LIVERPOOL ' S hotels enjoyed a record year in 2005 - outperforming every other market in the UK.

The good news comes as city hoteliers saw the amount they earn from each room increase by 21%.

According to the Hotel Benchmark Survey, carried out by top accountants Deloitte, both room occupancy and average room rates saw big improvements during the year, increasing by 11.8% and 8.7% respectively.

Tina Wanstall of Deloitte Travel and Tourism said: "Last year was an exceptional year for the Liverpool hotel market, which managed to outperform any other market in the UK.

"With the city gearing up to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008 and to take the lead in the UK conference market on completion of the new King's Dock development, the future for Liverpool hotels looks good.

"Liverpool has become the place to be. It looks like the city has got its ticket to ride."

Regeneration, strong economic growth, an increase in airline routes, sporting excellence, and the awarding of the 2008 European Capital of Culture have all proved to be important drivers in the city's hotel boom.

Mark Foster, operations director for Centre Island, Liverpool's biggest hotel employer said: "We have had a hugely successful year. Liverpool is certainly the place to visit and to do business."

Mr Foster, who runs the Crowne Plaza at Pier Head, the Holiday Inn in Lime Street and the Express by Holiday Inn at the Albert Dock, added: "Conference bookings are at unprecedented levels and there has been a big increase in tourism.

"We are looking forward to this trend continuing up to 2008 and beyond."

City centre hotel supply has increased by around 75% since 1997, up from 15 to 28 hotels.

ONE of Liverpool’s flagship hotels, the Crowne Plaza, at Princes Dock, has won a Quality Excellence Award in competition with 600 hotels in the Intercontinental Hotels Group. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17024832%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=hotel%2dtop%2dof%2dthe%2dleague%2dfor%2 dguest%2dsatisfaction%2d-name_page.html)

LIVERPOOL'S newest boutique hotel, to be known as 62 Castle Street, is preparing to open after a £2.5m facelift. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17046435%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=boutique%2dhotel%2dopens%2dafter%2d%2dp ound%2d2%2d5m%2dfacelift-name_page.html)

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7193/loungeinadelphi1bp.jpg

The hotel originally dates back to 1826, but was extensively rebuilt in 1912 to cater for passenger's from large cruise liners, whose home port was Liverpool. Namely all the White Star Line ships, who were based in Liverpool, the most famous of which was the Titanic. Indeed the Sefton suite in the hotel is an exact replica of the first class smoking lounge aboard the Titanic and was designed by the same architect..

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7193/loungeinadelphi1bp.jpg

The hotel originally dates back to 1826, but was extensively rebuilt in 1912 to cater for passenger's from large cruise liners, whose home port was Liverpool. Namely all the White Star Line ships, who were based in Liverpool, the most famous of which was the Titanic. Indeed the Sefton suite in the hotel is an exact replica of the first class smoking lounge aboard the Titanic and was designed by the same architect..

Brilliant, thanks Paul. The Adelphi was also used in the filming of Al's Lads and was famous on TV a while ago, on the BBC 'Just Cook Will Yer!' and I cannot remember the name.

The original hotel was completely different in design I think.

When I stayed there on holiday, the Sefton Suite was one of my favourite areas of the hotel:

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/6013/seftonsuiteadelphi5eu.jpg

Here's my crude attempt to enlarge image:

http://img445.imageshack.us/img445/3622/seftonsuiteadelphifinal5aj.jpg

Also, I noticed a familiar scent thoughout the hallways of the floor I was staying on, but I couldn't quite place the aroma. Does anyone know the smell I'm talking about (Or am I just crazy)? :retard: It was a few floors up, so I don't think it was the restaurant etc. and it didn't exactly smell like food.

Liverpool's new £17m Hard Days Night hotel.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/jun2006/2/0/B2F1589B-FB27-C44E-16BD0F2DA5B238D7.jpg

Starting in the basement of the hotel, the first to be entirely themed in tribute to the Beatles, the exhibition will tell the band's story from the days when the Quarrymen were gigging in the Cavern.

It will finish on the hotel's sixth floor with images inspired by their final live performance on the roof of Apple's London studios in 1969.

The four-star hotel on the corner of North John Street is due to open with a huge party in autumn 2007, and is now half way through construction.

In the last year, two extra floors have been added on top of the building's original roof level, making it six storeys high and ensuring magnificent views across the city for visitors.

Builders this week started renovation of a magnificent 19th century winding staircase, one of several original features to be preserved in the refurbishment.

Bill Heckle and his team at Cavern City Tours (CCT), who first conceived the idea more than a decade ago, will maintain a non-executive directorship.

CCT will run an information kiosk in the hotel foyer, where guests will get details about the group's Magical Mystery bus tours around the city.

Last night Mr Heckle said the hotel's opening night would be "the biggest party Liverpool has ever seen".

He said: "People are going to be really impressed. Because it is about the Beatles they think we're going to have Beatles wallpaper or something.

"But it's going to be very plush, very tasteful, and all the Beatles paintings and features are going to be very subtle."

The hotel will also include conference and meeting facilities with a "Beatles twist", an exclusive bar and four-star restaurant.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/jun2006/0/0/B2EF63B2-F3C2-2394-079E48B894F1B0EF.jpg
source (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17197520%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=storeys%2dof%2dthe%2dbeatles%2d%2dlives-name_page.html)

How cool is this? I've been following the progress of this and thought it was dead and buried but it turn out not!

I thought this one bit the dust until recently too,I wouldn't mind having a mooch around there when it's finished the artwork looks amazing.

Boutique boozer

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/jun2006/9/3/CD4A06BF-B426-6F43-FED723E909294F31.jpg


THE world of Tatler has come to Toxteth in the form of its first boutique hotel.


Blackburne Arms pub licensee Ivan Jenkins and his wife Samantha have created a "five-star facility" above their Catharine Street ale house.


Their seven sumptuous rooms are all individually themed and are a match for any posh rival.


They have flat-screen plasma TVs, Egyptian cotton bed linen from Harrods, 10-inch deep mattresses - double the depth of conventional bedding for a luxurious night's rest - and dedicated White Company toiletries in all the ensuite bathrooms, the only location to stock them outside London.

Samantha worked with a designer on creating a distinctive identity for each room, including the 'Livercool' room, which is a trendy loft apartment style in tribute to when top people's style magazine Tatler visited the city and rechristened it Livercool.


The Chantilly room is decorated with Laura Ashley accessories; the Baroque room is in Italian style; Zen is minimalist; and the all-white Imagine room with a "love and peace bed" is in tribute to ex-Beatle John Lennon who lived next-door-but-one in manager Brian Epstein's Faulkner Street house.


The hotel is part of a £525,000 joint investment with pub owner Punch Taverns, including an extensive bar renovation. Mr Jenkins insisted that the whole concept should be a smoke free building.


