Designer/Agency: Development Company ‘Urban Splash’
Title: Midlands Hotel
Date: Re-opening June 2008
Place: Morecambe
Commissioners and Funders: Grants were obtained from the Northwest regional Development Agency and English Heritage.
The Midlands Hotel is a Grade Two listed Art Deco building in the seaside resort of Morecambe. Architect Oliver Hill in 1933 was commissioned by The London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company ‘to make a building of international quality in the modern style’. Hill’s vision was the unity of architecture and decoration. He commissioned artists Eric Gill and Eric Ravilious to create interior carvings and wall paintings, some of which are still there today. A crowd of 500 people arrived at the hotel the day it opened in 1933 even though there was no official public ceremony. Lord Clonmore wrote in the Architectural Review that same year that the Midland was:
"in complete harmony with its natural surroundings…it rises from the sea like a great white ship, gracefully curved."
By the mid 1990’s the hotel was in rapid decline and desperate need of repair. This led to the formation of the Friends of the Midlands Hotel Action Group, who in subsequent years campaigned for the hotel’s future, fighting councillor demolition recommendations and securing the integrity of architect Oliver Hill’s original concepts. After various campaigns development company Urban Splash bought the hotel. The ‘friends’ have a good relationship with Urban Splash and are pleased with the regeneration plans. Urban Splash believes it is necessary to achieve a balance between preservation and the Midland Hotel having to meet the needs of a modern market. Thus the ground floor will be restored as closely as possible to the original but the bedrooms (much altered in the 1970's) will be brought up to the standard expected by 21st Century guests. Original artworks will be preserved.
The City Council is now working on a development plan for the area which is likely to include new artworks, public open space/gardens and a mixture of buildings for leisure and possibly residential use.
"We met Olivier Delaunoy, Operations Director for Urban Splash Hotels, who conveyed his genuine excitement and commitment to the building and their restoration. He told us if it had been left for a year longer it would have been destroyed forever due to 1m of salt water in the basement damaging the foundations. The artworks by Eric Gill remain and have been restored - only the map relief of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District had to be moved, as a section of wall, to make the spaces work for the new hotel. Olivier speaks about added value through quality design, the hotel bedrooms will be furnished from 18 different sets of furniture that will be available to purchase, showing they know not only how to respect and work with the design history of the Midland, but also how to appeal to their earmarked market."