After a three-year delay, members’ club Soho House finally opens in Manchester this month – taking over three floors of the former Granada TV studios in the city centre, complete with a heated all-weather rooftop pool.
Originally announced in 2021 with an initial opening set for the next year, Soho House Manchester is the first branch in the north of the UK from a group that now has 40 ‘houses’ around the world, with Tokyo, Milan and Madrid the next in line to open. Founder Nick Jones launched the first in Greek Street, Soho in 1995, pitched to a clientele of ‘creatives’.
Soho House Manchester’s main restaurant is the Drawing Room on the eighth floor. Other facilities include the more casual Home Kitchen, a late-night bar and live music space overlooking the pool, an events space, gym, steamroom and sauna, 23 bedrooms and a two-bedroom private apartment.
Next month sees the opening of Mollie’s Motel from the same group, but open to non-members, with 128 budget hotel rooms and a US-style diner serving what is billed as ‘elevated comfort food’. It is the third Mollie’s Motel but the first in a city centre: the first two branches are roadside operations on the edges of Bristol and Oxford.
Soho House Manchester opens on Tuesday 25 November and memberships costs £2,400 a year, rising to £3,450 for access to all branches; discounts are available to those under the age of 27.
