Manchester, United Kingdom

Oddfellows on the Park

Price per night from$164.55

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP129.38), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Tongue in chic

Setting

Bruntwood Park life

In the Gothic Revival mansion where Manchester’s unique design hotel Oddfellows on the Park resides is a collection of short stories. Look closely to find them: flashes of Douglas tartan invoke premier resident, John Douglas; the Stud Room bar and Galloping Major restaurant recall the stay’s past life as Northern England’s most successful stud farm. A bike-chain chandelier, burlesque wallpaper, wig-wearing taxidermy: all mini anecdotes in-waiting amid a clutch of bedrooms where your own tall tales can be spun. 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A cocktail or G&T each on arrival

Facilities

Photos Oddfellows on the Park facilities

Need to know

Rooms

22, including six suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm, but flexible, on request.

Prices

Double rooms from £155.26, including tax at 20 per cent.

More details

Rates do not usually include breakfast; options include a free ‘grab-and-go’ breakfast bag with fruit, yoghurt, juice and a pastry; a Continental buffet (£12.95 a guest); full-English (£20 a guest); and à la carte picks for a £5 supplement.

Also

The hotel’s public areas and some rooms on the ground floor are wheelchair-accessible.

At the hotel

Lounge, laundry and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, Roberts digital radio, Nespresso coffee machine, kettle, minibar, free bottled water and T London bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The Bridle Suite (a punny nod to the hotel’s horse-y past) is an impressive three storeys; intended for newlyweds and newly loved-up couples alike, the suite’s burlesque-themed wallpaper, which depicts ingenues swinging from chandeliers, may give you a few ideas… The Playground Suites live up to their fun-promising name with mod four-posters and freestanding bath tubs in full view of the bed, and if you want somewhere especially cosy, opt for a Club Plus Room, tucked snugly into the eaves.

Packing tips

A whimsical wardrobe to rival the hotel’s decor. Bike-safety gear will come in handy for the BMX track, and wellies for countryside rambles.

Also

The hotel’s quirky style was honed by the fittingly named SpaceInvader design studio; they hung lacy swans from the restaurant ceiling, styled mounted deer heads with wigs and commissioned portraits of well-dressed animals to be hung in the spa and bar.

Children

Over-8s are welcome. An extra bed (for under-12s) can be added to the Club Plus Rooms for £35 a night. There’s lots to entertain little ones in the surrounding parkland.

Food and Drink

Photos Oddfellows on the Park food and drink

Top Table

One of the window seats lets you look out into the park and into the bustling kitchen. If you’re travelling in a group, book the large feasting table in the shadow of the ballroom’s fireplace.

Dress Code

Dress as festively as an Easter bonnet.

Hotel restaurant

The hotel’s former ballroom provides an elegant setting for the Galloping Major Restaurant. The tracery on the exquisite, ornate original ceiling is copied in the menu design; the superlative Brit fare within (lamb loin with Jersey new potatoes, pork belly with Scottish langoustines and broad beans) would undoubtedly please the eatery’s namesake, handlebar-moustache-sporting, horse-breeding major. Ingredients such as nettle and garlic are usually foraged that day in the surrounding parkland, and bread is made on-site. A lavish afternoon tea is also served here.

Hotel bar

The hotel’s wine list has more than 180 picks and 33 varieties of champagne – a good excuse to toast your holiday, your room, the park, anything really… The hotel hits its stride in the superb cocktail menu, which has al manner of martinis, classic libations and signature drinks of tequila with fig liqueur (A Fine Figure); and Buffalo Trace bourbon with rhubarb, pear and ginger (What a Pear).

Last orders

Breakfast is laid out from 7.30am to 9.30am; lunch is served from noon to 2.30pm, dinner from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. Sunday servings run a little later. Drinks are poured in the Stud Bar till 11pm.

Location

Photos Oddfellows on the Park location
Address
Oddfellows on the Park
Bruntwood Hall
Cheadle
SK8 1HZ
United Kingdom

The eponymous park Oddfellows rests in is Bruntwood, a serene, green family-friendly space, a 30-minute drive south of central Manchester. The shops, cafés and pubs of historic village Cheadle are a 10-minute drive away.

