Manchester, once the beating heart of the industrial revolution, is today a vibrant city with enough cultural clout to give London a run for its money. Home to historic red-brick buildings, a legendary line-up of live music and a thriving craft ale scene, the “Northern Powerhouse” is positively brimming with creativity. You only have to wander around the buzzy Northern Quarter to experience it, perhaps dipping in and out of independent shops and snapping pics of street art, enjoying a rooftop sundowner and then rounding things off with one of the city’s famously good curries.
The same dynamic spirit extends to the local accommodation offering, where grand listed buildings and former cotton warehouses are enjoying second lives as hip urban sanctuaries. Whether you fancy bedding down in the city’s former stock exchange or sinking into a roll-top bath in the leafy suburbs, you’re sure to find something to suit among our selection. These are the best boutique hotels in Manchester.
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1. Forty-Seven, city centre
£££ | Best for contemporary Indian food
Centrally located Forty-Seven is a new kid on the Manchester hotel scene. But the company behind it, Kro Hospitality, knows what it’s doing, as it also owns longstanding boutique favourite, Velvet Hotel. It enlisted the help of a “sleep fixer” to design the 32 rooms in this grade II listed former shipping warehouse, so they have blackout blinds, curved velvet headboards and mood lighting. The rooms’ colour scheme has rich tones of emerald or navy, with exposed brick and statement gold chandeliers. Downstairs is the excellent Indian restaurant Asha’s, by Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, as well as the bijou Peterman cocktail lounge.
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2. Stock Exchange Hotel, city centre
£££ | Best for luxury
It’s clear that you’re somewhere special as soon as you walk into this luxurious hotel’s Edwardian baroque building, where original brass, marble and stained-glass features bring the wow factor. It’s housed in Manchester’s former stock exchange and a stand-out spot is the domed former trading room, where breakfast is served. There’s also a cocktail bar, Sterling, on the lower ground floor with a wood-panelled interior. The hotel’s central location between King Street and Market Street means that you’re in the heart of the city centre for exploring, but you’ll also want to allow time to relax in your room with its calming colour palette and delightful Noble Isle toiletries.
3. The Cow Hollow Hotel, Northern Quarter
£ | Best for added frills
Muj and Amelia Rana have turned a former textile warehouse in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a cool boutique bolt hole. Interiors combine exposed brick walls and wooden beams with gilt mirrors, oil paintings and plenty of greenery, including a fake palm tree in the bar. You’ll receive treats galore during a stay – there’s complimentary prosecco and antipasti in the evening and milk and cookies before bed, Netflix access in rooms and breakfast bags are included in room rates. Bedrooms are snug but high quality and the small bar serves excellent cocktails to sip before a night out.
4. King Street Townhouse, city centre
£££ | SPA | POOL | Best for relaxation
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A highlight of a stay in this central boutique hotel will be lounging in the warm water of its seventh-floor infinity spa pool, gazing at the clock tower of Manchester’s neo-gothic town hall (currently being refurbished). There’s a gym and spa, offering a Himalayan salt cave, luxurious treatments and four workout zones. You’ll also be able to switch off in one of its 40 elegant rooms and suites, where all but entry-level snug rooms have freestanding baths, or in a squishy velvet armchair enjoying afternoon tea. Former owner, Sally O’Loughlin, artfully sourced everything in the hotel, from books on shelves and fun artwork to lighting — you’ll be inspired to redecorate when you get home.
5. Leven, city centre
£ | Best for design lovers
On the corner of lively Canal Street and Chorlton Street, this former early 20th-century cotton warehouse has been given a fresh lease of life as a sleek hotel. Industrial features such as exposed brick walls and Crittall windows are softened by hanging plants in the lobby area, statement tiles, a soothing Farrow & Ball pastel colour palette and almost 300 artworks throughout that have been individually selected by co-founder, Timothy Griffin. Some rooms have freestanding baths, some kitchens, and top-level “Living the Dream” or “Living Large” duplex suites have terraces and separate sitting rooms and bedrooms.
