The Titanic hotel in Liverpool is a dazzling mix of history and style in a Liverpool docks warehouse.
Occupying the Rum Warehouse, a giant brick Victorian creation in Stanley Dock on the River Mersey, the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool makes the most of its grandiose setting – one of the world’s biggest brick buildings.
It opened in 2014, the sister hotel of the Titanic in Belfast. It started out as a lone outpost of civilisation in dilapidated docks a 20-minute walk north of the main riverside hub where the modernistic Liverpool Museum gives way to Albert Dock and attractions such as the Beatles Story.
Now, though, it is becoming a hub itself, Everton’s new football ground just a little farther, and connected to town by the Ten Streets cultural district.
It’s also a destination with a trendy waterside bar and restaurant attracting far more than the people staying in the giant rooms with views of the river and sea.
Who For?
The Titanic hotel in Liverpool attracts all sorts, from bright young things who love the real-life industrial chic – cast iron pillars, lofty metal-framed windows and shipshape décor – to more traditional visitors who appreciate staying in an edifice that would normally be suited to a museum or National Trust attraction. The hotel is a museum in itself, filled with posters, photos and memorabilia linked to the White Star Line, the Titanic operators later to become Cunard with an ornate waterside building a mile away.
Accommodation
The 153 rooms are like no ordinary hotel room, fitting themselves around the heavy metal fixtures and fittings of a century and more ago.
And they’re big, with vaulted brick ceilings, extending on either side from a wide, low-lit corridor that passes down the centre of the warehouse of each floor. Exposed brickwork mixes with richly-coloured fabrics, large beds, furniture that doesn’t dominate the space, TV with Sky and BT sports, tea and coffee-making facilities and free Wi-Fi. The bathrooms are suitably big and stylish too.
Facilities
The spa, Maya Blue Wellness, is one of the most beautiful you’ll find, a subterranean cocoon, dark and soothing; it’s big but disappears amid red brick arches with subtle up-lighting. The thermal suite has a hydrotherapy pool with overhead sprays, foot baths, a shower with varied sprays, a relaxation area with beds, a bean bag area and a tea garden. Open only for hotel guests (£20, 8-10am and 6-8pm). Between those times it’s for the use of guests booked into the 10 treatment rooms for massages, facials and other treats. A gym is open to all guests.
A restored 1950s area at the rear, called the Rum Warehouse, can hold 500 guests for weddings and other events.
A private car park in the cobbled yard outside the front door (£8/24 hours) has electric charging points. Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel.
Food and Drink
The moment you walk into reception you are in the heart of history. The lofty, open-plan space gives views right through the width of the warehouse and through the glass walls across the dock basin to Tobacco Warehouse, the world’s biggest brick building, now being turned into apartments, shops and galleries by the hotel’s owners.
The Rum Bar makes the most of these views, from the comfy sofas as well as tables on the Colonnade, a veranda above the newly-renovated mooring that welcomes pleasure craft that has emerged from the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It’s an all-day place to enjoy a coffee or to sample rums from around the Caribbean.
A secluded space is the Lanson Lounge, full of black and white Titanic photos, even a hefty Titanic model in a glass case. It’s a quieter spot, with twin TVs silently showing live football matches.
Through an opening from the Rum Bar is Stanley’s Bar and Grill, a continuation in style – iron pillars, brick ceilings, timber floor – down the length of the building. The food is stylishly-served Brit favourites – rump steak, fish and chips, and salmon. This is also the room for breakfast, and for afternoon tea, with the option of prosecco or Champagne. A bar area has a number of stools.
How Much?
Doubles from £99, room only. Breakfast £14pp.
What’s Nearby?
By summer 2024 Everton’s new stadium, five minutes’ walk away, will be at the centre of a shopping and restaurant district. Four miles north is Crosby Coastal Park, grass, lakes and a long beach, home to sculptor Antony Gormley’s Another Place, 100 cast iron male figures stretching more than a mile along the estuary.
Head south and it’s towards town through the upcoming Ten Streets area where bars, restaurants and venues are springing up in smaller warehouses. It’s an easy walk with huge dockyard walls on your right down to the Pier Head riverfront of the Three Graces… the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building and Port of Liverpool building. There’s Liverpool Museum and Albert Dock, yet more waterfront wonders turned into entertainment and shopping spots, and all the joys of the city centre.
VERDICT: The Titanic Hotel in Liverpool is extraordinary to look at and extraordinary to be in; to stay there is a step above even that. It’s a piece of history that has been turned into a hotel in the most stylish way imaginable.
