Beyond the ghost stories and the tired reputation, the actual 1912 building designed by Frank Atkinson for the Midland Railway is full of extraordinary survivors: the coffered plaster ceilings, the marble clad corridors on the lower floors, and the sheer scale of the service infrastructure built into Ranelagh Place.
If you look past the modern signage and wear, what specific detail or space inside the Adelphi still catches you out when you walk through it?
L1Local’s piece tracing the hotel’s history and legends: Adelphi Hotel Liverpool Ghosts: History or Legend?
The bronze grillwork on the old luggage lifts and the Greek key detailing around the high cornices in the central lounge. You can see where the Edwardian money went when Liverpool was still the primary transatlantic terminus.
The height of the ceilings on the ground floor. If you walk in off Ranelagh Street, the entrance vestibule immediately gives you a sense of what arriving off an express train from London to catch a liner must have felt like in 1914.
The original wood panelling inside the old cocktail bar and the brass letter chute by the central stairs that dropped post directly down from the upper floors. Even when the carpets are looking tired, you can still see the sheer quality of the joinery Atkinson specified.