Manchester, United Kingdom

The Alan

Price per night from$97.43

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP77.20), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Alan Photos

Style

Northern Soul

Setting

Pride of Princess Street

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Like your coolest twang-tongued pal, the Alan is defiantly unpretentious without sacrificing on style, hyper-local though not parochial and handsome in that rugged round the edges (but polished where it counts) way. The building’s industrial past life as a cotton warehouse is proudly paraded through exposed plaster walls, pastel-painted ceiling ducts and a whole load of chunky brick and concrete. Taupe and terrazzo define the open-house ground floor, where a makers table hosts workshops with local producers, the resident coworking crowd fuel up on Ancoats coffee and sustainably-sourced sharing plates before a generously long happy hour of Cumbrae oysters and Telmont champagne illuminates the afternoon.

Smith Extra

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A welcome drink each

Facilities

Photos The Alan facilities

Need to know

Rooms

137, including seven suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast, which can be purchased at the hotel for £17 per guest.

Also

Listen up, art connoisseurs; in the lobby, you’ll find a projector showcasing a rotation of artworks from young up-and-comers of the Manchester School of Art, alongside a rota of creative workshops with local producers.

At the hotel

Open-plan co-working space, creative workshops, bar and restaurant, free Wifi throughout. In rooms: TV, Bluetooth speaker system, clothes steamer, free bottled water, Soak Superfood Skincare bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The retro-feel Original rooms are ideal for those on a budget, though aesthetes looking to splurge should opt for one of the newly re-designed rooms on the lower floors, each with hand-painted touches, baby pink bathroom sinks, exposed plaster walls and to-die-for light fixtures, courtesy of local artist Mika Kaski, all of which are made from discarded marble found in derelict buildings around the city. The Alan Suites, in particular, are spacious, city-gazing retreats with plenty of natural light, a cosy sitting area and unique bronze and marble wetrooms.

Packing tips

Bring a sketchbook for when inspiration strikes – and it's bound to – surrounded as you are by the work of local artists and sky-high stacks of Aesthetica magazines.

Also

The hotel is wheelchair accessible, with vibrating pillow alarms and assistive listening systems available upon request.

Children

Little Smiths are welcome.

Sustainability efforts

Food miles? Not here. The Alan works with local farmers, growers, suppliers, and producers to limit their carbon impact.

Food and Drink

Photos The Alan food and drink

Top Table

Take a seat of the chef’s rounded resin counter for an interactive dining experience with an industrial edge.

Dress Code

Luxe loungewear by day; disco fever by night.

Hotel restaurant

Head chef Marika Healey has a thing for all things seasonal and sustainable. In her best-of-British menu, you’ll find meats from north-west farmers served with locally grown veggies and herbs. Sharing plates allow for a taste of everything with caramelised onion and butterbean hummus, Nduja king prawns and grilled asparagus drizzled with chorizo hollandaise. But if you’re in the market for a main, the signature sirloin steak is a must. Round things off with delightfully nostalgic sweet treats like sticky toffee pudding washed down with a pumpkin spice espresso martini.  

Hotel bar

Cool as a gin submerged cucumber, the bar operates as a co-working space by day and a sexy saloon come night, where a who's who of Manchester’s creative scene can be spotted drinking crystal-clear Daiquiris. Join them for a generously long happy hour where a cheap-as-chips combo of Cumrae Oysters and Telmot Champagne is rolled out each day between 3.30pm to 6.30pm. At the weekend, resident DJs spin deep and dreamy house tracks while the bar pours local craft beers (like Pomona Island and Cloudwater Brew Co) and pops the cork on indie grapes. Ask for the signature highball cocktail, the Alan, made from Fable blended malt Scotch whisky, camomile syrup, supasawa, apple juice and soda.

Last orders

Breakfast runs from 7am to 11am; lunch from 12pm to 4pm and dinner from 5pm to 9.45pm. The bar keeps on mixing until 11pm.

Room service

Have anything from the menu delivered to your room between noon and 9.45pm.

Location

Photos The Alan location
Address
The Alan
18 Princess Street
Manchester
M1 4LG
United Kingdom

Squarely central, the Alan is a short stroll away from Manchester’s main shopping zones, must-see historical landmarks and the vibrant mini-districts of Canal Street and the Northern Quarter.

