Premier Travel Inn.
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The Premier Travel Inn on Victoria Bridge Street, Manchester has also gone by the name of Highland House and North Tower.
The building was designed and built by Architects Leach, Rhodes & Walker for the Inland Revenue and was completed in 1965-66, the building is 23 stories tall with a podium at the base, which gives it a total height of 80 metres (260 ft).
The Inland Revenue announced plans to move out in 1995 and since then it has been occupied by the Premier Travel Inn, The top twelve floors hold 96 apartments, with the lower ten used as a Premier Lodge hotel.
Between 1998 and 2000 the building was reclad, converted to its current use and renamed, at a total cost of £4.5 million.
In 2004 the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, George Ferguson, said that the building (along with the Arndale Centre) was "dreadful" and should be demolished.
The Premier is a building you either love or hate, its 1960s architecture shows and is very dull and concrete looking, but if you can see past this, it does have character and charm despite it being a hotel.
It does how ever boast some of the most spectacualr views over Manchester city centre.
This was one of the sites explored on the Manchester meet arranged by Alley, Romanian1, Gibbo and Userscott.
Initially we where all sceptical if this could be pulled off as there where in excess of 30 explorers from all around the country all waiting to get to the top to see the views of the city.
All went according to plan though and we all made our ascent to the top in small groups while the Hotel staff looked on.
Once inside we made our way in the lift as far as we could go and then proceeded on foot to the roof section, after climbing the access ladder we where then at our goal.
The rooftop was incredible as where the views but when theres around 30 other people up there with you it does give you a great feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.
This was our first ever rooftop and paved the way for many more to come in the future, lots of people photograph Manchester but there are only a hand few of people who have and will see the views we all achieved.
Date : July 2007 : Location : Manchester : Explorers : Havoc : Cyclone
