Number 2 Queen Square is Grade II-listed and was formerly the regional headquarters for Pearl Assurance and was at the centre of the 1990s regeneration project. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool developer Promenade Estates has secured planning consent to convert a city centre office building that dates back to the 1870s into a boutique hotel.
Number 2 Queen Square is Grade II-listed and was formerly the regional headquarters for Pearl Assurance. It was designed by Liverpool-born architect Alfred Waterhouse who was the leading exponent of the ‘Gothic revival’.
It was at the centre of the original regeneration of Queen Square in the mid-1990s, a project which helped kick-start Liverpool’s current economic renaissance.
Now Promenade Estates, which itself is based in the building, wants to convert it into a 43 bedroom hotel, offering views across St John’s Gardens to St George’s Hall and the Walker Art Gallery.
It will be the company’s fifth hotel in the region, having also developed the nearby Marriott Queen Square and another Marriott in Speke, the Ramada Plaza hotel in Southport and the Travelodge at Marine Point in New Brighton
Daniel Hynd, managing director of Promenade Estates, said: “We’re going to add something special to Liverpool’s hotel offer in a location and a building that are second to none.
“This is a very special location that benefits from great infrastructure and heritage on its doorstep. As investors in all the hotels we’ve developed we’ve got a great feel for the Liverpool market and look forward to taking the project forward.”
The popular Dr Duncan’s pub on the ground floor will be unaffected by the development, which forms the northernmost part of the 660,000 sq ft jigsaw that was Promenade’s redevelopment of Queen Square.
The building’s original refurbishment was undertaken by the Liverpool studio of Falconer Chester Hall (FCH), which has been retained to design the new hotel.
The project follows a spate of recent disposals by Promenade, including the fully-let Marine Point development in New Brighton to Aprirose, the Ramada Plaza leisure scheme in Southport to Bliss Estates and a major waterfront residential scheme overlooking Liverpool’s Albert Dock to Vista Fund.