Historic bank to become Liverpool’s first five-star hotel

Designed by architect Herbert James Rowse and completed in 1932, the Martins Bank building is considered to be among the finest neo-classical buildings in England and was even the secret home to much of the country’s gold reserve during WWII in order to hide it from a feared Nazi invasion.

Martin's Bank is one of the finest neo-classical buildings in England Starwood-owned hotel and leisure group Principal Hayley Group are investing £50million to see the Grade II-listed property on Water Street transformed into a luxury hotel with a spa, bar and fine dining restaurant. Work will start on the impressive art-deco building this year and the five-star property is due to open in 2017 or 2018. The new hotel will feature a destination spa, two restaurants, three bars and events space. The conversion will see a number of the bank’s original features retained, with the tellers’ counter and the original writing desks se to be kept.

Classical interior Principal Hayley Group has said that the development will create 200 long-term jobs and roughly 350 construction jobs over the next two years. Tony Troy, CEO of the Principal Hayley Group, said, “The Martins Bank building provides us with a strategically important presence in the heart of the Liverpool market, where there is a clear consumer need for a full-service luxury hotel and events space.Liverpool's astonishing transformation over the last decade has seen it become one of Europe's most important exhibition and convention centres as well as one of the most visited cities by tourists. Our development will become the jewel in the crown of Liverpool's hotel offering.” We are delighted to be working in partnership with the city to bring this plan to fruition and we will be working very closely with heritage experts to ensure our conversion of the building is sympathetic to its unique historic and architectural features.”

Exterior from Water Street