There’s been another update in the eagerly-anticipated arrival of Soho House in Manchester, with the global members’ club brand confirming membership price.
The luxury hospitality business is set to open its first Manchester house in the old Granada Studios building.
When it opens, Soho House Manchester will span five floors and will include a gym, events space, bars, a restaurant, bedrooms, a live music space, and that very exciting rooftop pool.
New images have been released of the site, showing what the 23 bedrooms within Soho House will look like when it opens in late 2023.
As well as those, there’ll be 133 more bedrooms in the neighbouring Mollie’s Motel, Bar & Diner, also being built on the Granada Studios redevelopment in St John’s.
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For the first time, those interested in a Soho House membership in Manchester can see what it will cost them, with applications now open.
If you just want to use the Manchester site, it’ll cost you £1,800 per year.
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Or to access 41 Soho Houses across the globe, membership will cost £2,750 per year – with discounts available for under-27s.
Bedrooms at Soho House Manchester
That price at Soho House Manchester will give you and up to three guests access to the House, daily member event programming, and access to the members-only gym.
The extensive gym, featuring a free weights area, studio space, steam and sauna, a balcony with casual seating, vanity areas and lounge spaces, will be situated on the first floor.
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The main members’ club will be up on the eighth floor, with a casual bar and lounge area, a more formal dining space run by head chef James Lord, an indoor pool lounge area, and an outdoor rooftop pool with sunbeds and a bar.
A spiral staircase leads to the next floor, where there’s a late-night bar and live music space overlooking the pool.
Soho House Manchester. Credit: SuppliedThe gym at Soho House Manchester. Credit: Supplied
The 23 bedrooms on the sixth floor are designed for Soho House, from cosy rooms to large suites, plus an 80 sq metre private apartment.
Its interiors will be inspired by Old Granada Studios history – this iconic building did host The Beatles’ first ever televised performance, after all – with bespoke and vintage furniture in 1950s and 1960s styles.
Soho House threw a lavish party earlier this week to celebrate its arrival in the city, with a three-course dinner served on the Parklife main stage.
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Soho House & Co CEO Andrew Carnie said: “Bringing Soho House to other cities in the UK has always been something we’ve wanted to do and, as a Mancunian, I’m particularly proud to be coming to Manchester.
“Nick and the design team have worked hard to create a space for our members that preserves the heritage of the Granada Studios building, while introducing a rooftop pool terrace and floor to ceiling windows on the top floor. The view of the city is going to be amazing from there and I can’t wait for members to experience it.”
Chester Zoo named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors
Emily Sergeant
Congratulations are in order, yet again, for Chester Zoo… as this time its been one of England’s most popular attractions.
Merely months after being named the UK’s best zoo for the second year running, thanks to receiving more than 11,000 ‘excellent’ reviews from TripAdvisor, Chester Zoo has now got itself another prestigious title, as a major VisitEngland (VE) report has ranked it the third most-visited ‘paid for’ attraction in England – and the most visited outside of London.
The national tourist board for England gathered information from a total of 1,373 attractions across the country, and ranked the UK’s biggest charity zoo as the third overall in terms of popularity, with a whopping 1.9 million visitors in 2024 alone.
The Tower of London took top spot with 2.9 million visitors, while the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew was second place with 2.3 million visitors.
When it comes to free attractions, on the other hand, it wad the British Museum that claimed the top spot with 6.5 million visitors, while the Natural History Museum (5.9 million visitors) took second place, and the Tate Modern (4.6 million visitors) got third.
So as you can see, the south and London in particular is a pretty dominating force in England’s tourism industry – which is why it’s even more impressive to see Chester Zoo ranked so highly.
The new VE title also comes after the zoo was recently given £4 million of lottery funding to help ‘transform’ the local environment and restore wildlife habitats across the Cheshire and wider North West region.
Not only that, but if course follows Chester Zoo’s unveiling of its new immersive experience named Heart of Africa, which is the the largest zoo habitat ever created in the UK and is home to 57 iconic African species.
Chester Zoo has been named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors / Credit: Chester Zoo
“As a major international wildlife charity, everything we do is focused on supporting global conservation,” commented Chester Zoo’s Commercial Director, Dom Strange.
“Whether it’s caring for highly-threatened animals and plants, making scientific discoveries, influencing Government environmental policies, impacting the National Curriculum to better connect young people with nature, or our conservation efforts in around 20 countries, we’re fully committed to protecting endangered species for the future.
“But none of this would be possible without our visitors.
“Every person who comes to the zoo for a fun and inspiring day out is helping to fund our vital work, so we want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped us to rank so highly in VisitEngland’s latest report.”
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Travel & Tourism
Ryanair introduces immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers
Emily Sergeant
Ryanair is majorly clamping-down on passenger conduct by introducing a new immediate fining system.
In a bid to get onboard conduct to an acceptable level, Europe’s largest budget airline has today confirmed (12 June) that it has introduced a £500 fine for disruptive passengers whose unruly behaviour results in them being offloaded from the aircraft.
The airline – which prides itself on being one of the most ‘punctual’ in the continent – says passengers expect to travel in a ‘comfortable and stress-free environment’ that’s free from ‘unnecessary disruption’ caused by a tiny number of people travelling onboard the aircraft at the same time as them.
Ryanair has introduced immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
While it’s no secret that passenger disruption is a problem that’s increasingly affecting the airline industry as a whole, Ryanair says it’s ‘committed’ to tackling unruly behaviour for the benefit of its passengers and crew.
The company intends to continue to pursue disruptive passengers for civil damages, but at a minimum, they will now be issued with a £500 fine immediately.
“It is unacceptable that passengers are made suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behaviour,” a Ryanair spokesperson commented as the fines were announced today.
The airline says it’s committed to tackling this for the benefit of its passengers and crew / Credit: Pxhere
“To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct.
“While these are isolated events which happen across all airlines, disruptive behaviour in such a confined shared space is unacceptable.
Daisy Jackson -
9th June 2023 
