Secret interiors tour of Manchester with some blogging mates?
I couldn’t get throughout the Paypal checkout fast enough.
I’ve known about these tours for a while, just never having the chance to to go on one. Finally the stars aligned, and I booked myself onto the Incredible Interiors tour.
The tour is a walking tour around the city centre of Manchester and lasts two hours. I’m not going to tell you every place we went to as that would kind of spoil it if you wanted to go on one.
One place I’ve wanted to go to for ages is the Vault in the old HSBC/Midland Bank on King Street. It is a stunning building, at 100 King Street and now houses Jamie’s Italian on the ground floor and the Gotham hotel on the floors above. The Vault is actually part of Jamie’s and is now a private dining area.
The vault has basically been kept as it was with just the addition of the dining table and chairs inside. Safe deposit boxes cover the walls. Found inside these when the bank officially closed and sold the building, were a variety of interesting things- Joy Division and New Order Master tapes, property Deeds- some of which dated back to 1935. I’d love to have been there when they were opening all the boxes that hadn’t been claimed.
Sadly I didn’t get any shots of the vault, there were a lot of people in a tiny room and the light isn’t great, there are photos online though so if I’ve piqued your curiosity then do have a look.
Just having the time to stop and appreciate the surroundings, outside and inside. Bliss!
Jonathan Schofield is the brains behind the tour and he runs many others. His knowledge is so in-depth about the history, myths and legends of Manchester, that I felt I could’ve asked him anything on the subject and he’d know the answer.
It felt like such a treat to be taken into these spaces with someone who knows what they’re talking about. Even more so to be on the tour with my interior blogger buddies. We geeked out a lot as you can imagine, and we barely stopped talking.
Find out more about these fantastic tours here. There’s loads of different ones to choose from.
Huge thanks to my Manchester blogger buddies Kimberly, Karen, Antonia, Karen and out honorary member for the day Emily.
susan earlam ~ horror author 
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