Planes

Manchester airport is a 30-minute drive away and is served by most of the main carriers.

Trains

Manchester Piccadilly station is a ten-minute walk from the Alan’s front door, with connections to all major cities in the UK.

Automobiles

The hotel partners with Q-Park Piazza in neighbouring St James Street, where guests will receive a 25 per cent discount.

Worth getting out of bed for

The hotel is well placed for all manner of Madchester escapades; earn yourself some cultural kudos across the road at Manchester Art Gallery, a neo-Grecian building known for its impressive collection of Pre-Raphaelite works. Next, trot your tote bag down to the cluster of local libraries; start with the Victorian Gothic John Rylands Library, follow up with the picturesque Portico Library and finish at Chetham's, the oldest surviving English-speaking library in the world, founded in 1653. Make bubble tea and karaoke a priority when passing through neighbouring China Town, where neon-lit rooms set the stage for fizz fuelled ballad-belting. Catch a drag show along Manchester’s famously fabulous Canal Street, or a gritty art-house drama at Home, a four-storey hub of contemporary theatre, film, art and music. Deep-dive into the city’s musical legacy on a two-hour walking tour where you’ll retrace the Hacienda high jinks, shoe-gaze among Salford Lads Club’s Smiths archive and get boisterous at the Boardwalk, the debut venue of Manchester’s famously feuding fratelli.

Local restaurants

Blink and you’ll miss the Sparrows, a lone doorway perched on the side of an unassuming railway arch. Specialising in European spätzle, the menu is a check-list of comforting carbs; ribbons of pasta, homemade dumplings and delightfully doughy gnocchi balls. Less inconspicuous, there’s Six by Nico. Founded by acclaimed Scottish-Italian chef Nico Simeone, the restaurant has taken the UK by storm in recent years with its unique – though surprisingly simple – dining concept; a six-course tasting menu that changes every six weeks. Manchester’s offering is a moody melange of parquet floors, dark marble walls and atmospheric antique lighting.

Local cafés

With pink custard floors, oddly angular furniture and hanging cloud lights, Siop Shop feels more like Springfield than Manchester; come here for Insta-opps, melt-in-your-mouth donuts and artisan pours. Elsewhere in the trendy Northern Quarter, you’ll find Mancunian institution Night and Day Cafe. Better known as a bar and live music venue, come morning, they’ll rustle you up a proper Northern breakfast.

Local bars

Head to Ancoats-based natural wine bar Erst for laid back grapes and small plates. Run by a small group of friends, the pairing of low-intervention wines and industrial-but-intimate atmosphere is a triumph. For the bookish among you, Schofields is the place to be, an old-world joint where you can sip cocktails inspired, and surrounded by, classic titles – have a mojito with Hemingway or sip whiskey sours alongside Dorothy Parker.

Reviews

Photos The Alan reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this inventively industrial hotel in the heart of the rainy city and unpacked their Ancoats coffee beans and Factory Records rarities, a full account of their wondrous warehouse break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Alan in Manchester…


What do you get when you cross a six-storey industrial warehouse with an inventory of discarded marble and a few great minds? Enter the Alan; a stylishly self-assured hotel fast becoming the chief creative hub for Manchester’s movers and shakers. With the help of Red Deer architects and Int Marble, the original features of this ex-cotton warehouse have been lovingly incorporated into its design, which re-uses material off-cuts to create an agile, elegant and waste-conscious space; a dolly mixture of blush pink, sage green and taupe tones are matched by recycled terrazzo floors, while hardened heritage details like ceiling ducts and exposed pitted stonework are softened by cocooning velvet curves. It should come as no surprise that the crowd here is decidedly hip – across the mixed-use ground floor, you’ll find the work of local artists projected onto brick, a makers table hosting a rotation of crafty workshops with the city’s local producers and plenty of co-working space in the bar where it’s artisan coffee by day and DJ decks come nightfall. In rooms, hand-painted light fixtures, sculptural vanity units and baby pink sinks will leave bon viveurs swooning, at least until dinner, when the restaurant plays its trump card – a desert menu of elevated arctic rolls and homemade Snickers to satisfy your inner child.

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