The Hilton Tower...

This month, the 26th to be precise, Manchester’s tallest building the Hilton (aka Beetham) Tower is celebrating its 10th birthday. On that date in 2006 the building reached its eventual height of 169m making it the tallest building outside of London and the fifth tallest building in the country. The Hilton Hotel, with its wonderful Cloud Bar, opened later that year in the lower part of the building and residents moved into their apartments in the upper part of the building in 2007. The architect of the building, Ian Simpson, has the stunning penthouse apartment, then the tallest residence anywhere in Europe.

The world was booming in 2006. Most of the apartments were sold before the city gave planning permission to the building. Once it had permission and the deep foundations were being built, the cost of the apartments went up. People sold their apartments on and made lots of money by selling parcels of fresh air above the streets of Manchester. Well, we all know where that got us and by 2009 the bubble burst and markets around the world crashed. But the Hilton Tower was up and running by then. Other people got burned as schemes they had invested in went under and they lost their money.

The previous record holder for the tallest building in the city was the CIS Tower at 118m topped out in 1962. When it was built it was the tallest building in the country, nothing even in London could surpass it. It’s now 54 years old but still looks good because it had its service tower covered in blue solar panels which makes it look quite contemporary. It took 44 for years for the Hilton Tower to usurp its position. However, a new scheme that it just starting will mean that the Hilton Tower will lose its position before 2020.

In the meanwhile Happy Birthday to the Hilton Tower!