He said: "I think the quality is worthy of five stars, butwe won't get it because you have to have a certain number of rooms and we don't have a health club or swimming pool."


Rooms start from £90, and Mr Jenkins says he is targeting the parents of students, given the proximity of Liverpool university, business people and young professionals.


He and Samantha feel they have achieved something special for the area: "I was born here and I was fed up there weren't any facilities."

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/jul2006/7/7/5CE8B60C-D3ED-27EA-13B293373195D46E.jpg

FOR barristers and QCs heading to Merseyside for major cases in the Crown Court, it is the nearest equivalent to living above the shop.

But although Liverpool's newest boutique hotel might only be a short walk from the Queen Elizabeth II law courts and the rest of the city centre, in every other respect it feels a world away.

A £2.5m conversion has transformed the former Trials Bar, once one of the popular gathering points for business people in the city, into an oasis of calm.

Named after its address at 62 Castle Street, the hotel has retained many of the original features from when the Victorian building was home to theMidland bank.
http://a248.e.akamai.net/6/592/1130/0/oas-eu.247realmedia.com/0/default/empty.gif (http://ads.trinitymirror.co.uk/5c/icliverpool/news/regionalnews/2062491104/x60/default/empty.gif/63336263386461323434346337613830)
The next-door Rooms restaurant, which is run separately, still has the former banking hall's distinctive dome, while the hotel has kept the ornate staircase, high ceilings, and decorative features of the Grade II-listed building.

Today the latest stylish addition to Liverpool's burgeoning boutique hotel market offers a very different welcome from the original castle, the dungeons of which still survive.

Now, the hotel has 20 luxurious split-level bedroom suites, each with its own en-suite facilities, high-speed internet access, plasma screens, CD players and MP3 docking stations.

The residents' lounge has views over Castle Street, there are two purpose-built conference rooms, and a private dining room with restored chandeliers. continues (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17361959%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=hotel%2dcreates%2dan%2doasis%2dof%2dcal m%2din%2dbusiness%2dquarter-name_page.html)...

A THEMED hotel is something that could be done very well, but also very badly. Jonathan Davies is well aware of this. He is the director of Bowdena, the developer behind Liverpool's £17m Beatles-themed Hard Day's Night Hotel.

Movie buffs may recall the scene in Pulp Fiction when John Travolta and Uma Thurman visit a 50s' themed restaurant called Jack Rabbit Slims, a gaudy monstrosity where the serving staff look and sound like famous film or rock and roll stars, the walls are festooned with memorabilia and diners eat their meals in replica Chevrolets.

That, insists Davies, is definitely not how the four-star Hard Day's Night Hotel, due to open in autumn 2007 and part funded by £2.3m of Objective 1 money, is going to be.

Certainly no John Lennon lookalike bellboys then.

"There will be subtle and clever references to the Beatles," said the 34-year-old former banker.

"But if we have someone staying in the hotel who doesn't happen to be a Beatles fan then we don't want to hit them in the face with it.

"It is all about getting the balance right. You can't just cover the place in Beatles memorabilia. Each of the 110 rooms will have 110 photographs charting the history of the band.

"This is certainly going to be a very different type of hotel and we think people who are fans of the Beatles are going to love it.

I've invented a word to describe it - bouthemed - a mix of boutique and themed."

Davies' contribution to the English language isn't his only creative input.

He also came up with the logo for the hotel - a guitar fretboard with circles representing the chord that is played at the beginning of Hard Day's Night. continues (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/thebusinessweek/regionalnews/tm_objectid=17409272%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26page=2%26headline=why%2dhe%2ds%2dworking%2dlike% 2da%2ddog%2dto%2dlaunch%2dbeatles%2dtheme%2dhotel-name_page.html)....

LIVERPOOL'S Adelphi hotel is single-handedly responsible for a huge increase in city centre crime figures.

So many thefts are reported from the 402-room hotel in Ranelagh Place that it is making the city centre appear crime-ridden.

Tourism and council officials fear the hotel's reputation could damage Liverpool's image for Capital of Culture year. (I doubt it)

But their repeated pleas for improvements by Adelphi management to end the five-year crime-wave have fallen on deaf ears. continues (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17452044%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=adelphi%2dcrimewave-name_page.html)....

I've never stayed in The Adelphi and probably never will, it looks dirty and has a bad feeling anyway.

A LUXURY boutique hotel is to be created at the former headquarters of Liverpool shipping firm Blue Star Line.

Union House, opposite the newly-opened Metquarter shopping centre, on Victoria Street, will be converted into The Alexander Hotel by summer 2007, if planning permission is granted.

The hotel will have 31 bedrooms and Liverpool-based development firm Property Regeneration hopes to start on site this autumn.

The building has a host of features, including a specially-commissioned mural showing scenes from the company's tea plantations in China and these will be retained in the new hotel.

Property Regeneration managing director, Gavin Raw, said: "It's a lovely building with a fabulous location opposite the Metquarter and on the border between the city's business district and retail area. That gives us a real advantage in attracting business people seeking a relaxed and unique venue and cultured leisure travellers who want a taste of modern Liverpool."
(http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17458313%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=rooftop%2dbathtubs%2dand%2dtea%2dwith%2 da%2dtwist%2dat%2dthe%2dalex-name_page.html)
Union House was the base of Sir William (later Baron) Vestey's meat and shipping empire, founded in Liverpool. The company built its fortune in farming and livestock production in South America and to ship their produce back to the UK, the Vestey family created the legendary Blue Star Line in 1911.

The Alexander Hotel will include a cocktail lounge and a new restaurant on the lower ground floor, occupying the former Don Pepe's tapas bar, together with meeting rooms and a residents' lounge. "Our aim is for a genuinely sophisticated hotel with a relaxed feel and a great cocktail lounge has to be a must in that regard," said Mr Raw. "We'll also be reinstating the tradition of afternoon tea, but with a twist, of course."
Top-floor penthouse suites will include rooftop hot tubs and giant telescopes.

The £3m project will create 20 new jobs and is being designed by the architects who have been behind the boutique Hope Street Hotel, Falconer Chester Hall.

Architect Adam Hall said: "The building is a delight and a challenge. It has beautiful glazing, which will be restored, and rare English marble panelling.

"The original owners believed in showing off their status as ship-owners and merchants and this will give The Alex a real twist as a place to be."

source (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17458313%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=rooftop%2dbathtubs%2dand%2dtea%2dwith%2 da%2dtwist%2dat%2dthe%2dalex-name_page.html)...

POD living is coming to Liverpool at the new-look Parr Street studios hotel.

The new owners, who rescued the studio complex from being sold off to property developers last month, have ambitious plans for the city centre site, starting with an upgrade of the hotel including a 21st century version of Japanese-style pods, which new boss Gary Millar says will "make a bit of a splash internationally".

