When they opened in 2001, The Lowry Hotel set the bar as Manchester’s first five star hotel, and they’ve since earned a great reputation over their 14-year history.
The contemporary hotel, often focused on modern culture has recently taken a retrospective look, notably at their namesake L. S. Lowry, to create a series of events that explore past and present to celebrate the life and work of the iconic local painter.
L.S Lowry worked in and around the area and created thousands of paintings inspired by his surroundings. General Manager Adrian Ellis is now seeking to rekindle the link between the hotel and artist by introducing a range of innovative events that bring together art, food and history.
Keen to find out about their upcoming plans, TOM met with Ellis at the hotel’s first floor River Bar to learn more about the events in store.
So Adrian, where were you working before The Lowry Hotel?
I was in Azerbaijan previously, I was there for about three years. I was in Bali for a while, Singapore, Warsaw and Budapest. Lots of different places working at hotels around the world.
Is there anything you’ve picked up from around the world that you’ve brought back to Manchester?
Of course you try to be culturally sensitive when you’re working abroad. They are very sensitive to the local culture, so we try to bring that here. I don’t think we were very Mancunian, so we’re trying to bring in local produce and local suppliers. The hotel is called The Lowry, but we thought there was more we could do to celebrate this amazing artist and to bring a little of his life and works back to the Hotel.
So tell me about the link between L. S. Lowry and The Lowry Hotel.
It has always been called The Lowry since in opened in 2001, and one of the things I’ve been trying to do is get a much stronger connection.
We’ve got a much stronger link with The Lowry Center now. We’d also like to bring artwork back into the hotel and support local artists. We have a rotating exhibition in our gallery and some fantastic artwork at our reception.
More directly, we’ve started a weekend break. It’s a two night break which includes a two night stay here, a trip to the museum - which is amazing – and includes a taxi tour with a Lowry enthusiast to key places that inspired the paintings of L. S. Lowry. We’re going to try and point out a before and after – showing locations that inspired him, and then to show the Lowry painting of the location to compare.
Also, in September we’re going to start an afternoon tea with a guest speaker. Lowry lived and worked in this area, so I think there are lots of stories to be told.
The first afternoon tea is on the 22nd September. Michael Simpson, Director of Arts at the Lowry Centre will provide a talk about the exhibits and all about Lowry’s work. He is an expert on L.S Lowry so it’ll be a fascinating insight into his life and work.
Visitors can come and have the afternoon tea which will have L. S. Lowry inspired food as well.
So for example, Lowry was teetotal and he used to go to various Cafes and drink orange juice. So we will have a Lowry inspired afternoon tea with orange juice in little period style bottles - as well as serving tea of course.
Amongst the many temptations available for this special afternoon tea we will be serving Eccles cakes, Manchester tart and a creamy rice pudding which are local specialities and favoured treats of L.S Lowry. There will still be some more traditional items such as finger sandwiches, scones and jam and cream, but these additional cakes and treats will give another facet to the L. S. Lowry experience.
For the future we will have a Lowry inspired afternoon tea every three months and each one will have a guest speaker who in their own right are experts or enthusiasts of L.S Lowry’s work. Dates and guest speakers to be announced in the near future.
There’s a lot of exciting projects here about local history, why is this important to you?
There’s 14 years of history here. We opened in 2001, we’re under new ownership and there are a lot of new hotels opening here. We need to keep reinventing what you’re doing.
We do have a new Executive Chef that’s just started with us called Andrew Green. He’s come to the Hotel with great new ideas and we will be ready to launch new menus in the autumn. The conceptual change here will be the use of local products and bringing about a creative modern British cuisine with as much locally sourced produce as possible.
We’re very aware that if you go across that bridge into the city and walk for five minutes you have some amazing restaurants. So we need to make sure that our restaurant is of a very high standard, and that’s about introducing new flavours and a new style of cooking. We’re not just making a name for the hotel, but for our food as well.
Book your place on the L.S. Lowry afternoon tea by calling direct on 0161 827 4000 or e-mail: [email protected]
The Lowry Hotel
50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf, Manchester. M3 5LH
0161 827 4000
In association with The Lowry Hotel