In 1862, a century before The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do, construction began on one of the most swoon-worthy buildings still standing in the Fab Four’s home city, Liverpool. Fashioned with sandstone and granite, it features Corinthian-style columns, allegorical statues, and a soaring clock tower topped with a pyramidal spire. Once you climb the steps into the building’s lobby, greeting the top-hatted doorman as you pass, the good-looking features continue to unfurl.
A Dazzling Transformation
While Liverpool has several hotels with attractive facades, few interiors rival the Palm Court of The Municipal Hotel & Spa, the first UK opening of Accor’s MGallery collection. As I enter the Instagram-perfect atrium from the reception, sunshine pours through the skylight onto potted palm trees, and cocktails are being shaken at the tile-clad bar. There are echoes of colonial-era Singapore, though the ceiling fans are dormant now, but I can imagine them whirring in summer. Yet enough clues reveal the real location, from the mostly Scouse accents of the convivial staff to the wall etching of a liver bird, the symbolic mythical emblem seen across this Merseyside city.
Remarkably, some of the original design flair was covered up or neglected for much of this building’s history. For over 150 years, this place served as the central administrative hub of the Liverpool Corporation and its successor, Liverpool City Council, whose cash-strapped fortunes led to the sale of this and other prized buildings in the past decade. A £140 million ($264m) restoration project under new owners reconfigured the layout, with Palm Court mushrooming in the erstwhile public area, where Liverpudlians once paid bills and dealt with council matters.
Guest Rooms and Suites
Now residents and guests enjoy eating, drinking, mingling, and admiring the building’s grand wooden beams, stucco ceilings, and ribbed metal radiators from the Victorian period. Quieter side lounges are furnished with colourful velvet chairs and sofas, portraits from bygone days, books, and objets d’art. Elsewhere in this city-centre building, there are 179 guest rooms and suites spanning several categories, from 18sqm Classic doubles to the Presidential Suite sprawling over 62sqm in the mayor’s old office, which features a copper bathtub and an emperor-size bed.
We stayed in a Superior room (No.284), compact but sufficiently spacious, aided by double-height ceilings. It is M-shaped, with an ensuite bathroom in the middle containing a toilet and walk-in shower with Culti products. The room has a tall, slim wardrobe with a side shelf holding a kettle, teas, and biscuits. A coffee pod machine rests on a desk facing the queen bed backed by a nice Arts and Crafts-style floral head. Other decorative additions, such as sketches of city landmarks, grace the rooms and corridors, which are noticeably wider than in your average hotel.
Spa and Dining Experiences
While Liverpool has myriad attractions to draw you outside, the hotel offers in-house temptations. On the lower ground floor, past a selection of meeting rooms, there’s a spa where you can book treatments or buy a pass — a steep $94 (£50) per guest — to access facilities including a heated 16m pool, sauna, and steam room. There is at least a free-to-use gym with cardio and weights equipment.
This may come in handy if you’ve indulged at the hotel’s eateries. Afternoon tea is a speciality at the Botanic Tea Room, and Seaforth offers breakfast (buffet and cooked choices), then a series of set and a la carte menus throughout the day. Palm Court is an arresting backdrop as we take a seat at Seaforth for our Friday evening dinner, when a live band performs pop cover songs by the piano.
We’re here at the onset of northern spring, and there’s a new menu to mark this change in season, with heartier winter dishes replaced with lighter, subtler ones. Seaforth’s chefs source ingredients from a raft of places, from the North of England to more far-flung destinations Liverpudlian mariners would have sailed to in centuries past.
Dinner Highlights
Our starters whisk us to the Far East — crispy duck salad — and the Mediterranean, with truffle honey burrata and tomatoes looking and tasting so fresh it’s as if they’d just been teleported from Italy. For mains, we’re back in Asia (miso black cod) and England (breast of Lake District lamb). The latter has a neat local touch, with its accompanying croquette filled with a portion of scouse, a traditional Liverpudlian beef stew. This dish pairs well with our red wine — a blend of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, and malbec from South Africa’s Western Cape.
For dessert, we pick the creme brulee and the spiced apple cheesecake, which earns top marks for flavour and presentation (the white chocolate topping is shaded green and shaped like an apple). Overall, we have really enjoyed the meal, the service, and the exotic setting. A three-course a la carte dinner for two, with drinks, might cost as much as your room — the bill could exceed $200 — although the $49 (£26) three-course pre-theatre set menu (per person) is a more wallet-friendly alternative.
Seaforth is definitely worth considering, whether you’re staying overnight at this hotel or elsewhere in the city. We’re in high spirits when we step outside, wished a good evening by the top-hatted doorman. As ever, Liverpool is buzzing. There are nightlife possibilities in all directions, including the nearby Cavern Quarter, where a convincing Beatles tribute band will soon be belting out Love Me Do and other Fab Four classics.
Fact File
- Rooms at the MGallery Municipal Hotel & Spa are priced from around £93 ($175) per night, although expect to pay more at weekends and when major sports events and concerts are taking place in Liverpool. To book a room or a table at Seaforth, see municipalhotelliverpool.com.
- For more information on visiting Liverpool and Britain, see visitliverpool.com and visitbritain.com.
