The Griffin Report

She has stood for 140 years majestically overlooking Birmingham’s St. Philip’s Cathedral. It has been dormant for 20 years but The Grand Hotel is coming to life again after a £45 million refurbishment. Chamberlink columnist Jon Griffin went to meet general manager Peter Kienast, the man charged with awakening a Sleeping Beauty.

It’s been called La Grande Dame of Birmingham, a Sleeping Beauty for nearly two decades, a city institution where the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin once stalked the corridors…

“If only these walls could talk,” says general manager Peter Kienast, just days before Birmingham’s much loved Grand Hotel finally re-opens after the best part of 20 years dormant, a sad, almost forgotten slice of Victorian architecture quietly slumbering in the heart of the city’s foremost business district, Colmore Row.

‘No architect can build you that history, no money can buy you that history’

“The Grand is part of Birmingham, the hotel has always been a key part of the history of the city, a symbol of Birmingham’s hospitality nationwide. With that history and name, it deserves the right to put the city back on the map,” says Peter.

“No architect can build you that history, no money can buy you that history. There is no question about the excitement of this – this is the most loved hotel in Birmingham.”

Peter, an affable German with around 35 years’ experience worldwide in the hotel industry spanning a variety of roles in Munich, Dallas, Madeira, London, the Swiss Alps, Manchester and elsewhere, is the man charged with overseeing the long-awaited renaissance of the Grand, 140 years or more after it first opened its doors in the latter stages of Queen Victoria’s long reign.

And what an extraordinary story lies behind the facade of this Grade Two listed building overlooking St Philip’s Cathedral and its churchyard, opening on 1 February, 1879, just a week or so after the infamous Battle of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu Wars subsequently immortalised for later generations by Michael Caine, Stanley Baker et al in the epic film ‘Zulu’.

Nearly a century and a half later, the Grand echoes not to the sound of Zulu warriors but to the final touches of renovation work which have at last brought this grand old lady of Birmingham hospitality back to the top table, where she surely belongs. But it’s been a long, hard road for the Grand from those distant early years of the British Empire through to today’s postBrexit digital era.

Victorian property group Hortons – still today the owners of this unique piece of Birmingham real estate dating all the way back to developer Isaac Horton –transformed the original building into a luxury venue whose reputation and cachet were to resound far beyond the boundaries of industrial Birmingham for many decades.

By the early 20th Century the Grand was regularly playing host to Royalty, politicians and film stars with a VIP guest list which included the likes of King George V1, Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Laurel and Hardy and Joe Louis. The stardust continued to sprinkle throughout the hotel well into the 1960s and in February this year a visitors’ book signed in 1965 by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Shirley Bassey, Andy Williams, Lonnie Donegan –and subsequent Prime Minister Ted Heath – sold at auction for £6,700.

But it hasn’t always been rock-star glamour and silver screen glitz for the Grand, with financial difficulties and closures in the late 1960s and mid-70s before the hotel finally closed under the banner of Queens Moat Houses, in August 2002, seemingly for good. Demolition was only staved off after protests by the Victorian Society and the Grand was designated with a Grade Two listing.

Peter Kienast: “This is not a stuffy hotel. It is exclusive for everyone…”

Now, nearly 20 years later, the hotel where the Beatles and the Stones once slept has at last awoken from its long slumber, prolonged still further by Covid-19, following a £45m refurbishment over a period of several years– and is ready to rock again.

The rebirth of the hotel has been made possible by a joint initiative involving Hortons Estate, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, Birmingham City Council, Finance Birmingham and a global private investment group. A grand new era beckons for the Grand, as Peter Kienast is keen to point out.

‘We are where we should be, at the heart of Birmingham’

“There has been a complete overhaul. The original structure is still there but the investors have agreed to do a proper (renovation) job. The main contractors, Graham Construction, have done a superb job. You needed to take out the asbestos, all those things. It was in a state where it could not be repaired.”

Peter said the Grand aimed to reflect the culture of Birmingham and the surrounding area.

“There is artwork featuring Mini Coopers, Led Zeppelin lyrics, ELO, Black Sabbath. We really want to celebrate Birmingham in all its diversity.

“This is not a stuffy hotel. It is exclusive for everyone – it is not a case of ‘Oh, it is the Grand, we cannot go in there,’ that is not what we are about. We are confident about what we do, we are not arrogant.

“The great thing about Birmingham city centre is that you can walk everywhere. Most of the bars and restaurants we have nearby are all different. You have the Ivy across the square, you have Gaucho, you have Tattu – we do not compete, we complement each other.”

Peter and his team are now looking forward to a post-lockdown rebirth of the hotel which has already risen phoenix-like on several occasions over the past 140 years.

“We are now up to 60 staff, by the end of July we will be up to 100 and our aim is to have 150 staff, we would hope that we will reach that by the autumn.

“But you need to have the entertainment business back, music, concerts, international travel. At the moment we cannot make any projections. Nobody can tell or foresee.”

Covid and its aftermath notwithstanding, the 54-year-old father of two is crystal clear about his ambitions for the Grand.

“We are not saying we are the best hotel but we are where we should be, at the heart of Birmingham.

“We want to be the place where people look for something special, something different. For me personally, I cannot imagine a better job.”