€158.90 for 1 Night
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The Rex
€158.90/ Night
24/7 Support
Looking for help choosing or for a property we don't list? Message our Private Rates Concierge on WhatsApp for member rates and insider knowledge on the right stay
A boutique hotel in Sir Edwin Lutyens' 1928 former Midland Bank on King Street, Manchester, with rooftop dining and private spaces set in the original bank vaults.
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Award Winner 2016
Europe’s Best Newcomer
Need To Know
- 60 bedrooms and suites across seven floors, including Bank Manager's and Inner Sanctum Suites
- Set in Sir Edwin Lutyens' 1928 former Midland Bank, a Grade II*-listed landmark on King Street
- Reign, the sixth-floor restaurant, for afternoon tea, tasting menus and city views
- Reserve, the seventh-floor members' club, with three rooftop terraces
- Treasury and the Strongroom: event and private-dining spaces in the original bank vaults
- In the heart of central Manchester, minutes from the shops, bars and galleries
- Relaunched as The Rex in 2026, formerly Hotel Gotham
Check in - Check out
Check in from 14:00; check out before 12:00.
We Love
- The building — Sir Edwin Lutyens' 1928 former Midland Bank, the 'King of King Street', a Portland-stone landmark of neoclassical grandeur with Art Deco detailing.
- The vaults — the original basement strongrooms reborn as private spaces, including a dining room behind the old vault doors set around a snooker-table dining table.
- The rooftop — Reserve, the seventh-floor members' club and bar with three terraces and some of the best skyline views in central Manchester.
- The dining — Reign on the sixth floor for afternoon tea, tasting menus and city views, under executive chef Bartosz Szynaka.
- The rooms — 60 individually styled bedrooms and suites, including Bank Manager's Suites with roll-top baths and the windowless Inner Sanctum Suites.
Key Features
Book Your Stay at The Rex
€158.90 for 1 Night
Location
Address
100 King Street, Manchester, M2 4WU
Travel Info
The Rex stands on King Street in the pedestrianised heart of central Manchester, with no hotel parking; nearby NCP car parks are available. Manchester Piccadilly is about five minutes by taxi or a short walk, and the airport around 30 minutes by cab.
Nearby Places
Manchester Airport
30min
Manchester Piccadilly
5min
Last Updated: 2026-06-17
Expert Review
Origins
The Rex occupies one of Manchester's great commercial buildings: the former Midland Bank on King Street, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and built between 1928 and 1932. Among the most celebrated British architects of his age — the man behind New Delhi's government buildings and the Cenotaph in London — Lutyens gave Manchester a temple of finance in Portland stone, neoclassical in its grand proportions and touched with the Art Deco of its day. So commanding was it on the street that it earned the nickname the 'King of King Street'.
The bank closed in the early 2000s, and after a careful conversion the building opened as a hotel in 2015, keeping its vast banking hall and the original strongrooms deep below. In May 2024 it was acquired by Leonardo Limited Edition, and in April 2026 it was relaunched as The Rex — an expressive upgrade rather than a reinvention, refreshing the interiors while keeping the character that had made it one of the city's most singular places to stay.
The result leans into the building's past as a bank. Sixty bedrooms and suites rise through seven floors, from Bank Manager's Suites with roll-top baths to the windowless Inner Sanctum Suites, all Art-Deco-meets-modern in style. On the sixth floor, Reign serves afternoon teas, tasting menus and cocktails under executive chef Bartosz Szynaka; above it, on the seventh, the members' club Reserve opens onto three rooftop terraces with sweeping city views. Best of all are the vaults: Treasury, an events space in the original strongrooms, and the Strongroom itself, a private dining room behind the bank's own steel doors, built around a full-size snooker table that doubles as the table. Few city hotels turn their own history to such theatrical use.
Top Secret
Head down, not up, for the hotel's best secret. Two floors below street level, behind the bank's original steel vault doors, the Strongroom is a private dining room built around a full-size snooker table that converts to a dining table — once the most secure room in the building, now its most playful. Up top, the seventh-floor terraces of Reserve give one of the few genuinely commanding rooftop views in central Manchester; time a drink there for sunset.
The Review
The Rex is the most characterful place to stay in central Manchester, and the building is the reason. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the former Midland Bank on King Street — the 'King of King Street' — in the late 1920s, and the hotel that now fills it makes a virtue of every inch of that history. The grand proportions of a temple of finance, the Portland stone, the strongrooms in the basement: all of it has been turned to the service of a stay rather than scrubbed away. Relaunched in 2026 as The Rex, having opened a decade earlier as Hotel Gotham, it is an upgrade rather than a reinvention, and the bones are as good as ever.
The 60 rooms and suites run through seven floors in an Art-Deco-meets-modern style, from Bank Manager's Suites with roll-top baths to the deliberately windowless Inner Sanctum Suites. The pleasures here are vertical: down in the basement, the original vaults now hold the Treasury events space and the Strongroom private dining room, the latter built around a snooker-table dining table behind the bank's own steel doors; on the sixth floor, Reign turns out afternoon teas and tasting menus with city views; and on the seventh, the members' club Reserve opens onto three rooftop terraces with some of the best skyline views in town.
It suits those who want a design-led city stay with genuine architectural pedigree and a sense of theatre, in the thick of central Manchester rather than a quiet corner — close to the shops, bars and galleries, with the building itself as the headline act. For a Manchester city break with character, the Lutyens bank and its vaults give The Rex an edge few city hotels can match.
