Liverpool’s first five star hotel Layla to open its doors in June
A six-year project to create Liverpool’s first five-star hotel is finally nearing completion and is due to open in June.
Layla Hotel is being built across three buildings at the corner of Dale Street and Sir Thomas Street.
The £30m hotel will have 83 bedrooms, a swimming pool, gym, spa, a cinema and a top- quality restaurant.
Architect Paul Falconer, of Falconer Chester Hall, said the project had taken a long time because of the complexity of knitting three buildings together, two of which were Grade II listed.
“It is on track to open in June, and is now about 80% complete,” said Mr Falconer.
“Some of the rooms are decorated and some of the big public rooms are nearly finished.”
Liverpool developers Iliad and prominent horse racing owner and businessman Dr Marwan Koukash first announced plans for the hotel in 2005.
The hotel is named after Dr Koukash’s daughter, who was six at the time.
Work started soon after the scheme won planning permission in 2006.
No 6 Sir Thomas Street, sandwiched between the former Municipal Annexe and the former City Education Offices, was demolished as part of the scheme.
A new facade has been put up with the entrance for the boutique hotel while the two Grade II-listed buildings that bookend the hotel have been extensively restored.
Detailed ceilings and cornices have been restored to their former glory, while the roof has been repaired and dry rot has been removed.
Iliad have recently applied to amend the original planning permission to take account of some internal alterations as work has proceeded.
Mr Falconer said: “The new application is to tidy up amendments that have been made since the original permission was granted.
“As you open up this old building, you find things that you did not expect – some good, some bad.
“There are some bits that you want to expose and others that needed repairing.
“It’s been done in conjunction with the conservation officer from the council.”
He said it may have appeared to outsiders that little was happening with the building, but the time involved has been due to its complexity.
“Usually with these things, people see the scaffolding go up and the roof and windows being fixed.
“Then you get to the internal works and people wonder what is going on. It has been re-wired and re-plumbed.”
The hotel cannot be officially awarded a star-rating until it is open. But it has been designed to meet the five-star requirements of the different bodies that award star ratings.
“You can see that it is of five-star standard inside, it is very impressive.”
The Municipal Annexe retains its grandeur from when the building was first constructed as a Conservative club in 1865.
“A lot of the big dinning rooms and smoking rooms that were part of the Conservative club convert perfectly to function rooms.
“It has been very difficult to make it work as one hotel because it is three different structures, but it has stitched together well.
“These days, you have to include things like disabled access, something that would not even have been an issue when the buildings were first designed.
“There must be 30 levels across the seven storeys, and you have to create access to them all.
“We had to modernise all that and the work is very painstaking.
“The swimming pool has been dug out of what was otherwise a basement storage.
“All the work will have been worth it in the end, though.”
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