Imperial Hotel

The Imperial Hotel is a hotel built between 1866 and 1867 by the architects Clegg and Knowles from Manchester, with a wing added in 1875 by Mangnall and Littlewood, and a further extension on the north side in 1904 by J D Broadbent. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and features hipped slate roofs. It has a U-shaped plan with wings that recede. The front block and south wing are designed in a restrained French Renaissance style, while the 1904 extension exhibits a free Baroque style. The hotel stands four storeys high with an attic, originally symmetrical, and features a central square tower at attic level. The centre bay and wings are slightly stepped forward, with canted four-storey bays in the wings. The eaves cornice is supported by brackets. The entrance porch, likely added in 1904, is designed in the Corinthian order. Above the porch, there are three windows on each floor, vertically integrated within a continuous stone architrave that is interrupted by the eaves cornice. The window heads are slightly arched on the first and second floors and round-headed on the third and attic floors. Other windows have stone archivolts and keystones; the ground and second-floor windows are round-headed, while the others are segmental stilted, with some variations in the treatment of the canted bays. Some windows are sashes. The north extension from 1904 features stone-coloured terracotta dressings, stands three storeys tall with an attic in a mansard roof, and includes a large single-storey pavilion that projects forward. Notable features of this wing include a porch with two orders and a turret entirely clad in terracotta, topped with a small lead dome. The interior includes an entrance hall (which has been altered) with Corinthian pilasters and columns, a saloon decorated in the Louis XV style, and a large dining room featuring colonnades and a coved ceiling.