100 King Street


100 King Street, formerly the Midland Bank, is a former bank premises on King Street, Manchester, England. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1928 and constructed in 1933–35. It is Lutyens' major work in Manchester and was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1974.

Architecture

A castle-like Art Deco building, surrounded by roads on all four sides, the architects for the former bank were Lutyens in collaboration with Whinney, Son & Austen Hall and it was built between 1933 and 1935 by J. Gerrard & Sons of Swinton and features carvings by the local sculptor John Ashton Floyd. It is constructed of Portland stone around a steel frame. Its neoclassical design is unusual for Manchester, the style perhaps more suited to the architecture of Liverpool, as most of Manchester's buildings were Neogothic.
"The proportions are ingeniously calculated, as Lutyens... adored to do. The top stage is two-thirds of the stage from the obelisks to the next set-back, and that middle stage is two-thirds of the bottom stage." It is sometimes known as The King of King Street because of its distinct structure and height.
From 1912, Lutyens laid out New Delhi as the new capital of India. He devised his own Delhi Order of classical architecture there, with small bells hanging from the capitals of the columns, and subsequently made use of this order in his design for the bank.

History

The bank was renamed HSBC Bank after HSBC acquired the Midland Bank in the 1990s. It closed on 6 June 2008 when HSBC relocated to St Ann's Square. The building was subsequently refurbished to provide office space and was placed on the office rental market in March 2010. Jamie Oliver opened a restaurant in the former banking hall in 2011. A plan to convert the upper floors of the building into a boutique hotel was announced in 2013.
In April 2015, the Hotel Gotham, a five star hotel, opened on the upper floors of the iconic building.