Latest news with #MidlandHotel
Miami Herald
11-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
The Meeting That Made The Marque
This week in 1904, Charles Stewart Rolls boards a train in London, bound for Manchester, where he has a meeting over lunch at the Midland Hotel. The son of an aristocratic landowner and a true member of the Victorian upper crust, Rolls could have led a life of leisure hunting and fishing on his father's Welsh estate. Instead, he opens one of Britain's first car dealerships, C. S. Rolls & Co., in Fulham, West London, in 1902, four years after graduating from Cambridge as a trained engineer. His father, Lord Llangattock, had underwritten the business, which sells Panhard and Mors cars from France, as well as Minerva automobiles from Belgium. He is shown in his office below. But Rolls is frustrated. His dealership stock is comprised entirely of imported cars. While Great Britain is manufacturing cars, none meet his clients' needs or his own standards. Of course, it has been a mere 18 years since the debut of the first automobile prototype, the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Since then, the car has become a rarified, expensive plaything for the rich, like Rolls. Very much the enthusiast, Rolls had won the 1900 Thousand Miles Trial driving a 12-horsepower Panhard. A member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland, it's here, among other wealthy enthusiasts, where Rolls meets Henry Edmunds, a fellow automotive aficionado and director at F. H. Royce Limited. Rolls admits his annoyance at not being able to find a good high-end British car to sell. Edmunds speaks of his 10-horsepower Royce automobile, shown above, being driven by Rolls, and arranges for a meeting between Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce. Born a miller's son in Peterborough, England, Royce's life had started much differently. Working by the age of four, he became an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway Works Depot at age 14. He discovered his natural talent for engineering, joining the Electric Light and Power Company in Liverpool in 1882, where his career flourished. Unfortunately, the company did not, declaring bankruptcy six years later. It's then that Royce decides to set up his own shop with fellow engineer Ernest Claremont, establishing what becomes F.H. Royce and Company Ltd. With Royce as Managing Director and Claremont as Chairman, the company builds everything from electric doorbells to heavy equipment such as overhead cranes. But cheap imports from Germany and the United States brought the company financial trouble in 1902, and Royce, shown above, takes a 10-week break after his health collapses. It's during this family vacation in South Africa that Royce reads "The Automobile: Its Construction and Management" by Gérard Lavergne. It's not light reading, but it had an impact on him. Upon returning home, Royce buys a 10-horsepower Decauville, a state-of-the-art automobile at the time. He dismantles it, examining every part with the intention of building his own car from scratch. Royce said later that it was his goal to "take the best that exists and make it better". From 1902 to 1905, Royce repairs, investigates, and test-drives various brands, covering 11,000 miles. By April 1904, the first Royce automobile, the 10 H.P. shown above, leaves the factory with a water-cooled 10-horsepower, two-cylinder engine and a carburetor design by Royce. It travels trouble-free 15 miles on its first drive. Having driven the car, F. H. Royce Limited Director Edmunds tells his friend Rolls of its smoothness and silence, and a lunch meeting is arranged at Manchester's Midland Hotel, this week in 1904. Later that day, back in London, Rolls tells his business partner Claude Johnson that he had discovered "the greatest motor engineer in the world". Rolls agrees to sell every Royce using the name Rolls-Royce. The 10-horsepower car was not enough to meet the needs of clients, so Royce engineers the 15 H.P., followed by the 30 H.P., with a six-cylinder engine producing 30 horsepower. But it's the introduction of the 40/50 H.P. and its 7.0-liter, six-cylinder side-valve engine that changes everything. Producing 48 horsepower, it's so smooth and silent, it's nicknamed the Silver Ghost, or alternately, the best car in the world. As was the case through the 1950s, every Rolls-Royce left the factory as a rolling chassis to be finished by an independent coachbuilder. The tradition has returned to Rolls-Royce today through its Coachbuilt division, continuing a way of making cars that first came to be when the company itself was born. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
BBC News
21-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Manchester homeless camp growing 'due to activists'