Pod hotel rooms were invented by the Japanese in the 1990s due to lack of development space in the capital Tokyo.

They were synonymous with so-called "love hotels" frequented by Japanese businessmen.

But Mr Millar, chief executive of Parr Street Studios Ltd, said: "They will be more sophisticated than the Japanese 'love hotels' and their use will be purely for affordable sleep and relaxation - we'll leave the love to the Japanese."

The pods will be installed early next year to extend capacity beyond the current 12 rooms which have largely been used by musicians recording in the adjacent studios, including chart topping bands Echo and the Bunnymen and Coldplay.

Mr Millar said the rooms will be refurbished first, followed by installation of at least five pods.


http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/aug2006/5/4/D44C0E76-BFF7-E10E-46D7580A98A93D9D.jpg


He said St Helens-based Starbank Panel Products will build the pods which he is designing.

He anticipates each pod will include a single-level soundproofed sleeping chamber with a single bed, storage, internet connection, LCD screen/DVD player, iPod connection, speakers, LED daylight light, air cooler and showerwhere possible.

He said overnight charges are expected to be £25+VAT and support services like laundry, meal deliveries and business services will be offered.

I'm really pleased in the direction that Liverpool seems to be going in and this will be another unusual fairly unique addition for us.:celb (23):

Would be cool to have a Las Vegas style Hotel in Liverpool.:PDT_Aliboronz_24:

LIVERPOOL'S exclusive Hope Street Hotel (http://www.hopestreethotel.co.uk/) has been given the go-ahead to almost double in size and provided it with a spur for plans to build more boutique hotels around the country. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17608407%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=luxury%2dhotel%2dcan%2dexpand-name_page.html)

LIVERPOOL'S exclusive Hope Street Hotel (http://www.hopestreethotel.co.uk/) has been given the go-ahead to almost double in size and provided it with a spur for plans to build more boutique hotels around the country. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17608407%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=luxury%2dhotel%2dcan%2dexpand-name_page.html)

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/6079/hopestreetl1wm8jy7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Excellent.:)

^^Very nice^^ :celb (23):

Hurrah!:PDT_Aliboronz_24:

The 110-bedroom Hard Day's Night hotel is the ultimate homage to the Fab Four and their music.

The team behind the £17m four-star venue says it will belie its name when it opens its doors in 12 months' time.

On the eve of the Mathew Street festival, they have revealed some of the impressive images which will adorn each bedroom in the six-storey hotel, together with the reception and public areas.

The concept of the Beatles-themed hotel has been developed with the help of the team behind the Cavern, including Bill Heckle of Cavern City Tours.

It is being created within a grade IIlisted building dating back to 1884, using local construction workers. The hotel promises it will not be overloaded with kitsch Beatle memorabilia.

Starting at the lowest level, the plans link the basement of the North John Street site, via a tunnel, right into the Cavern Club.

Eachfloor is dedicated to a phase in the Beatles' lives, chronologically from their births to their solo careers and the untimely deaths of John and George.

Every room will tell adifferent part of the Beatles story.

Each will be uniquely decorated with paintings created by Hollywood's favourite airbrush artiste, Shannon, who could end up in the Guinness Book of Records for the number of canvasses she will have completed by the time the hotel opens.

The works are created at home in America, scanned, and the originals flown over to Liverpool.

Some can take three days to complete, but a 6ft painting of John Lennon with a macaw on his shoulder - entitled And Your Bird Can Sing - took the artist six weeks.

She said: "Every room will have a picture which will try and tell the theme of that room. Every painting has to tell the story, and there arehidden messages in them.

"I tend to have 10 canvasses on the go at one time and I do it one colour at atime.You don't enjoy it as muchasif you're watching each one growing, but it's the only way to complete it in such a short time.

"It's not just the art work itself, it's a lot to do with knowing exactly what was going on in the Beatles' lives at the time.

"It's nine or 10 years since I first chatted to Bill Heckle about the hotel. Now everybody is very excited about it. It just seems to be the right time."

The images will be turned into post cards which hotel guests will be able to buy - an idea Mr Heckle picked up from a themed hotel in California - and could also be compiled in a book.

The Hard Day's Night hotel will have two suites, with the John and Yoko suite on the fourth floor coming complete with a white grand piano.

Each floor will be linked by a New York-style cage lift, with a glass wall revealing the story of The Beatles in images around the grand, granitepillared sandstone stairwell.

One in 10 of the rooms will be fully accessible for disabled visitors.

Guests will enter the hotel through a marble entrance hall and past full-size statues of John, Paul, George and Ringo in the niches on the outside.

John's, on the corner of Mathew Street, will face in the direction of New York.

It will have two restaurants,a cock-tail bar, lounge, souvenir shop, gallery and three rooms for private entertaining or conferences.

There will be a Yellow Submarineshaped jukebox, one of only a small number in existence.

The hotel will also be licensed for weddings.

Jonathan Davies, director of developer Bowdena, said: "Nothing else exists like this in the world and the fact it's in Liverpool, which was where The Beatles started, makes it even more special.

"The website is currently under construction and we have a holding page with an information request form on it.

"At present we're receiving high volumes of requests from around the world. Not only is this good for the hotel but also for Liverpool.

"When people walk into the hotel they'll get a unique experience.

"I recently heard someone say The Beatles were no ordinary group and this hotel won't be an ordinary hotel."

source (http://www.icliverpool.com).....

sounds great Kev

must stay there when I come back to UK

hey Kev, was it you who gave me the links a few weeks ago to some teaching jobs... I tried them but no luck yet... do you or does anyone know of any teaching jobs going in town... I'd really like to come back home and work in the Liver City...

Lemmo...:snf (41): :037:

sounds great Kev

must stay there when I come back to UK

hey Kev, was it you who gave me the links a few weeks ago to some teaching jobs... I tried them but no luck yet... do you or does anyone know of any teaching jobs going in town... I'd really like to come back home and work in the Liver City...

Lemmo...:snf (41): :037:

Keep checking those on line bulletins, the new one should be out in September.

THOUSANDS of Beatles from across the world, desperate to be among the first guests at Liverpool's Hard Day's night hotel, have inundated its website with reservation requests. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/thebusinessweek/regionalnews/tm_objectid=17647597%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=beatles%2dfans%2dclamour%2dto%2dbe%2dfi rst%2dguests%2dat%2dhotel%2d-name_page.html)

The 110-bedroom Hard Day's Night hotel is the ultimate homage to the Fab Four and their music.

Each will be uniquely decorated with paintings created by Hollywood's favourite airbrush artiste, Shannon, who could end up in the Guinness Book of Records for the number of canvasses she will have completed by the time the hotel opens.

The works are created at home in America, scanned, and the originals flown over to Liverpool.

source (http://www.icliverpool.com).....

