A new £45 million four-star luxury hotel has opened its doors in the heart of Manchester city centre this week.
Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre – which is part of the Dalata Hotel Group, and is the company’s second site in Manchester – is located on Portland Street with a wide range of shopping destinations, art galleries, bars and restaurants, and more on the doorstep, as well as being just less than a 10-minute walk away from both the convenient Piccadilly Gardens and Manchester Piccadilly railway station.
With 18-storeys and 329 bedrooms that are perfect for relaxing in after a busy day in Manchester, Clayton Hotel features sleek modern interiors, with a mezzanine overlooking the bustling bar area on the ground floor, and a stunning feature staircase.
The site of the new hotel was previously home to a 12-storey office block, which was demolished as part of the £45 million project.
Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre is located on Portland Street / Credit: Clayton Hotels
In its place, the new luxury hotel has five state-of-the-art meeting rooms that are equipped with the industry-leading Clevertouch technology to host up to 153 delegates.
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This makes it the perfect venue for events and to meet and do business in the city.
The hotel also provides air-conditioned rooms, a fitness centre and a bar, a 24-hour front desk and room service, along with free WiFi throughout.
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And as well as both impressive business and accommodation facilities, Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre is also home to the No. 55 Restaurant & Bar, which is an ideal place to grab a bite to eat at any time of the day, and prides itself on working with local suppliers to offer a range of modern British cuisine.
There’s sleek modern interiors, a mezzanine overlooking the bustling bar area on the ground floor, and a stunning feature staircase / Credit: Clayton Hotels
Dermot Crowley – Chief Executive of the Dalata Hotel Group – said the hotel’s opening this week was further evidence of the company’s confidence in Manchester and the North West region, adding that this is “the first of six new hotels that we are opening in the first half of this year”.
He also said that the company is continuing to look for “further opportunities” in the large cities around the UK.
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He continued: “Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre has been made possible through the hard work of our partners on the project – Russells WHBO who constructed the hotel, Property Alliance Group who put together the project as developers, and Aviva who funded the scheme.”
Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre has created 87 new jobs.
“We recognise the current challenges in recruiting and retaining people in the hospitality industry as a result of COVID,” Mr Crowley admitted, “but we look to overcome these challenges by offering people opportunities to grow their careers in Dalata within a culture of integrity, fairness and inclusion.”
“I look forward to seeing this new hotel become an established part of the Manchester community in the coming months and years,” he concluded.
Alex Russell – Managing Director of Property Alliance Group – said the opening of is the “culmination of several years of planning and hard work by the whole project team,” and that it’s “fantastic” to see the hotel begin to welcome its first Manchester visitors.
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Clayton Hotel Manchester City Centre also holds the ‘We’re Good to Go’ industry standard, which demonstrates a commitment to comply with all COVID-19 safety guidelines, and you can find more information here.
Featured Image – Clayton Hotels
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Manchester’s iconic inflatable monsters are set to invade the city centre again this Halloween
Emily Sergeant
Dozens of huge inflatable monsters are set to invade Manchester next month, as Halloween returns to the city for 2024.
Yes, it’s that time of year yet again… the monsters are back.
After several years of looming over Manchester‘s most-notable rooftops and lurking around famous city centre sites, it’s been revealed that the iconic MCR Monsters will be returning for another year of spooky celebrations next month, along with loads of other terrifying tricks and treats – with something for the whole family to get involved with.
Organisers CityCo and Manchester BID are gearing up to “roll out the blood-red carpet” for its legendary and monstrous guests in a couple of weeks time.
This year’s annual Halloween in the City celebrations will kick off with a week-long colourful invasion of the MCR Monsters, before being followed by a two-day family festival across the city’s popular shopping destinations.
Halloween is returning to the city for loads of spooky celebrations next month / Credit: CityCo (via Supplied)
Crawling their way back into the city from Friday 25 October through to Halloween itself on Thursday 31 October, the epic MCR Monsters inflatable art trail – which is created by artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas – will be taking over leading locations like Manchester Arndale, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Corn Exchange, and New Century, with many more sites set to be announced soon.