Planes

Manchester Airport is just a 14-minute drive from Oddfellows; direct flights arrive from London and major cities throughout Europe. Flights from the US stopover in Iceland or Ireland. London Heathrow and Gatwick are both around a three-hour drive away. The Smith24 Team can help with booking international or domestic flights and transfers.

Trains

Northern Rail and TransPennine Express services arrive from major English and Scottish cities at Manchester Airport station, a 15-minute drive from the hotel.

Automobiles

Manchester is a city you can easily explore on foot. However, Oddfellows’ out-of-town location makes hiring a car worthwhile, especially since the Peak District National Park is just a 30-minute drive away.

Worth getting out of bed for

The beauty of Oddfellows' location is its balance of country and city; so mice of all provenance will be happy. Wander through Bruntwood Park: 100 acres of mature trees, lakes and manicured gardens. Putt about on Cheadle Golf Club’s pitch, take an archery lesson, and if you have the requisite helmet, borrow one of the hotel's two bikes (free, but on a first-come-first-served basis) and hit the BMX racetrack. Longer, lovelier bike and hike trails can be found in the Peak District National Park, a 30-minute drive away. However, the action is centred in Manchester, the energetic everyman of a historic yet youthfully-minded city. Shop and spa in the Spinningfields district and Intu Trafford Centre; walk the hallowed halls of Gothic John Rylands library and 17th-century Harry Potter-set lookalike Chetham’s; and pay deference at the mothership of football, Old Trafford (a 15-minute drive from the city centre). Manchester Art Gallery has gathered collections as diverse as Japanese wabi-sabi trinkets and English slipware; it has an apiary on its roof, too. For pop-up screenings, talks, gig nights and gallery private views, head to the colourful Northern Quarter, home to some of the city’s finest vinyl stores, such as Piccadilly Records and Vinyl Exchange, both on Oldham Street.

Local restaurants

Cheadle’s dining scene can’t rival Manchester’s, but there are plenty of places to pitch up at for hearty pub grub. The John Millington serves piled-high plates in a vaulted, beamed dining space, and The March Hare has generous roasts and stone-baked pizzas in a cosy fire-warmed setting.

Whether you have a WAG’s credit limit or not, Manchester’s array of eateries is exemplary. The finest of dining is found at Adam Reid at the French; here the Great British Menu finalist has devised six- and nine-course tasting menus with dishes such as rhubarb-and-custard tart and sour cherry-spiked duck. See sakura all-year round at Tattu, an elegant restaurant with a cherry-blossom tree in its dining room. Its dim-sum menu (foie-gras gyoza, chicken-truffle shumai) and proximity to Spinningfields makes it a great stop-and-snack spot. Australasia impresses from the get-go with its glass-triangle entranceway, from which you descend to the dining room in a lift.

Local cafés

In Cheadle, forget-me-not-hued space Le Petit Bijou on Massie Street is warm and welcoming with great home-made cakes and bacon butties; La Cueva is a unique cave-like tapas joint for snacking pit stops. In Manchester, get your coffee fix at delightfully punny, industrial-chic cafe North Tea Power or super-cool Icelandic coffee house Takk.

Local bars

Cheadle’s nightlife isn’t limited to no-nonsense Northern boozers; it’s home to some fine examples of country pubbing. Manchester’s cool spills over into Stockport in Brezo Lounge; a jumble sale of retro chairs and thrift-store artwork for convivial gatherings. Manchester’s nightlife is legendary; the spiritual home of post-punk and Madchester, the Haçienda, may be gone, but venues such as Soup Kitchen, Kraak, The Deaf Institute and The Night and Day Café carry the torch. Big-ticket bands and singers play the Academy. If you packed trainers, hangout at the Black Dog Ballroom on Church Street or cosy, shabby-chic drinkery The Angel in the NOMA neighbourhood. If you brought high heels and brogues, nab a seat at crazy cocktail emporium The Alchemist in Spinningfields or beloved-by-bartenders The Liars Club.

