Kimpton Clocktower Hotel

The first phase of this Grade II* listed red brick and terracotta building was designed for the Refuge Assurance Company by Alfred Waterhouse and built 1891–1895.[2] The inside was of Burmantofts faience and glazed brick. The ground floor was one enormous open business hall.[3] It was extended, with a striking 217-foot (66 m) tower, along Oxford Street by his son Paul Waterhouse in 1910–1912.[2] It was further extended along Whitworth Street by Stanley Birkett in 1932.[3]

After occupying the building as offices for nearly a century, the Refuge Assurance Company moved to the grounds of Fulshaw Hall, Cheshire on Friday 6 November 1987. The Refuge Assurance company had discussed converting the building into a new home for the Hallé Orchestra with one of Manchester's cultural patrons Sir Bob Scott for over a year. The £3 million funding required for the project did not materialise and the Halle subsequently moved from the Free Trade Hall to the new Bridgewater Hall upon opening in 1996.[4] Local architecture critic John Parkinson-Bailey noted that "one of the most prestigious and expensive buildings in Manchester lay forlorn and empty except for a caretaker and the ghost on its staircase".[4]

The massive structure was converted to a hotel by Richard Newman in 1996 at a cost of £7 million, and was named the Palace Hotel, owned and operated by the Principal Hotel Company.[5] Principal Hotels was sold to Nomura International Plc in 2001,[6] and they rebranded the hotel as Le Méridien Palace Manchester. When Le Méridien Hotels faced financial difficulties,[7] the hotel was bought back by a reconstituted Principal Hotels in 2004[8] and again renamed the Palace Hotel. When Principal Hotels decided to brand all their hotels with their corporate name, the hotel was renamed The Principal Manchester, in November 2016.[9]

In May 2018, the hotel was sold to the InterContinental Hotels Group.[10] It was announced in February 2020[11] that the hotel would be renamed the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in March; as part of InterContinental Hotels Group's Kimpton Hotels brand. However, the hotel was forced to close before the renaming, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[12] It reopened under the Kimpton name on October 1, 2020.[13]

The hotel is purported to be haunted.[14]