Inside historic hotel that survived the Blitz... but is now at risk of being lost forever

A magnificent building that has stood for over 120 years faces an uncertain future. One of the latest additions to the Buildings at Risk Register compiled by SAVE Britain's Heritage, Trafford Park Hotel has stood at the heart of the industrial estate since 1902.

It was built to serve the workers living in Trafford Park Village, more than 500 houses constructed as part of the Trafford Park industrial estate. And the Trafford Park Hotel in Stretford would become a cornerstone of the community, serving as a place to drink after a hard day's work in the surrounding factories.

The colossal building managed to survive The Blitz in 1940 when Hitler targeted Manchester's industrial heartland. Robert John Alexander, who was a teenager living in a house near to the hotel when he witnessed the German Air Force attacks, remembers one close call vividly.

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Speaking to the Manchester Evening News in 2015, he recalled how an incendiary bomb dropped by the marauding Luftwaffe came close to hitting the hotel. "The bomb actually dropped on the bowling green of the Trafford Park Hotel, and we found one of the bowls in our front room, you know the bowls from the bowling green. And we were right in line with the blast. That was Christmas 1940," he said.

In 1987, the Trafford Park Hotel was awarded a Grade II listed status by English Heritage, thanks to its magnificent Renaissance-style architecture. In its later years, it was a popular drinking hole for Manchester United fans attending the game.

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