Muraspec Wallcoverings At GILT, the Hotel Gotham Speakeasy

Muraspec Wallcoverings At GILT, the Hotel Gotham Speakeasy

Hotel Gotham, located at the heart of Manchester’s most upmarket shopping district, recently enlisted the help of Oliver Redfern, of The Squid Inc to design the five-star hotel’s GILT Club venue, located in an underground hidden bank vault, two floors beneath the hotel. The brief for this project was to develop a luxurious speakeasy club and functions venue that was very much reminiscent of the great cabarets of 1920’s Berlin.

Redfern recounts how this vault once housed the former strong rooms, boiler and electric rooms, and even workshops of the Edwin Lutyens art deco Midland bank. “It was this connection with banking and money…”, the designer shares, “that brought about the venue’s name ‘Gilt’ with meanings of gold, financial bonds and, most of all, of guilty pleasures – which Gotham is renowned for”. GILT, set to launch formally in early 2023, draws inspiration from its Art Deco history to create a truly stylish event venue and nightclub.

The Squid Inc expertly brings together design solutions that are not only fit for the opulent nature of the hospitality brand but also celebrate the rich history of the venue. Amongst these, the designers specified and installed Bespoke Digital wallcoverings, created in collaboration with our digital team, for the Ladies and Gents cloakrooms of this stylish speakeasy-style club.

The Challenge 

As Oliver Redfern states, “the brief was to design an indulgent hedonistic function venue [that was] reminiscent of the great cabarets of 1920s Berlin, all within the basement of Hotel Gotham in Manchester.” The Cabaret era was known for its striking colours, unimaginable decadence and personal freedom, and GILT has been designed to be very much resonant of that extravagant era.

Redfern, together with main contractors Hutton and Cawood, faced the unique challenge of designing a stylish speakeasy club and, thereby, specifying interior solutions that are suitable for both the ‘Golden-Age of Cabaret’ brief and also complement the glitzy, ambitious, and unapologetically opulent nature of Hotel Gotham. Likewise, the best solution for this venue had to be visually striking, a nod to the indulgence and glamour of the 1920s, and also withstand the test of time in a high traffic environment.

Muraspec Wallcoverings, an international leader in the design, production and distribution of commercial and bespoke wallcoverings, was more than up for this challenge. The Squid Inc, working closely with our digital team, was able to envision and create a number of bespoke solutions for both the Ladies and the Gents Wash/Cloakrooms of this venue.

The Solution 

The Squid Inc planned the GILT club project to the detailed requirements of Hotel Gotham and, as a result, decided to partner with the highly skilled digital team at Muraspec to create bespoke wallcoverings that accurately reflect and balance both the aesthetic and functional needs of this one-of-a-kind event venue.

The design concept for GILT was a conspicuous and stylish take on 1920s Berlin, with all its glamour and extravagance. As such, the bespoke wallpapers for this project were developed on the ideas of elegance, symmetry, striking geometric prints and free artistic expression. All of this was then brought together with high contrast,‘Golden Age’ inspired colourways, achieving stunning Art Deco styles across all applications.

Our team, in close collabration with The Squid Inc, brought the unique and stunning concept to fruition in the versatile, unique and indulgent way of the Hotel Gotham. The resulting wallcoverings, three distinct yet harmonious bespoke digitals, seamlessly immerse attendees within the secret world of the speakeasy “…Gatsby, Jazz, Big Band…or cinema, private dining, board meeting”.

The Result

GILT, launching formally in early 2023, is an exclusive underground speakeasy nightclub and functions venue found deep inside the former bank vaults of 100 King Street in the basement of Hotel Gotham. The Squid Inc, in collaboration with its high-end vendors, fulfilled its objectives of designing GILT with the indulgent and hedonistic aesthetic uniqueness specified in Hotel Gotham’s brief.

In our case, the right wallcoverings for the GILT Ladies’ and Gents Wash/cloakrooms had to be visually striking and, most importantly, reminiscent of 1920s Berlin and the Golden Era of Cabaret. Our bespoke solutions had to also meet the durability, maintenance and hygienic requirements of a high traffic hospitality setting.

Muraspec was able to seamlessly meet the technical and aesthetic requirements to create the three stylish 1920s-inspired wallcoverings used in the venue’s cloakrooms. Our digital team, in close partnership with The Squid Inc, was able to strategically leverage and simultaneously celebrate the indulgence, extravagance and new age freedoms that defined the 1920s Berlin era. Likewise, we were also able to ensure these bespoke solutions were suitable from a technical standpoint for both the venue, in general, and in the cloakroom applications in particular.

GILT Club at Hotel Gotham, Manchester

Wallcoverings Used: Bespoke Digital

Areas of Use: Ladies & Gents Wash/Cloakrooms

Specifier: Oliver Redfern @ The Squid Inc

Main Contractor: Hutton & Cawood