King Street Townhouse Manchester | Hotel Review

Central Manchester…Manny…Madchester and finally I had a chance to break out my Wanup card.

I have to admit; in the past I’ve been loath to add many more cards to my wallet. As regular readers may have noticed, I travel a lot and it doesn’t take long before I end up with a full deck of local metro and coffee cards. The result being that my Visa is nowhere to be found when I need it and very few shops accept 3/7 of a free coffee as legal tender, so recently I’ve operated a strict ‘one-in, one-out’ policy. As a regular traveller it’s like travelling with a two star upgrade, so the card’s now holding pride of place…next to three Berlin U-Bahn tickets.

Anyway the first Wanup introductory cherry is 40 Euros to spend wherever you wish. I briefly considered splashing out on the luxurious spa on the seventh floor. However when I saw our view of the magnificent town hall from our bathroom, decadence was in order. Strawberries and champagne in the bath.

King Street Townhouse calls itself ‘A little bit grand’. Whoever thought up that slogan hit the nail on the head – or rather top hat – ‘a little bit grand’ is exactly what it is. It’s like a boutique hotel that blossomed. The ground floor is leaning more towards the grand end: gleaming marble, smartly dressed porters and décor that has a little 1930s New York about it, while still being fresh out of the box (as they would say in the ‘30s).

The infinity pool overlooking the clock tower of Manchester Town Hall is obviously an impressive scene and one which you’ll find in any press photos for the hotel. If you don’t fancy a swim you can take in the same view at the South Terrace bar on the floor above.

Perhaps my personal favourite touch, however, was the proper rain shower in the wet-room bathroom. There’s just something about tropical, indoor rain when it’s -2 outside that I can’t get enough of.

There are over 40 rooms, yet each one has had so much time and thought poured into it, it feels like an upmarket B & B. From the artwork, bed linen books in the rooms and suites to the soft furnishings scattered throughout, everything has been picked out by the owner, Sally O’Loughlin. I was reminded of the Channel four programme ‘Escape to the Chateau’, where a newlywed couple (they married on the series) buy and refurbish a French castle.

Kings Street Townhouse has that same mix of eclectic taste and attention to quirky detail that comes with owning a property yourself. A quality that’s hard to fake.

I usually talk a little about the city or countryside I’m in. However on this trip to Manchester it was averaging zero degrees outside and warm raining inside, so I was very happy to stay put the whole weekend.