November 2023
The visit
Following my dive into the Adelphi's Gym & Spa earlier this year, I've been keen to explore this vast building in more detail. I did this one on a lovely clear day with @stranton and @coolboyslim on the way back to the car following a visit to a neighboring derp. Whilst passing the hotel and on the spur of the moment, I suggested that we have a quick check, hoping that we'd get lucky. It certainly paid off with us finding ourselves on the roof in less than five minutes after entering the building. We spent a good half hour wandering around the roof taking in the stunning views of the Liverpool skyline enjoying the gorgeous weather before making our way back down.
A BBC documentary from 1997 followed the staff of the hotel over a number of months. From this you can see that the lowest-rate for a single room that year was £99. Today you can pay as little £32 for that same room. The Health Club closed in early 2018, a news article from the Liverpool Echo reported that they'd received several complaints from members of the club about the standard the club was being kept, reports of mould, dirt and broken machinery almost certainly contributed to the closure of the club. It is clear that the current operator of the hotel has fallen on hard times and the signs of neglect have only increased since my visit in January the damp still covers large sections of walls in the back of house areas, paint flakes on the ceilings and carpets remain un-vacuumed.
The History
The first hotel on the site was built in 1826 for the hotelier James Radley by the conversion of two 18th-century town houses which were built on the site of the former Ranelagh Gardens, the first ever open space for public recreation in Liverpool. This hotel was replaced by another hotel in 1876, which was bought in 1892 by the Midland Railway Company, being renamed to the Midland Adelphi at the time. In the basement of the hotel a set of heated tanks were installed to keep live turtles for turtle soup, which was not only served, but the basis of a significant business being sent to banquets etc. around the country and beyond. The railway company demolished the building and replaced it with the present building between 1911 and 1914, designed by Frank Atkinson. When opened, it was "regarded as the most luxurious hotel outside London”.
Owing to Liverpool being a major arrival and departure point for ocean liners during the early 20th century, the Adelphi served as the most popular hotel in the city for wealthy passengers before they embarked on their journey to North America. The RMS Titanic was registered in Liverpool (though it never visited the port), and the Sefton Suite is said to be an exact replica of the ill-fated liner's First Class Smoking Lounge. On 1 January 1948, Britain's railway companies were nationalised and the Adelphi Hotel became part of British Transport Hotels, a subsidiary of British Railways. Guests at the hotel from this period included world leaders, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill; as well as music artists like Frank Sinatra, Laurel and Hardy, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, and Roy Rogers.
Following the Conservative Party's win in the 1979 general election, British Rail was ordered to dispose of unnecessary assets. In 1983, as part of the sale of British Transport Hotels, the hotel was sold by British Rail to the hotel group Britannia Hotels. In 2006, the Adelphi Hotel was investigated by the BBC over ongoing theft and hygiene issues. Then in November 2010, the hotel received a food hygiene inspection from Liverpool City Council, the hotel was awarded a zero in its food hygiene rating (the lowest score possible) and was ordered to remedy its practices. It was handed a fourth consecutive zero in its food hygiene rating after an inspection in January 2016, and in June 2017 Britannia Hotels admitted in Liverpool Magistrates' Court to seven breaches of health and safety law and were fined £265,000. On 30 August 2006 a 25 year old man drowned in the swimming pool of the Adelphi after the lifeguard on duty left his post. The man had been dead for thirty minutes when he was found. In May 2010, Britannia Hotels was charged with several breaches of health and safety laws in relation to the death. A November 2015 investigation by the Liverpool Echo found broken and condensation-stained windows, damp-covered walls and windowsills, dirty rooms and bathrooms, and broken furniture.
On 10 September 2022, a wardrobe in the Adelphi fell on a 21 year old woman and crushed her to death. The Adelphi is currently under investigation from Liverpool City Council following the incident. On 4 October, the Liverpool Echo revealed that the hotel is also under investigation for an incident that occurred earlier in 2022 in which a guest was injured. The following day Kim Johnson, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Riverside (the constituency in which the hotel is based), urged Britannia Hotels to 'sell up and move on', describing the hotel as 'a blight on the city.
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Cheers for looking 
Fuji XT-2, 10-24mm
Fuji XT-2, 10-24mm
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