A brand-new monster called ‘The Leech’ will be heading to town to join to celebrations this year, alongside some other spookily-similar faces from years’ past.
Buildings across the city will also be turning a ghoulish green once the night falls, while you can also expect to see thousands of little pumpkin lanterns adorning the city’s streets once again.
There’ll be something for all the family to / Credit: CityCo (via Supplied)
Some of the other fan-favourite events on the jam-packed Halloween in the City lineup confirmed to be returning this year are the ‘Monsters Rock! Music Festival’, with spooky live bands and DJs, as well as gruesome games and competitions, the popular ‘Team Trick v Team Treat’ fancy dress challenge, and the hair-raising monster procession ‘Rock! Party Procession’ – which will feature giant puppet monsters, stilt walkers, and a live band marching their way through Manchester Arndale and on Market Street.
Thousands of families are expected to come into the city centre dressed in their scariest costumes over Halloween weekend on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October.
Jane Sharrocks, who is the Chair of Manchester BID, said Manchester is set to transform into the “ultimate Halloween playground” this year, and that organisers are planning 2024 to be the “most thrilling year yet”.
“As the first UK city to host these incredible creatures, Manchester has become the ultimate Halloween destination,” Jane added.
Halloween in the City officially returns to Manchester on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October, with the monsters descending from Friday 25 October and the pumpkins potentially even earlier, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.
Featured Image – CityCo (via Supplied)
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‘Life-changing’ scheme helps house hundreds of Greater Manchester’s homeless people
Emily Sergeant
Hundreds of homeless people in Manchester have now been helped “get back on their feet” thanks to a successful pilot housing scheme.
Greater Manchester’s ‘Housing First’ pilot scheme was rolled out in 2019.
The scheme is all about recognising that “a good home has to be the first step to a good life”, according to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), and since it was first introduced, it has primarily been helping people with chronic and long-standing experiences of homelessness into homes of their own, without preconditions.
Ongoing personalised wraparound support to manage issues, ranging from mental health problems to substance misuse, is also a key part of what the scheme’s all about.
Since 2019, the scheme then has helped a total of 413 people find “good, safe homes”, GMCA has revealed.
Around 75% of those housed have also sustained their tenancies too, with some even going on to form part of Housing First’s co-production panel – sharing their experiences, and making sure that the service continues to meet people’s needs.
Giving everyone a good, safe home is one of the best investments this country can make.
That’s why we want to take the lessons of our @GMHousingFirst pilot & follow @FinlandInUK by adopting it as our philosophy in Greater Manchester.
Because of the clear success of the pilot in our region, Greater Manchester and Mayor Andy Burnham are now calling on the Government to take the lessons learned from the scheme and embed them into a new approach to tackle the housing crisis nationwide.
Andy Burnham says he believes that giving everyone a good, safe home would be “one of the best investments the country could make”, as it would “take pressure off” other public services and public finances, and declared that our region is ready to follow in Finland’s footsteps by becoming the first UK city-region to adopt the ‘Housing First’ philosophy permenantly.
“The evidence is clear that it works, and when a pilot scheme gets results it shouldn’t end there – it should become the new normal,” Mr Burnham said.
A ‘life-changing’ scheme has helped house hundreds of Greater Manchester’s homeless people / Credit: Manchester City Council
“Housing First has shown that if you give people an unconditional right to safe and secure housing, backed up with personalised support, you set them up to succeed, so instead of winding it down, we should be scaling it up and turning it into a national mission.
“We’re starting that here in Greater Manchester.
“We’re bringing in new protections for renters, tackling bad landlords, and with the right powers and funding, we can deliver 75,000 new homes in this parliament.
“Our new Housing First Unit will drive this work forward, bringing together partners across our city-region with a clear goal – a healthy home for everyone in Greater Manchester by 2038.”
Emily Sergeant -
20th January 2022 
