New hotel 'with no TVs' to open in Piccadilly Gardens and will be brand's first outside London

A new 187-bedroom hotel ‘with no TVs’ will open in Piccadilly Gardens after planning permission was granted. The Zedwell Hotel will be the first branch of the chain to open outside of London.

It will be located inside the Royal Buildings, which sits on the original site of the Royal Hotel which was demolished to make way for the current building in 1909. Only the upper floors will become a hotel, with the ground floor unit — a recently vacated branch of Santander — to be unaffected. However, the hotel will not have any TV sets in the rooms — in order to ‘promote deep rest’.

That’s according to Jay Patel, planning director at Savills, which organised the application on behalf of Zedwell’s owners Criterion Capital. He added: “The addition of a high quality and affordable hotel is welcome news for Manchester and its every growing tourism economy. In keeping with the concept of the brand’s other four existing sites in London, the new hotel will focus on promoting quality sleep, positive health and holistic wellbeing. With a very different focus to Manchester’s current hotel offering, Zedwell Hotels use a nature-inspired décor with calming colours, natural or recycled materials, and no TVs in cocoon-like rooms to promote deep rest. The developer is fully committed to building a viable and deliverable scheme, and we are pleased to have secured planning permission for this hotel.”

And Asif Aziz, founder of Criterion Capital, added: “Bringing Zedwell to Manchester was always in the plan and now we have found the perfect location. It was important that we worked with a local team and the plans for the hotel have been designed by Manchester-based Buttress Architects. The new Zedwell Hotel will be targeting short term stays and people travelling through Manchester using the excellent transport links of both Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly station.”

There are currently three Zedwell hotels in London, with 1,00 bedrooms between them. Another nine are planned to open by 2026, including the Manchester site. Most of the planned hotel site is vacant, except two floors occupied by a language school which is due to relocate in June 2024. Work on other areas has already started.