Reviews

Photos Oddfellows on the Park reviews
Lauren Mahon

Anonymous review

By Lauren Mahon, Charity crusader

We couldn’t have picked a more perfect time to check into the wonderfully eccentric boutique stay Oddfellows on the Park. On this unseasonably warm weekend up north, the grounds (once home to the greatest equestrian studs in the country) were an ideal setting for soaking up some rays. But first, we were greeted with a friendly smile by Tessa on reception who – despite us being a little early – had our room ready to go. Her desk was sat beneath a grand staircase whose walls were lined with an assortment of unusual animal portraits and wig-wearing taxidermy mounts; it became immediately clear that this historical building has been restored with a sense of refined fun at its core. 

We dropped our bags and decided to make the most of the heat wave. Tessa kindly and without fuss amended our spa booking to accommodate our sunbathing and we headed to the terrace, welcome champagne in hand. We picked a spot overlooking Bruntwood Park and ordered a deli board to snack on under the last of the afternoon sun. The menu has several afternoon-tea options, plus ‘doggy treats’, such as ‘pawsecco’, should you have a canine companion. What arrived at our table was quite possibly the most moreish selection of savoury snacks we’ve encountered. A full wheel of baked brie, spicy chicken wings, mini sausages, olives and warm freshly-made bread were devoured at record speed. Not your average sharing platter for this not-so-average hotel.

What better way to walk off the finger-food feast than exploring the gorgeous grounds of Bruntwood Park? A breath of fresh spring air for the ultimate relaxation and recuperation. That is until the roar of a Boeing 747 filled the skies overhead – unfortunately, the sublime surroundings are situated beneath Manchester Airport’s flight path; but, fortunately, the verdant setting is so picturesque the noise does little to dampen its appeal. Following our stroll, we settled under the shade of an old oak tree and sipped on a glass of crisp rosé.

I wasn’t sure we’d be able to peel ourselves away, but we managed to head back to the room to spruce up for dinner. Late-afternoon sun bathed our hideaway in light through tartan-trimmed curtains, which hang proudly from large windows, punctuating high ceilings. Snuggled into a handsomely upholstered armchair, I awaited my turn in the bathroom, which, to be honest, left little to the imagination. It was contemporary in design, with a walk-in shower, vanity area and WC shielded by simply a frosted-glass door. Luckily, Mr Smith and I are extremely comfortable around each other, as this layout allows for sight, sound and, ahem, scent. Soon, it was my turn to freshen up; powerful flows of water cascaded over my bones and I wondered if it would be possible to live in this glass box of dreams.

I emerged from the bathroom feeling invigorated and find Mr Smith helping himself to free tea and coffee in his towelling robe, watching Come Dine With Me on the wall-mounted flatscreen TV. But, there’s no time to join him in sinking into the fresh cotton sheets on the king-size bed, dinner reservations were imminent and so we slipped into our best and headed to the Galloping Major restaurant for some scran. It’s housed in the hall’s original ballroom and our seats were beside the window, overlooking the grounds. The menu was bursting with the best of British produce; I ordered the lamb rump with charred lemon, Mr Smith the miso-cured tuna. Chef Ian Moss’s culinary wizardry is evident from first mouthful to last, and the opulent yet embracing atmosphere allowed us to nurse our desserts (well, multiple espresso martinis) long after our meal had ended. The perfect nightcap(s).

We rose bright and early the following morning and walked the 15 minutes into nearby village Cheadle, whose gorgeous high street has cute cafés and charity shops aplenty. After picking up an array of incredibly cool pre-loved garments and even a vintage drinks trolley (Mr Smith loves to play host), we spotted family-run eatery the Little Fish & Chip Shop Ltd. across the street, nabbed the solo table outside and placed an order for cod and chips, twice. Now, the venue is small in size, but the food was big in flavour – hands down, the best fish and chips we’d ever eaten – definitely dip in if you find yourself in Cheadle, you can thank us later.

We trotted back, bellies full, to Oddfellows for our appointment at the beauty salon, aptly named the Pigsty owing to its architectural history. In keeping with the theme, we’d opted for the Wallow In Mud treatment. We were led to the mud room, where we exfoliated with a Himalayan salt scrub, quite literally wallowed in mineral mud then sat in the sauna for 40 minutes. Emerging with soft skin and calm minds, we were ready to make the most of our king-size and catch 40 winks before our departure. While Oddfellows on the Park is unconventionally styled, its hospitality and service are luxuriously classic. It’s an odd fellow you’ll want to keep the acquaintance of – I know we will.

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Price per night from $164.55