• Read our full review of the Leven
6. Hotel Gotham, city centre
££ | Best for drama
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From its striking art deco building and glitzy interiors to staff dressed in character, Hotel Gotham is both proudly opulent and theatrical. The building’s history as former premises of the Midland Bank has been embraced, so bathroom toiletries sit on gold bars, you’ll scoff piggybank-shaped biscuits in rooms, and “bank” managers with pink braces and pinstripes will be on hand to look after you. Rooms are decadent retreats with tactile fabrics, a moody grey colour scheme with pops of hot pink and turquoise, and marble bathrooms. The hotel’s private members’ club, Brass, is equally glitzy, with gold tiles and rooftop views from its terraces.
7. Didsbury House Hotel, Didsbury
££ | SPA | Best for a suburban retreat
Book a stay in this charming boutique hotel to relax in the leafy south Manchester suburb of Didsbury. The Victorian villa has stylish interiors combining statement wallpaper, plush fabrics and striking original features such as a huge stained-glass window at the top of the main staircase. The cosy rooms have rolltop baths to soak in after a day’s sightseeing — the top-level Opus suite has twin cast-iron rolltop baths — and there are plenty of spots to tuck yourself away in, such as the comfortable lounge or the heated walled terrace.
8. Native Manchester, city centre
££ | Best for families
The size of Native Manchester doesn’t stop its 162 design-led apartments from feeling like chic hideaways, with turquoise and gold kitchenettes, Conran furniture and lashings of exposed brick. Below the apartments is Ducie Street Warehouse, an inviting space with a lounge, mini cinema, independently run gym and a regular rota of events including supper clubs, dog and child-friendly cinema screenings and workshops. Food options are equally imaginative; there’s a dedicated cauliflower cheese menu to accompany Sunday lunch (bacon Frazzles cauliflower cheese, anyone?), small plates during the week and incredible donuts by local company Gooey.
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9. The Abel Heywood, Northern Quarter
£ | Best for boutique on a budget
Perfectly located if you’re in Manchester to make the most of its hospitality, this pub with 15 rooms is in the heart of the city centre’s bohemian Northern Quarter, with top-notch bars, restaurants and shopping options on the doorstep. The pub itself is styled like a Victorian boozer. All rooms have a Manchester cityscape view and exposed brick-effect wallpaper above beds, retro radios or record players and colourful mismatched tiles in bathrooms. Entry-level double rooms are small but excellent value.
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10. Velvet Hotel, city centre
££ | Best for nightlife
One of Manchester’s original boutique hotels, Velvet is on the city centre’s vibrant Canal Street and some rooms have balconies overlooking the action. Surrounded by bars and clubs, this is the ideal spot for night owls — you’ll even be given a complimentary glass of fizz on arrival to start your evening in style. Choose between 19 original rooms that have enormous carved beds, statement chandeliers and huge murals, or from a newer set done out in moody greys with pops of pastel colours on furniture and cushions, gold lamps and bedside tables in the shape of cotton reels.
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11. Whitworth Locke, city centre
£ | Best for solo travellers
There’s plenty to do outside of your room in this ultra-cool aparthotel. Pop down to local favourite Foundation Coffee House for a flat white, sign up for a fitness class in its Locker Gym, sip cocktails in the glass-roofed Conservatory Bar or nab a spot in its foliage-backed co-working space. A beauty and tattoo salon, Shallows, is tucked away underneath the apartments with table-service booze, coffee and food. But allow some time to lounge in your spacious blush pink apartment too — and make use of your sleek black kitchenette. In the evening, you’re just over the road from lively Canal Street, and there’s a Peruvian-inspired restaurant, Peru Perdu, downstairs.