Kev,
Interesting article about about Shannon in the Upstagemagazine (http://www.upstagemagazine.com/articles/getarticle-new.php?ID=3372&wherefrom=mainpage) website and she has her own website (http://www.theshannongallery.com/home.html) which is well worth a visit.

Speke Hall Road,

Liverpool:

http://static.flickr.com/113/288480296_945bbc508e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/288480296/)

http://static.flickr.com/102/288480251_48c82ec1ee.jpg (http://www.

flickr.com/photos/ijob/288480251/)

The present Adelphi is the third on the

site.
1826, 1876 and 1914.
It opened in March 1914, and replaced the previous one which was demolished in 1912.
The architect was R Frank Atkinson,

and the Adelphi was then the most luxurious hotel outside London.
First Class areas of luxury liners have always been designed like luxury hotels, but as

far as I know I don't think Mr Atkinson worked on the interior designs of the Titanic.

Smashing pics. I didn't know there had been 3 versions of the hotel! :)

wasn't it a tea room originally? with a garden?

wasn't it a tea room originally? with a garden?

It was the Ranelagh Tea Rooms from 1722-1790, hence Ranelagh St.

The tea rooms were named after the Ranelagh tea rooms in Chelsea, London which stood in the grounds of a house owned by Lord Ranelagh.

Well, I've learned something today. :)
I never knew it was once a tea rooms.

Global rush for Beatles hotel (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=global-rush-for-beatles-hotel%26method=full%26objectid=18327250%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html) - LIVERPOOL’S new Beatles-themed hotel has had close to 2,000 enquiries about rooms almost a year before it is due to open and four months before staff are due to start taking bookings. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=global-rush-for-beatles-hotel%26method=full%26objectid=18327250%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)

Beatles hotel? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.


We need to stop living off the Beatles.

Who wants to Egg it when It opens?:D :evil:

LIVERPOOL'S newest boutique hotel, to be known as 62 Castle Street, is preparing to open after a £2.5m facelift. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17046435%26method=full%26siteid=50061% 26headline=boutique%2dhotel%2dopens%2dafter%2d%2dp ound%2d2%2d5m%2dfacelift-name_page.html)

I must say, 62 Castle St, www.62casltest.com, is now open and what a beautiful hotel it is. If you haven't done so already I would definately book in for the night to experience how nice this Liverpool boutique hotel is. With it being situated in the middle of the city centre you are within walking distance of everything you need to enjoy your stay in Liverpool!!!!

I must say, 62 Castle St, www.62casltest.com, is now open and what a beautiful hotel it is. If you haven't done so already I would definately book in for the night to experience how nice this Liverpool boutique hotel is. With it being situated in the middle of the city centre you are within walking distance of everything you need to enjoy your stay in Liverpool!!!!

This used to be the Trials Hotel.
It was built in 1868 as a bank.

Beatles hotel? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.


We need to stop living off the Beatles.

Who wants to Egg it when It opens?:D :evil:



You are joking. Like them or not have you seen the year round tourism they bring in?, have you been to the Mathew Street festival? If anything, we needed to have exploited them earlier but that's the council for you, knocking down the original cavern and then we very nearly lost the actual stage where they met at the garden fete at the back of St. Peters Church Hall.

It'd be like Gracelands not cashing in on Elvis.

You are joking. Like them or not have you seen the year round tourism they bring in?, have you been to the Mathew Street festival? If anything, we needed to have exploited them earlier but that's the council for you, knocking down the original cavern and then we very nearly lost the actual stage where they met at the garden fete at the back of St. Peters Church Hall.

It'd be like Gracelands not cashing in on Elvis.

I agree exactly 100%, Ged. My parents and I, living as we did in the U.S., with myself back in Liverpool in the Sixties to go to school but visiting the U.S. at Christmas, could see the worldwide impact of the Beatles. We were startled that Liverpool did not seek to take advantage of what Liverpool had given the world in terms of the Beatles. I do agree therefore that the city's Beatles tourism and consequent revenues pouring into the city could have begun a lot earlier. It was Liverpool's loss because of that early short-sightedness as you say, Ged.

Chris

At the end of the day if people want to come here to see the Beatles stuff make it available to them and give them a product, its all about supply and demand. The Hard Days Night Hotel had 2000 enquiries (http://beatle.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/global-rush-for-beatles-hotel/)about bookings a full year before it is due to open. Liverpool would be foolish not to cash in on the phenomenon, as long as there ar safety net sources of income set up for when Beatlemania finally dies out

Liverpool would be foolish not to cash in on the phenomenon, as long as there ar safety net sources of income set up for when Beatlemania finally dies out

I agree Ste and I doubt it will ever die out.

I agree Ste and I doubt it will ever die out.
Agree Kev. I never fully appreciated The Beatles until my late 30s - and that was after I discovered their peers -The Kinks, The Who and of course The Rolling Stones. It took me a while, but the penny finally dropped. They are without doubt the finest songwriters in my lifetime.

BTW, as a kid, I swapped my Dad's The Beatles Love Me Do EP for Lonnie Donegan's My Old Man's A Dustman. He wasn't very pleased!

(Useless Info) If you slow down My Old Man's A Dustman to 33 rpm, it sounds remarkably like Max Bygraves!

At the end of the day if people want to come here to see the Beatles stuff make it available to them and give them a product, its all about supply and demand. . . . Liverpool would be foolish not to cash in on the phenomenon, as long as there ar safety net sources of income set up for when Beatlemania finally dies out

I agree Ste and I doubt it will ever die out.

Jesus has not gone away -- and John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. . . :PDT_Aliboronz_24:

Agree Kev. I never fully appreciated The Beatles until my late 30s - and that was after I discovered their peers -The Kinks, The Who and of course The Rolling Stones. It took me a while, but the penny finally dropped. They are without doubt the finest songwriters in my lifetime.


Hi Dave

They are great because they wrote all their own stuff and the songs are great. However, if I might say so, the cachet might have gone off their songwriting somewhat in the last thirty-five years since they broke up. You don't hear people today recording Beatles songs or Lennon or McCartney songs like they did when the group were performing them in the Sixties and early Seventies. Everyone was recording their songs back then. Just a thought.

Chris

Hi Dave

They are great because they wrote all their own stuff and the songs are great. However, if I might say so, the cachet might have gone off their songwriting somewhat in the last thirty-five years since they broke up. You don't hear people today recording Beatles songs or Lennon or McCartney songs like they did when the group were performing them in the Sixties and early Seventies. Everyone was recording their songs back then. Just a thought.

Chris
Hi Chris,
I wouldn't expect anybody recording their songs today, but their legacy lives on in the influences that bands take from them. Also, guitar bands were supposedly dead and buried when they came on the scene.

the hard days night hotel..

