Principal (former Refuge Assurance/Palace Hotel) - Basement Goodies
Originally the Refuge Assurance Building, this place will always be the Palace Hotel to many of us ♥
What a playground it's been over the years, some of us actually managed to make it past the bar and wear the t-shirt
Back in the day I always wanted the clock tower after seeing pics from when Scott first bossed it
After many a failed trip here, I remember Sneak making it a personal mission night and day with no luck to eventually get up here
Soon after we took advantage of a right faff of a way up and was as chuffed as a puff with a bag of dicks stood up that tower looking out
Dem good old day's
Credit where it's due, even if you knew where the knives were I could never make good use of them, I'm sure one day Mr B. will enlighten us!
Over the years I've lost count of the times I've spent poking about the Palace, we've had birthday parties and all manner of goonage go off here
As far as buildings go in Manchester it's architecturally top of the pops
The views aren't bad either looking out from the top of the 66m tower
Sadly the iconic Neon's have now been taken down and replaced with LED's that now read 'Principal'
That's right, besides a £25m overhaul, the building has been subject to cultural vandalism as the southern branch of brainless marketing fuckwits decided that "rebranding" is the future, not bothered about a century's worth of Heritage then!
Might as well have named it 'Al-Bilal Palace Hotel' as suggested by some dis-gruntled heads who objected at the time
The old 'Palace' lettering can now be found abandoned below the clock tower, marking the end of an era
Often with Manchester the only way is up; but take a stroll downstairs in these places so to speak and there is always a fair bit of decent shizzle still to be had
In summary and before the impending tours re-invent the wheel, here are a few pics from behind the scenes from some time ago when me and @Bolts went for a mooch
Excuse the crappy phone pics as simply not had chance to nip back with the slr...
The place is an absolute maze, with endless corridors and stairs serving both basement and sub-basement levels, most of which still very much in use and quite lively so we had to duck, dive & dodge staff as they came and went about their business
Down in the sub-basement can be found remains of what was once an air-raid shelter used during WW2
Now crammed with utilities in parts and filled with all manner of junk in others, you could spend hours here just sifting through half that crap alone
The "Grand Room"
Finding a decent quality old photatoe as poor as my present day iBone special was a challenge
(If anyone can stump up a decent sized B&W of this lot, holler)
..Meanwhile
Today it's a glittering event/ballroom location and the largest single hotel event space in the North West, with room for +1,000 people
An absolute parcel of a pic looking out from back stage, sorry!
Just when you'd be forgiven for being done with this place, it just keeps giving; tucked away in the sub-basement are some ancient vaults
I mean for starters, just look at this art decor staircase leading down to them
Down another staircase and through an iron gate one enters the vaults
Situated within, are a number of large red bespoke fire proof safes
Similar safes can be seen as "mock up's" on the second floor of the Hotel, which are easily viewable to the casual tourist and paying hotel guest
..along with strong rooms
CYA
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