Manchester's homeless camp is growing because "activists are buying tents", according to council city centre has seen a number of encampments over the last year, most notably in St Peter's Square until a court order obtained by Manchester City Council saw those staying there effectively evicted on 26 February. But within hours, new camps were established on Lower Mosley Street, next to the Midland Hotel, and on Albert Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he was listening to the calls of protestors but suggested the city was "doing more here than anywhere else to support people facing homelessness". "A bed every night is our flagship scheme," he told BBC Radio Manchester. "It's going up to 600 places from the start of April, and I think because of what we do more people come here looking for support. "It doesn't mean though, to me, that we should then stop doing what we do." 'Not safe or sanitary' Some 35 tents were counted in Albert Square on 7 March but just 12 days later that figure was around have tended to be "refugees with legal right to be here'", according to deputy council leader Joanna Midgeley, who oversees the authority's homeless Midgeley said "the situation remains challenging" with the camp as she gave an update on action the council was taking to tackle it. "It's not being helped by activists buying tents and making it bigger," she said. "This is a national issue that's being played out on the streets of Manchester and across the country." More than 200 camp residents had been placed into support accommodation by the council, the deputy leader added, and a further 25 "have been voluntarily connected to other local authorities".The council said it could not use the existing court order to evict the residents of the new camp because it only applied to a "small, defined area" of St Peter's Square.A spokesperson said previously: "It remains our position that such encampments anywhere in the city are not in anyone's best interests and are not a suitable, safe or sanitary place from which to access the support available to people facing homelessness." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Andy Burnham's homeless scheme to expand as rough sleeping rises in Greater Manchester
Andy Burnham's 'A Bed Every Night' homeless scheme will expand after rough sleeping in Greater Manchester increased. Official government statistics released on Thursday (February 27) show there were 154 rough sleepers in the city-region in autumn 2024, compared to 149 a year previously. While increasing, the level of rough sleeping is still far below Greater Manchester's worst level. In 2017, a record 268 people were sleeping on the city's streets, meaning the latest data is still 42 percent lower. The mayor has now confirmed his flagship A Bed Every Night project, which provides single-room accommodation to homeless people, will expand. READ MORE: Albie Speakman's dad Neil JAILED after fatally reversing defective farm vehicle over three-year-old READ MORE: Tragedy as much-loved Greater Manchester deputy headteacher dies aged 53 It is going from 550 rooms to 600 per night because 'our aim is to make an offer' of accommodation for 'everybody', according to Mr Burnham, but 'that's becoming more challenging' with the rise in rough sleeping. He added: 'Our own research in Greater Manchester shows that we're spending at least £75 million every year on renting temporary accommodation across the city-region, and we only get 42 percent of that back via housing benefit.' Housing chiefs believe the cost-of-living is one reason why the problem is worsening, but another is 'evictions from the asylum system'. Refugees leaving the immigration system largely made up the population of the St Peter's Square tent encampment, which was removed by Manchester City Council this week. Wednesday's operation (February 26) saw camp residents, mainly refugees, handed plastic bags for their belongings as bailiffs 'knocked on' tents and instructed those living in the camp to leave. Some of the tents were thrown into a bin lorry, but the council insists they were already abandoned. Rather than removing the camp, the council's possession order appeared to just move the problem from one side of the town hall to another, as tents were pitched on Albert Square and outside the Midland Hotel later that same day.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trip the light fantastic at special vintage dance weekend
A VINTAGE Spotlight Dance Weekend is taking place at Bradford's Midland Hotel from Friday February 14 to Sunday February 16. Starting with a 1920s dance in the Princes ballroom on Friday evening, it continues with a bring and buy sale on Saturday morning. There are dances with bands throughout the afternoon including a 60s dance, gypsy jazz with Hot Club of Halifax and an Hawaiian dance with TC and the Swingcats, In the evening there is dancing to the swing tunes of the Sticky Wicket Big Band. In the French ballroom on Saturday afternoon there will be dance classes and talks,and outside the ballroom the opportunity to have a vintage hairstyle or a dance massage. There will be a rock n roll dance in the evening with the Moonshiners. On Sunday a dance with popular local singer Sadie will be held, with the opportunity of an afternoon tea for only £10. This will be followed at 2pm by a Charleston dance workshop. Tickets for the whole weekend or individual days are available at . There is a code for a special discounted price to stay at the Midland. For more details email marievintagespotlight@