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c60/gedfleming/L1020055.jpg


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c60/gedfleming/L1020056.jpg


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c60/gedfleming/L1020053.jpg


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c60/gedfleming/L1020057.jpg

^^Brilliant^^

Good pics. Gerard. :037:

the hard days night hotel..


Class piccies Gerrard!:eek:
Thanks

Thanks Lads.

AS I walk around what looks more like a building site than a hotel, I can’t believe the city’s new Malmaison will be ready to open next week. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=checking-into-city%2D%2D8217%2Ds-newest-hotel%26method=full%26objectid=18490693%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)

Hi Chris,
I wouldn't expect anybody recording their songs today, but their legacy lives on in the influences that bands take from them. Also, guitar bands were supposedly dead and buried when they came on the scene.

Excellent points, thanks, Dave.

Chris

I enjoyed the pics, Gerard. And it does look as if anyone tried to stay at the The Hard Day's Night Hotel in its present shape they really would be in for a hard day's night ha ha. :handclap:

Chris

Nice one Chris ..cheers mate..

Malmaison opens (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=celebs-turn-out-for-new-hotel-launch%26method=full%26objectid=18537527%26siteid= 50061-name_page.html)

Among the unique features inside the hotel is a glass private dining room which is integrated into the hotel’s main kitchen so diners can watch head chef Mark Bennett at work. There is also a luxurious Veuve Clicquot champagne bar – only the third in the world. In the hotel’s Plum bar, cocktail waiters emerge from a huge purple perspex box shrouded in dry ice to serve drinks.

See post #27 in this thread.

07-02-07
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/126/383163549_c87f4db4dd_o.jpg

Did you know that thefts in The Adelphi are making the city centre look like a crime hotspot? The articles say that 80% of thefts that occur in our city centre hotels happen at the Adelphi. I also read something a while back saying that the 80% above equates to something like 60% of the total crime figures for the city centre.

http://www.visitnorthwest.com/news/adelphi-awarded-3-stars-despite-crime-wave/

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=17452044&method=full&siteid=50061&page=1&headline=adelphi-crimewave-name_page.html

Philip, that's a great pic - one of the best I've seen of the Adelphi.

Philip, that's a great pic - one of the best I've seen of the Adelphi.

Thank you, Lindy.
I did quite a lot of snapping yesterday.
Still posting more pics. :)

Great Pic Phil..as usual Lad.

IT was originally a factory for the construction of craftsman-built carriages, then became a furniture store, before emerging as Liverpool’s first boutique hotel.

Hope Street Hotel emerged as one of the most impressive hotels in the country, with a clutch of major awards to its name.

It gave the name London Carriage Works, a tribute to its past glory, to its restaurant, and started a trend that has seen a handful of smaller exclusive hotels built around Liverpool and the surrounding areas.

The latest to join the exclusive club of boutique hotels is 62 Castle Street. Formerly Trials Hotel, it started life as a bank, standing as a listed building within the World Heritage Site.

But what does the phrase “boutique hotel” mean?

The owners of 62 Castle Street decided to research into the history and origins of the term.

It seems that “boutique hotel” originated in the USA, and is used to describe hotels which provide a luxurious and unique environment for guests.

Following in the footsteps of cities such as New York, San Francisco and London, Liverpool has now become a home for a string of boutique hotels.

Boutique hotels typically offer guests a more intimate and bespoke experience, in contrast to the larger and less personal chain hotels.

Often they are housed in listed buildings that lend themselves to an exclusive offer because of the limit on the number of rooms available for guests.

They are usually in established parts of a town or city and it is not unusual for them to offer a completely new experience compared to branded hotel chains.

Martin King, director of tourism at the region’s official Tourist Board, The Mersey Partnership, has welcomed the addition of boutique hotels to the list of accommodation facilities in the area.

Last night Mr King said: “The growth across the entire hotel sector reflects the increasing popularity and attractiveness of the destination.

“Winning investment from the big brands and operators who have opened or committed to building properties here is significant. Just as important though has been the growth in the number of smaller, individual boutique hotels we can offer our visitors.

“They appeal to visitors who now expect more choice. Some like to stay in larger properties with world-class brands like Radisson, Crowne Plaza or, following soon, Hilton and Jurys.

“Other visitors prefer to experience something different with more intimacy, individual style and, in some cases, in buildings that have been painstakingly converted and reflect the heritage of the location.

“Our boutique hotels have quickly established themselves to be among the most popular and sophisticated in Europe, and they form a very important part of our offer.”

At 62 Castle St the aim has been to create a relaxing and contemporary haven for city centre guests, which embodies the concept of a boutique hotel, but with a quirky edge.

It seems the need for boutique hotels has not been exhausted. Work is continuing on what is expected to become Liverpool’s first five-star boutique hotel in the former Municipal Annexe in Dale Street.

Originally built as the headquarters of the Liverpool Conservative Party, it faced the Municipal Building, the headquarters of the Corporation of Liverpool.

Also on the horizon is a new boutique hotel at Kings Dock, close to the arena and convention centre, currently under construction.

An international hotel operator is to build two hotels on the site of the £135m Kings Dock redevelopment. Jurys Doyle plans to open a 280-room Jurys Inn hotel, and a 60-room boutique hotel on the Kings Waterfront site.

The boutique hotels are part of a crucial jigsaw that ensures the growing leisure and tourism market can accommodate the needs of all visitors, whether it is the big luxury hotels, to bed and breakfasts and travel lodges.

Leisure and tourism is now worth more than £1.1bn to the Liverpool city region economy, a figure which is predicted to rise to £2bn by 2013, supporting 30,000 jobs.

Around 10m staying visitors visit Liverpool each year, and the city is the UK's most internationally recognised destination outside London, making it a prime location for tourism investment.

The International Passenger Survey 2006 showed that the number of overseas visits to the city doubled in 12 months, making it more popular among overseas visitors than Oxford, Bath and Cambridge.

With Liverpool's title as European Capital of Culture and the rapid growth of Liverpool John Lennon Airport (serving 70 destinations) this figure is set to increase further.

source (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=rise-and-rise-of-the-boutique-hotel-trade%26method=full%26objectid=18767038%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)....

'Hotel', the fly on the wall series about The Adelphi has been getting repeated on BBC4 all week. Its amazing its taken so long for the s**t to his the fan about how bad the place is. I suppose they got away with it because for so long tey had no Radisson, Crowne Plaze or Marriot to compete with.

'Hotel', the fly on the wall series about The Adelphi has been getting repeated on BBC4 all week. Its amazing its taken so long for the s**t to his the fan about how bad the place is. I suppose they got away with it because for so long tey had no Radisson, Crowne Plaze or Marriot to compete with.

