The Ainscow Hotel, Salford
The Ainscow began life as the Watson and Woodhead Brewery in 1878, and later housed a jam factory. It opened as a hotel in 2014, keeping its exposed brick, timbered ceilings and steel beams.
At a glance
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Hotel furniture for The Ainscow
Working from a detailed brief from the general manager, our in-house designers drew up the concepts and colour schemes for a building that had stood empty for years, and specified wall coverings, carpets, fabrics and leathers. Bespoke pieces were made in our own workshops, and a team of ten delivered and installed the furniture in three days across more than 70 rooms, the restaurant, the bar and the public areas.
As on every scheme we design, the hotel's team visited our showroom in Salford to see the furniture in person. You can see the finished hotel in our short film below.
What we supplied
- Design concepts and colour schemes
- Wall coverings, carpets, fabrics and leathers
- Furniture for more than 70 rooms, the restaurant and the bar
- Installation by a team of ten in three days
- Later, Columbus sofas in leather for the executive suites
About The Ainscow
The hotel stands off Trinity Way in the Chapel Street area of Salford, close to Salford Central station and a short walk from Spinningfields. Artisan Property Group, founded by the developer Carol Ainscow, bought the empty building in 2003 and converted it into a hotel, which opened in 2014. Between the brewery and the hotel, the building also housed a jam factory and an auto-parts business.
Today The Ainscow is a four-star boutique hotel in Best Western's BW Premier Collection, run independently. It has 87 en-suite bedrooms over four floors, from mezzanine doubles to family rooms and executive suites, after part of the third floor was turned over to bedrooms. A roof terrace looks out across Manchester and Salford, and the Green Room bar, with its pizza oven, was added during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
Victorian industry, warmed with check, leather and orange
The hotel describes itself as a merger of traditional and contemporary, and the furniture had to work within that. In the bar, check-upholstered bar stools stand beside plain leather ones, so the counter feels relaxed rather than formal, and their timber legs pick up the wood-effect tiling on the bar front. Simple black drum pendants keep the room clean and modern.
Upstairs, the bedrooms keep their timbered ceilings. Grey walls and charcoal carpet give a calm base, and one strong colour, a bright orange in the throws, cushions and carpet pattern, does the work. In the restaurant, button-backed dining chairs in grey leather and crushed velvet sit on a striped carpet: more polished than the bar, but in the same soft greys.
The palette
- Heritage check
- Taupe leather
- Burnt orange
- Slate grey
- Warm oak
- Brewery brick
A guide to the main colours in the scheme, not exact fabric matches.
Take a look around
A short film of the finished project at The Ainscow, 1 minute 32 seconds long.
Your whole project, one partner
- A dedicated account manager
- Every product on one order
- One delivery, on time, every time
- Two manufacturing units and a showroom
