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A place of refuge

OXFORD Road's most distinguished building is also arguably its most versatile. For the past 13 years or so, it has served as a top hotel for visitors to the city and locals in need of an overnight stay. Yet, in common Mancunian parlance, it's still referred to as "the Refuge."

That's because, as anyone over 30 will be well aware, for most of its life this Italianate terracotta marvel was the opulent HQ of the Refuge Assurance Company. As a young reporter, I was there on the last day of business, as the company faced up to challenges caused by the computer age and packed its bags for new offices in Wilmslow.

There were genuine tears from some employees as they said goodbye to the building - a sense, too, of the end of an era when Manchester ruled the roost as one of the great finance capitals of the world and almost 1,000 people earned their livelihoods here.

Many years on from that sad day, the city's fortunes are very much on the up again, and the building is now (after a brief incarnation as the Charterhouse) Le Meridien Palace Hotel.

It was designed, on a three-acre site, by architect Alfred Waterhouse, of Manchester Town Hall fame, and completed by his son, Paul, between 1891 and 1910, and dominates the corner of Oxford Street and Whitworth Street.

A third section was finished in 1932, designed by by Stanley Birkett, doubling the Whitworth Street façade.

For generations, the building has served young couples well, as an obvious place to meet - and catch the many buses which whiz past on their way to the university quarter and south Manchester. Its 16th-century style grandeur reflects an age in which successful commerce was synonymous with opulent buildings more akin to palaces than places of work (Lloyds Bank on King Street is another example).

The Refuge, a tall building of three storeys, with long, high windows, could have stepped out of a Grimms' fairytale, with its turrets and gables - complete with a 220ft high "campanile" clock tower. Below the tower is a covered entrance, displaying ornate wrought iron and bronze work.

To the thousands who worked there over the years, the Refuge was way ahead of its time in terms of employee facilities and what is now known as "work-life balance". It had a ballroom (now used for corporate functions). There were film shows, and, in the dark days of the Second World War, it also had an air-raid shelter.

Cash

When the Refuge company moved to pastures new in 1987, various proposals for the building were mooted. At one time, it was considered as a new home for the Hallé orchestra. Around £3m (a tiny sum by today's standards, when £1m each is commonplace for apartments in the city) was required to progress the scheme - put forward by Olympic bid supremo Bob Scott as part of something called the Phoenix Initiative. But cash wasn't forthcoming from the Thatcher government, and that was, perhaps regretfully, that.

So in the end Manchester got the Bridgewater Hall - and another de luxe hotel, which came in handy a decade or so down the line when we staged the Commonwealth Games. At first, the old Refuge building was converted to the Charterhouse (which went bust), then the Palace, and now Le Meridien Palace Hotel.

This was a refurbishment which, for once, retained the most aesthetically pleasing bits of the building - its foyer, tiles, and marble halls - while ensuring it was used as something other than a museum piece. Its 250,000 sq ft of office space were sensitively converted into bedrooms and banqueting suites. There are 58 rooms, all en suite: some have spa baths, and there is a restaurant and a coffee shop on the site.

The building is often used by TV and film companies - it famously featured in that episode of Cold Feet where David had an affair with one of his work colleagues. It is also in demand for period drama.

The Refuge (as locals still call it) is a grade two listed building of special architectural merit.