It seems to have been in a nosedive ever since the current hotel chain took it over. Word seems to have got round, too, that there are easy pickings to be had, and that doesn't help. Such wasted potential, like Lewis's, the ABC cinema, St Georges Hall, Central Hall, Kumar bros (old Army and Navy) etc. etc.

That 'boutique' hotel (more like a guesthouse) in Castle Street seems to be relaunched every six months or so. Isn't the Racquet Club another 'boutique'?
I'd be willing to bet £100 that the Lark Lane area will have a boutique hotel within five years!

LIVERPOOL'S soon-to-open Hard Day’s Night hotel won’t be the first Beatles-themed establishment to open, as Mike Chapple discovered on a trip to Blackpool more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=why-ours-is-the-real-beatles-hotel%26method=full%26objectid=18810403%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)

PARR Street (http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1495&highlight=PARR+Street) Studios’ new boutique hotel in Liverpool has officially opened – just nine months after the world famous recording studio was threatened with closure. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=studio-hotel-complex-open-after-nine-months%2D%2D8217%2D-work%26method=full%26objectid=18849091%26siteid=50 061-name_page.html)

WORK was today underway once more on Liverpool’s first “design hotel” after a new £5m investment.

The Montreal Building in Stanley Street was earmarked by London developers three years ago as a luxury hotel and members’ club, but their venture failed to deliver and collapsed in late 2004.

Now Liverpool businessman Thomas Brown has secured the investment to resurrect the plans and his Stanley Street Company, which has been set up to develop the project, hopes to open it this summer.

The new plans are for a “design hotel” of six rooms, featuring four loft suites and two duplex penthouse lofts.

A luxury members’ club will be created, as well as a bar and restaurant and an underground nightclub. continues (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=city-man-rescues-dream-of-%2D5m-hotel%26method=full%26objectid=18880699%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)...

LIVERPOOL’S booming hotel sector is to expand again with a £2m project at the Albert Dock. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=hotel-announces-%2Dpound%2D2m-city-expansion%26method=full%26objectid=19156229%26site id=50061-name_page.html)

SEVENTY pieces of original artwork have been completed to hang in Liverpool’s new Beatle-themed hotel. more (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/news/echonews/tm_headline=an-arts-day%2D%2D8217%2Ds-night%26method=full%26objectid=19222657%26siteid=5 0061-name_page.html)

A THIRD hotel is to be built close to Liverpool John Lennon Airport to cope with increasing demand from air passengers. Read (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/07/18/third-hotel-development-takes-off-as-jla-booms-100252-19472077/)

LIVERPOOL hotels are experiencing a growth in revenues as the city becomes more popular with visitors in the run up to Capital of Culture next year. Read (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/business/business-local/2007/08/08/hotel-rates-rise-in-2008-run-up-64375-19586166/)

LIVERPOOL hotels are experiencing a growth in revenues as the city becomes more popular with visitors in the run up to Capital of Culture next year. Read (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/business/business-local/2007/08/08/hotel-rates-rise-in-2008-run-up-64375-19586166/)

It also helps with a bigger range of hotels and a decent quality of cheaper hotels.

Think the Heyworth Building on Brunswick St may have been sold to turn into a boutique hotel.

The hotel is running free tours at the moment in an attempt to improve the negative image portrayed by the media. I went on one early this week with a friend.

Ironically when the Adelphi was built it was considered one of the best hotels in the world catering for passengers on the great Atlantic liners to America and other parts of the world. Although it has appeared very tatty of late it is undergoing major refurbishment which will be completed by the end of this year. Amongest its many grand features are solid marble walls to the corridors, polished wood panelling to rooms/ function suites and more chandeliers than any other building in Liverpool.

The other things I learnt on the tour are

Its Sefton Function Suite is a replica of the First Class Smoking Room of the Titanic

It is the only hotel in the world which has a moving wall which is lowered to divide its main ballroom into two. Apparently the Waldorf Astoria has one but it is no longer operational.

Its best suite is named after the PM Harold Wilson who occupied it when home on constituency business.

In 1984 when the hotel was at its lowest ebb the top 2 floors were closed to save rates resulting in pidgeons and the rain coming in.

Roy Rodgers and his horse trigger have appeared on the front balcony.

And finally Bob Dylan was turned away in the 60's for wearing jeans

It is a favourite with TV and Film companies for filming period dramas

For all the knocks the Adelphi has suffered she has an elegance and grandeur which is very impressive.

Munchkim

:PDT_Aliboronz_24:http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7193/loungeinadelphi1bp.jpg

The hotel originally dates back to 1826, but was extensively rebuilt in 1912 to cater for passenger's from large cruise liners, whose home port was Liverpool. Namely all the White Star Line ships, who were based in Liverpool, the most famous of which was the Titanic. Indeed the Sefton suite in the hotel is an exact replica of the first class smoking lounge aboard the Titanic and was designed by the same architect..

Hello Paul D and and all Forum members from a "Newbie" who is also a very mature "Oldie"

I have only become a member in the last few minutes and am just feeling my way around the site. But before I go to bed here in the Antipodes just wanted to tell you that I worked at the Adelphi from 1940 to 1942 and as can be found on my website have many tales to tell about life at the hotel during the blitz. Go to royalnavymedic1945.com

Must away to bed now but I will be back1

Best Wishes to all

Hello Royal Navy Medic

Great to have you here. Thanks for directing members to your tales of working at the Adelphi. My wife Donna and I stayed there in 2003 and were less than impressed -- it certainly has the "faded grandeur" but is not what it used to be unfortunately. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel by the Pier Head this past May and were pleased with just about everything about our stay: helpful staff and good food. The only thing I found less than good was Scouse that I had ordered in the bar in which the meat turned out to be tough! They did apologize for that and gave us a credit on the bill.

All the best

Chris

I was hoping someone would mention the Alicia and Park Lane Hotels in their beautiful Sefton Park setting.
At times I have practically lived in hotels, some of them 4* and 5* in wonderful locations. These two hotels would be far preferable; the bonus being fantastic views and 'rural' ambience; they knock spots of the city hotels.
There's a suite in The Park Lane. Four poster bed, more an apartment than a mere hotel room. Incredible views across the park; and computer terminals. Everything the foot-weary traveller could want and the prices were lower than city rates, just 2 miles away.
That 'conservatory' restaurant at the Alicia! Wow! I am not surprised it won the Best Hotel in Liverpool Award a couple of years ago. See it at night when it is lit up. Someone take a photograph.. What an opportunity.
Then there's the Aachen (wonder how it got its name?).
We should not only make a song and dance about these lovely suburban hotels, we should use them more and encourage other to.
Oh yes, check out the Italianate murals in the restaurant of the The Park Lane . . . and the Italian style terraces and patio. Put that hotel on the Cote d'Azure, anywhere like that and a room would be a £1,000 a night.

