Here is a building I always passed by without a second glance.
It is the Peace Hotel, which was the Holly Hotel and before that just Holly House and it is on Palatine Road.
I say is because Andy Robertson’s picture was taken in March 2014 and when he recently drove past it had gone and prompting him to wonder “I’m sure there used to be a hotel here.”
Now as these pictures show there is just a huge gaping space with just that sign as a forlorn reminder of what once was here.
And that led Andy to begin to dig deep into the history of the building.
There is a listing for it as Holly House in 1969 and “during the seventies it seems to have been run by the council to house homeless families.”
He has also uncovered some very unflattering reviews of the place when it was a hotel some of which I have to say are very amusing, but are perhaps now left in the shadows.
Its history before 1969 is as yet a closed book but I know that in 1911 it was the home of Mrs Albertina Christinia who was a widow, had been born in Denmark in 1837 and shared the 10 roomed house with her sister, two children, a “lady companion” and the cook.
I will in time go back and visit the lady companion who was a Mrs Fanny Luis from Manchester who was also a widow and aged 45.
But for now I am more interested in the two children who were Susanna Maria aged 35 and George Peter who was 41. Both had been born in Manchester Miss Raundrup in West Didsbury and Mr Raundrup in Withington.
He gave his occupation as an iron merchant and in 1911 he was listed in Salter’s Directory as Raundrup & Co, merchants and shippers with offices at 41 Grosvenor chambers 16 Deansgate.
And for those with a really nerdy interest Mr Raundrup conducted his business from the fourth floor of Grosvenor chambers which is on that stretch of Deansgate currently occupied by Harvey Nichols.
I have no idea how he made his way from home to work and back.
It may have been by tram or perhaps by train from the railway station on Lapwing Lane which would have taken him into Central Station.
This was the family business which may have been established by his father who was already living in Albert Park in Withington by 1870.
And that is about it.
I know that Mrs Albertina Christinia Raundrup died in 1920 and her son George Peter in 1945.
A search of the directories in Central Ref should reveal who owned or lived in Holly House in the years after 1911 which will I bet offer up more stories and these will sit beside the memories of the place as a hotel.
And once the memories come flooding in I will go and look up the future of that space at the Corporation’s online Planning site.
Location; Palatine Road.
Pictures, Holly House at various times in its history, 2014-2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1974, m43454, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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| The Peace Inn, 2014 |
I say is because Andy Robertson’s picture was taken in March 2014 and when he recently drove past it had gone and prompting him to wonder “I’m sure there used to be a hotel here.”
Now as these pictures show there is just a huge gaping space with just that sign as a forlorn reminder of what once was here.
 |
| Holly House, 1974 |
There is a listing for it as Holly House in 1969 and “during the seventies it seems to have been run by the council to house homeless families.”
He has also uncovered some very unflattering reviews of the place when it was a hotel some of which I have to say are very amusing, but are perhaps now left in the shadows.
Its history before 1969 is as yet a closed book but I know that in 1911 it was the home of Mrs Albertina Christinia who was a widow, had been born in Denmark in 1837 and shared the 10 roomed house with her sister, two children, a “lady companion” and the cook.
 |
| A sign but no hotel, 2016 |
But for now I am more interested in the two children who were Susanna Maria aged 35 and George Peter who was 41. Both had been born in Manchester Miss Raundrup in West Didsbury and Mr Raundrup in Withington.
He gave his occupation as an iron merchant and in 1911 he was listed in Salter’s Directory as Raundrup & Co, merchants and shippers with offices at 41 Grosvenor chambers 16 Deansgate.
And for those with a really nerdy interest Mr Raundrup conducted his business from the fourth floor of Grosvenor chambers which is on that stretch of Deansgate currently occupied by Harvey Nichols.
I have no idea how he made his way from home to work and back.
It may have been by tram or perhaps by train from the railway station on Lapwing Lane which would have taken him into Central Station.
This was the family business which may have been established by his father who was already living in Albert Park in Withington by 1870.
 |
| That big space, 2016 |
I know that Mrs Albertina Christinia Raundrup died in 1920 and her son George Peter in 1945.
A search of the directories in Central Ref should reveal who owned or lived in Holly House in the years after 1911 which will I bet offer up more stories and these will sit beside the memories of the place as a hotel.
And once the memories come flooding in I will go and look up the future of that space at the Corporation’s online Planning site.
Location; Palatine Road.
Pictures, Holly House at various times in its history, 2014-2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1974, m43454, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
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