12. Dakota Manchester, city centre
££ | Best for romantic weekends
Whisk your other half away to this sultry retreat where decor is dark and glamorous, and the lighting is atmospheric. Sip cocktails at the bar, slip into a candlelit booth for steak in its Grill restaurant, and treat yourself to fizz in its champagne room or on its heated terrace. The hotel is close to two of the city centre’s best areas for eating and drinking — Ancoats and the Northern Quarter — so allow plenty of time to explore and book in advance for popular options such as Michelin-starred Mana.
13. BrewDog DogHouse Manchester, city centre
££ | Best for craft beer fans
If the thought of having a stocked beer fridge in your shower or an in-room beer tap sound like extras you’d like in a hotel, BrewDog DogHouse Manchester could be your ideal escape. To start a stay as you mean to go on, you’ll be given a free beer on check-in and decor is beer-themed throughout — expect walls covered in crushed beer cans and drinks in playful “in case of emergency, break glass” cases. Other thoughtful extras will make you smile too, such as record players and guitars in rooms, Brompton bikes to borrow, plus free pick ’n’ mix in the corridors.
14. ABode Manchester, city centre
££ | Best for exploring
In ABode Manchester, you’ll be less than a five-minute walk from Piccadilly railway station, on the edge of the Northern Quarter, and less than ten minutes from the shops on Market Street — making this a great base if you’re looking to explore Manchester on foot. The hotel’s handsome 19th-century textile factory building still has original banisters and glazed tiles as well as characterful curved windows with alcove seating in its Enviable rooms. Happily, the building’s grade II status means rooms aren’t uniform in size but all share tasteful touches such as retro rotary dial phones, book-themed wallpaper and gleaming green glass-tiled bathrooms.
15. Malmaison Manchester, city centre
££ | SPA | Best for A grown-up retreat
Once a Victorian dolls’ hospital and before that a 19th-century cotton warehouse, Malmaison Manchester is a trusty old-timer on the Mancunian hotel scene. The reception area, with a glittering silver wall and playful neon quotes, sets the scene for a fun stay, while there’s a spa and a small gym too. The quirkiest bedrooms can be found in the original Victorian building, rather than the new extension, and a standout top-level room is the Swinging Vogue suite, which is done out with pops of bright oranges, pinks and yellows.
16. Eleven Didsbury Park, Didsbury
££ | Best for personal touches
The smaller sister property of Didsbury House Hotel, Eleven Didsbury Park is a stylish retreat in a south Manchester Victorian townhouse. Individually styled bedrooms have bold fabrics and wallpaper, cast-iron radiators and charming bathrooms with signature rolltop baths in Cosy rooms and above. Stay here to relax after a day exploring, with a book and a drink in its walled garden or in front of the fire in its lounge. For a real treat, consider the Luxe Terrace Junior Suite, which has a canopied terrace with an outdoor bathtub.
17. The Alan, city centre
££ | Best for cool interiors
Expect industrial chic interiors in this central hotel. Bedrooms have stripped-back plaster walls, its lobby floor is made of a collage of fragmented and discarded marble pieces, and there’s plenty of exposed brick throughout. There are also memorable details such as individual pieces of art on many of the bedside lampshades. Make sure you dine in its restaurant during a stay, where thoughtfully put together small plates are served as well as larger cuts of meat and fish. During the day, its public spaces are popular with remote workers.
18. Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, city centre
££ | Best for a buzzing bar
Original features in the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel’s grand terracotta building, which dates back to 1890, make it one of the best-looking hotels in the city. Its domed lobby with a 3m-tall bronze horse sets the scene for striking interiors that combine gleaming glazed tiles, soaring ceilings and panelled walls. And special extras on offer in its 270 rooms add a personal touch, such as a music concierge service to select vinyl for you, a Technogym Bench concierge service for in-room workouts, and complimentary tuck boxes. In the evening, its Refuge restaurant and public bar are buzzing spots to eat and drink.
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Additional reporting by Julie Alpine
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