Velvet
Style Fringed with frivolity
Setting Buzzing by the canal
Velvet hotel is a decadently camp boudoir-styled boutique hotel with a central setting on Manchester’s Canal Street. This old textile mill has a whole series of indulgent interiors – each room is individually designed with epic beds (including sleigh ones fit for Santa), graphic wallhangings (bordering on S&M, but settling for gently erotic) and statement chandeliers. They’ve taken a liking to exposed brickwork and wooden ceilings, and, in some rooms, huge square baths.
Need to know
- Rooms 19, including three suites.
- Rates Double rooms from $129.20 (£82), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
- More details Rates exclude breakfast (£9.50 each for Continental, £13.50 for full English).
- Facilities Free WiFi throughout, DVD library, off-site gym (five minutes away). In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player, iPod dock, Hypnos mattress and Ren bath products.
- Check-out 11am but flexible until 1pm for £10 per hour. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
- Children A bit lively for families, this hotel is better suited to couples.
Food and drink at Velvet
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Hotel restaurant
The Velvet restaurant existed when the hotel was just an apple in the old textile mill’s eye. It spills out onto a canal-facing terrace, which gets lively in the summer. Inside, you have to step over a glass fish tank at the top of the stairs to enter. It’s open for modern Mediterranean food right up until 10pm. You can expect dishes such as spicy prawn risotto, seabass and Asian greens with chilli and soy sauce, and crispy pork belly with black pudding mash. -
Dress code
A hint of Moulin Rouge, but leave the PVC for the ones who know how to do it best. -
Top table
The street-side tables by the canal for a steady stream of people to watch. -
Last orders
10pm for food, 12.30am for drinks (2am on Fridays and Saturdays). -
Room service
Pick from the full menu until 10pm, then an abridged version is available through the night. -
Hotel bar
The opulent bar has exposed brickwork, plum-coloured walls, gilded mirrors and a hint of bordello in its decor. It’s liveliest on Friday and Saturday nights. There are two house cocktails – the Velvetini (vodka, dry Martini, crème de cacao and chocolate sauce) and Velvet Sensation (Baileys, Amaretto, Tia Maria, vodka, milk and cream).
Velvet 2 Canal Street, Manchester, M1 3HE
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Smith extra at Velvet
Two glasses of sparkling wine on arrival
In the know
Our favourite rooms
The split-level penthouse suites are like your own mini apartment – equipped with a dining table (and filled fruit bowl), sofas, a spiral staircase leading up to a bed-filled space and an extra loo. The hunter-inspired Room 25 is a private country cabin in the middle of Manchester – checked wallpaper, wooden ceilings and a vast wooden bed. Room 32 feels like a Victorian garret, with sloping electric windows, Victoriana wallpaper and a painting of ill-fated poet, Thomas Chatterton. If you’re planning on joining in with the revellers downstairs, book a third-floor room with its own terrace overlooking the activity by the canal.
Packing tips
Colourful glad rags – you’re in the flamboyant gay quarter.
Also
Spa treatments are available either in rooms or in the local spa, 10 minutes down the road.
From the Guestbook…
We waited months before a room became available at Velvet and it was absolutely worth every minute! We stayed in a stunning balcony room, which was larger than expected with a huge...
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