Hotels roll out red carpet for a music spectacular (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/03/hotels-roll-out-red-carpet-for-a-music-spectacular-64375-20054331/)

LIVERPOOL’S most exclusive hotels are on stand-by to welcome the biggest names in the music world when the MTV Europe Music Awards come to the city next year. Read (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/03/hotels-roll-out-red-carpet-for-a-music-spectacular-64375-20054331/)

Top-class rooms (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/03/top-class-rooms-64375-20054333/)

THE availability of top- class hotel rooms in Liverpool proves the city’s accommodation is just as good if not better than Manchester’s, hoteliers said last night. Read (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/03/top-class-rooms-64375-20054333/)

THE much-anticipated Hard Days Night Hotel will not be opening until February because of problems with electric supplies. Read (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/11/09/electrical-problems-plague-fab-four-hotel-64375-20083544/)

Hotel expansion proves the spirit of ’08 has arrived

Dec 31 2007 (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2007/12/31/) by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icliverpool/jun2006/1/9/A34AACAC-A2AB-F1DF-3D00235841FBFEF2.jpg
The arena and convention centre under construction at The Kings Dock waterfront

MORE than 1,000 extra hotel beds will be available in Liverpool by the end of Capital of Culture year, prompting claims that the economic legacy of ’08 is already beginning to show.

Government officials revealed the growth in beds as one of the long-term benefits of Culture year for Liverpool, and claim many other benefits will soon be in evidence.

Senior ministerial figures are also keen to start stressing the benefits of ’08 following months of in-fighting and controversy in Liverpool, which culminated in the departure of Culture Company chief executive Jason Harborow earlier this month. According to government figures, there are already 73% more beds in Liverpool now than in 1996, and that figure will continue to rocket. There are currently around 2,790 hotel beds in Liverpool.

A variety of hotels are currently being developed, including the new Beatles-themed Hard Days Night Hotel in the Mathew Street district.

It is among the hotels which will open in 2008, along with hotels around the new Echo Arena. The hotels vary from the budget end of the market – such as the new Premier Inn, due to open near Liverpool Airport – to more expensive, long-stay suites.

Staybridge Suites, the first major hotel brand to focus on the extended stay business guest in the UK, will open a new 132-suite hotel at Kings Dock.

Conservative estimates suggest the hotel development in Liverpool will be worth at least £100m.

The hotel boom won’t stop at the end of 2008 either – the new hotels within Liverpool One, a Hilton and a Novotel, will open in 2009.

Lord Davies of Oldham, a Government spokesman in the House of Lords, said: “It is very important that we recognise the potential economic benefits to Liverpool, which are already showing, as noble Lords have said, in the increased role of tourism in the city and the number of visits in recent years.

“Tourism plays an important part in a local economy, and there is no doubt the richness of Liverpool's cultural heritage at this time, and the refurbishment that has been effected through significant investment in the past five years give tourists a better experience than they might have had in the past.

“A thousand new hotel rooms will open in 2008, building on the 73% increase between 1997 and 2006. No doubt the city is working hard to ensure that a consistently high level of service will be on offer throughout the city.”

The average cost of a room in 2007 was around £75, up on 2006 by around £5. The city’s hotels are increasingly booked out completely during high-profile events, such as the Grand National. The city put out the “no vacancies” sign when thousands flocked to the city to watch the Champions League final, between AC Milan and Liverpool, on Merseyside.

On any given night, experts say occupancy in Liverpool hotels is at around the 75% mark.

A spokesman for The Mersey Partnership said the new hotels would benefit Liverpool for years after ’08.

Staying visitors – generally those who use hotels – are expected to spend £550m in 2008.

The TMP spokesman said: “The prime influence on staying visits is the provision of hotel space. That’s got more to do with it than any other single factor. If hotels are there, people will use them.

“At weekends, most city centre hotels are full most of the year.
Anecdotally, some hotels say they could fill up three or four times over, especially when there is football on.

“Capital of Culture is about repositioning the city for the future. We are looking for a nice range of hotels that reflects the character and aspirations of Liverpool.”

Figures compiled by TMP chart the growth of the hotel sector in the region.
In 1998, there were 16 city centre hotels, providing 1,867 bedrooms. There are now 31. By the end of 2010, it is predicted there will be 42, with 5,000 rooms.

Hotel growth in Sefton, St Helens, Knowsley, Wirral and Halton will grow modestly between now and 2010.

On top of the 5,000 city centre beds likely by 2010, there will be another 722 provided in 12 suburban hotels.

A SERVICE featuring the Love & Joy Gospel Choir and a peal of bells will ring in 2008 at the Anglican Cathedral tonight, at 10.30pm.
davidhiggerson

The Holiday Inn, formerly the St. George's Hotel.

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4349/holinnfrroofdm4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


.

See inside The Hard Days Night Hotel on Sky News:

Click here (http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/0,,30400-1303412,00.html)

http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1640799.jpg (http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1640799.jpg)

And more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/image_galleries/hard_days_night_hotel_gallery.shtml?1



.

I should be sleeping like a log

As the Hard Days Night hotel opens in Liverpool, local writer Paul Du Noyer asks: does the Capital of Culture really need another Beatles-themed attraction?

In the bowels of Liverpool's latest hotel, in the punningly named Hari's Bar (as in George Harrison, you see), some of the city's musicians are getting bladdered. If you blew a hole in the wall you could step into the neighbouring Cavern, where the Beatles learnt their trade nearly 50 years ago. Today's contenders must learn to live with that legacy. 'Not only will you never be the best in the world,' a local pop star once lamented, 'you'll never even be the best in your home town.'

This evening's revellers are putting a brave face on it. Long after midnight an apologetic barman announces that he has to close in five minutes. 'That's all right,' replies a prominent Scouse songwriter. 'Give us four million pints of lager, please.'

The Hard Days Night, which must have mislaid an apostrophe since the 1964 song and movie of that name, is billed as the world's first Beatles-themed hotel. All its 110 rooms have paintings of John, Paul, George or Ringo, while their nine-foot effigies perch like chirpy suicides on a high ledge outside. The building is a handsome office block from 1884, Liverpool's Victorian prime as a port and commercial hub.

As a child I often walked past this building. At pavement level were City gents' shops: a tailor, a barber, a wine merchant. But then they all closed down. Round the corner is Mathew Street, where for years the Cavern stood derelict. My generation went to the punk club, Eric's, right opposite, where we tried to forget the Fab Four ever existed.

Fat chance. Now, 30 years later, 'She's Leaving Home' is fluting from the lobby speakers on the hotel's opening day. Beatles music is piped continuously through the public rooms. Even so, the four-starred Hard Days Night is not as brash as many a themed joint: subtract a few psychedelic wall-hangings and mop-topped figurines and you find decor in modern mainstream taste (blocky brown leather chairs and vast lampshades). If anything jarred, it was the big, hairy John Lennon (Plastic Ono Band period) peering from my bedroom wall like a secular saint, tiny white doves of peace inside his irises. Sanctimony and Scouseness always warred in Lennon's soul, and here the former wins.

