirrel at Ancoats restaurant Street Urchin comes served atop a creamy pulled ham hock cassoulet, with hazelnut bread croutons and nettle pesto and costs £22.50.
Sourced from their game supplier in Cumbria, it might sound nutty but owner Rachel Choudhary told The Manc that the dish has proven incredibly popular – and that the team has been ‘really surprised’ at how much of a hit it has become with customers since adding it to the menu.
She said: “We were looking for something new for the game options on the menu. Kev was speaking to our game supplier and randomly asked if he had any grey squirrels. Happily, he did.
“The whole team tried the dish the day it went on and the majority thought it was really good.
Wild crispy buttermilk fried squirrel with creamy pulled ham hock cassoulet, with hazelnut bread croutons and nettle pesto. / Image: Street Urchin
Image: Street Urchin
“We weren’t sure if it would sell, but have been really surprised. So many people have tried it and given good feedback. We’ve recommended that they eat it like chicken wings and pick it up, that way you get most of the meat.
“I’d never tried squirrel before and I absolutely loved it, it has great flavour, rich buttery texture, and it’s wild, free-range meat.”
The gray squirrel currently has an estimated population of 2.5 million in the UK according to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and is considered a good sustainable alternative to factory-farmed meat.
It is legal to control grey squirrels by shooting or trapping them in the UK in a humane manner and even helps protect the UK’s endangered native red squirrel population.
Whilst some might find the idea of eating squirrels a tad unappealing, many chefs argue it is better to eat them when culling as it means the meat does not go to waste.
Fresh clams, homemade chorizo, fennel and white bean cassoulet, garlic crouton. / Image: Street Urchin
Whole red mullet, warm red pepper and olive salsa, battered potato scallops. / Image: Street Urchin
English market diner Street Urchin was first opened on Great Ancoats Street in 2019 by husband and wife team Rachel and Kevin Choudary.
Prior to opening in town, the couple ran The Victoria in Altrincham for eight years before deciding that it was time to move on.
Their Ancoats market diner has made its name on being one of the few city centre restaurants specialising in fresh fish, with everything from clams and mackerel to cured chalk stream trout, king scallops, and whole grilled red gurnard regularly available on the menu.
Whilst the fish board is the main attraction, however, there are other dishes to explore on the daily-changing menu too – with game meat a popular choice whenever it is in season.
Featured image – Street Urchin
City Centre
Gary Neville comes to woman’s rescue at Manchester restaurant Fazenda
Georgina Pellant
Gary Neville has proven himself the utmost gentleman after coming to the rescue of a disabled woman who was struggling to walk to a restaurant in Manchester on Mothering Sunday.
The football pundit spotted Ann Knowles, 67, struggling to walk to Brazilian steakhouse Fazenda in Manchester’s Spinningfields and took it upon himself to come to her aid.
After approaching her and offering a lift, the former Manchester United star helped her into his car and then provided door-to-door service to the restaurant, walking her the last part of the way.
Ann had been on her way to meet daughter Samantha Ward, who was inside the restaurant when she received a phone call to tell her how the ex-footballer had saved the day.
She told BBC News: “I was upset thinking we’ll have to forget dinner, but then my daughter rang and said ‘it’s ok Gary Neville the footballer is taking her’ and I was like ‘what?'”
Image: Fazenda
Image: Gary Neville
“I said the actual footballer? Where did he come from? And she said he just appeared out of nowhere, obviously saw them struggling and said ‘you need help’.
“So he physically picked her up and gave her a lift to the door in this car.
“He delivered her to the restaurant and saved Mother’s Day.
Daisy Jackson -
12th April 2022 