Pleasingly understated, however, is the ground-floor restaurant, Blake's, named after Sir Peter, the pop artist who created the Sergeant Pepper album cover. Even the menus and cocktail lists are restrained. You could sip a Honey Can't Buy Me Love, or a Yellow Matter Custard (not, one trusts, 'dripping from a dead dog's eye' as the song, 'I Am The Walrus', actually continues); if you're abstaining, there is a non-alcoholic Baby You Can Drive My Car. But that's about all.

A few touches are so subtle as to verge on mysticism. The hotel logo represents George's dramatic guitar chord at the start of 'A Hard Day's Night'. I'm told it also symbolises the four lads' positions on stage. When I find a Gideon's Bible by my bed, I wonder if it's there for my spiritual comfort or as an arcane reference to verse four of 'Rocky Racoon'.

That's how it should be: Liverpool is for many a genuine place of pilgrimage. The Beatles cognoscenti flock from all over the globe, and doubtless many will now stay at the Hard Days Night. Their holiest shrine is the Cavern Club, although the club is actually a replica of the long-demolished original (but so is Shakespeare's Globe in London, come to that.) Indeed the hotel was first mooted by Cavern owners Bill Heckle and Dave Jones. A teacher and a taxi-driver respectively, they led the way in developing Beatles tourism by offering guided tours and an annual convention. They passed the hotel scheme to an outside company but remain involved as consultants.

It's easy to be sniffy about Liverpool's dependence on the Beatles. Even as Europe's Capital of Culture, the city pins its hopes on personal appearances by Paul and Ringo to win hearts, minds and headlines. But needs must. Liverpool's economic collapse was so desperate that the city's inner busker was reawakened. It took the murder of John Lennon in 1980 to focus the civic mind. Suddenly, with five bullets fired in New York City, the Beatles were pitched into history. It was time to take stock of a phenomenon we'd grown up taking for granted. It dawned on everyone that the port's decline was not just another business cycle; this slump was terminal, and it was taking the whole city down with it. Within a year there were riots in Toxteth; Trotskyites took over the town hall. It was always going to take more than memories of the Fab Four to stave off ruination. But faced with the scenes so memorably portrayed in Alan Bleasdale's Boys From The Blackstuff, Liverpool was up for anything that offered a whiff of regeneration.

From Tokyo and Rio, Idaho and Oslo, came the curious and the nostalgic. The Cavern re-opened to welcome them, and Mathew Street sprouted souvenir shops and pubs called things like Rubber Soul. Some of it was tacky but then came a proper museum, The Beatles Story, at Albert Dock; Lennon and McCartney's childhood homes are now looked after by the National Trust. These are serious, almost scholarly destinations. Coaches ply the route from Strawberry Field to Penny Lane. And when you leave, you can fly from John Lennon Airport, whose 'Imagine'-inspired motto is 'Above us only sky'. (Or, as an anxious passenger once said at the baggage carousel, 'Imagine no possessions.')

Had the Beatles come from anywhere else (America springs to mind), one could envisage Disney-styled extravaganzas, with Pepperland fantasy parks, mile-high Helter Skelters, real Yellow Submarines... Liverpool limits itself to an amphibious vehicle from the Second World War - the Yellow Duckmarine, no less. I once met a visiting delegation from Memphis, where Elvis, jazz and the blues are sold as full-on heritage experiences. They were amazed by our British diffidence. 'Promoting Liverpool without the Beatles,' they cried. 'Are you guys crazy?'

Meanwhile, at the Hard Days Night, it's a peaceful Sunday morning. Twelve hours ago the Cavern Quarter (a warren of neon-lit former warehouses) was a throbbing riot of stag-night boys and shrieking, semi-naked hen parties. It's always like this. I don't think any of them actually plan to get married. Now on the skyline from my window I see these: two cathedral towers, two Liver Birds, 11 construction cranes over the Duke of Westminster's new shopping centre, the Georgian Gambier Terrace, where beatnik Beatles lived as teenagers, a silver ribbon of Mersey.

It's lovely, like a Lowry under a Constable sky. Yet last night it was a scene from Hieronymus Bosch. Liverpool is the city for magical transformations, a madly bi-polar, hospitable and exasperating place. The Hard Days Night Hotel sits snugly in its centre, close to the waterfront, museums and galleries. When I stayed, there were the teething troubles of a new business. Rooms were not quite ready. Staff seemed not to recognise 'do not disturb' signs. Service at breakfast was performed by friendly amnesiacs, always pleased to attend you but unaware that they took your order 40 minutes ago. I hoped bacon and eggs might arrive together, but they came in stages, with a half-hour interval.

Lots of Liverpudlians came to see the place. One man spluttered when he heard the John Lennon Suite (which comes with white grand piano) costs £650 a night. But there is a good old-fashioned Merseyside moneylender across the road. Everyone else liked it but most remarked on the irony of opening now, when Ringo is so unpopular with the locals. He is in disgrace here, for seeming disloyal to Liverpool on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where he was promoting his rotten new single. 'That Ringo,' said a philosophical fellow in Hari's Bar. 'He always was a dozy git, wasn't he?'

Paul Du Noyer's 'Liverpool: Wondrous Place' is published by Virgin Books

On the Beatles trail

· The Hard Days Night Hotel

Central Buildings, North John Street (0151 236 1964; www.harddaysnighthotel.com). Doubles from £170.

· Magical Mystery Tour

The two-hour trip takes in Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and the Cavern Club. Tours run daily; £12.95pp. Book on 0151 236 9091; www.cavernclub.org/mystery_tour.php

· Cavern Club

Daytime entrance free; bar for drinks and coffee. Families welcome until 7pm (0151 236 1965; www.cavernclub.org).

·The Beatles Story

Open daily, 10am-6pm; adults £9.99, children £4.99 (0151 709 1963; www.beatlesstory.com).

· The Lennon & McCartney houses

Some of the earliest Beatles songs were composed at Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton. The houses are accessible only on a National Trust tour, which costs £15 (0844 800 4791; www.nationaltrust.org.uk).

Source: The Observer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/feb/10/liverpool.hotels?page=all)

Howie.. That was an interesting read.. Ta...

I know that one of the tour companies.. is offering , The Hard Days Night Hotel, as one of the package deals.. but, wow! The most expensive of the packages....

I rather just go have a mossey about. Sounds like the place needs to get settled in...
Maybe just have a drink.. as the service for food, (according to that article), sounds like they better get a groove on , or nobody will go there for breakkie.. Not even a tourist... LOL...

:PDT_Aliboronz_24: