The Midland Hotel

The Midland Hotel is a collaborative photographic and literature project comprising of a book of the work of two artists: photographer Simon Webb and novelist Sarah Hall.

The wonderful 1930s building, designed by Oliver Hill and overlooking Morecambe Bay, is considered to be one of the most important art deco buildings in Britain.

The Hotel’s mixed fortunes saw it fall into a state of semi-dereliction. In 2003 property developers Urban Splash bought the building and it reopened as a hotel in June 2008.

Simon Webb has been photographing the Hotel since 2004 and has documented its transformation from a state of abandonment and dereliction to being brought back to life and newly inhabited.

Sarah Hall has written a series of fictional vignettes that have both been inspired by and have inspired Simon’s photographs. Sarah is the author of The Electric Michelangelo, set in the turn-of-the-century seaside resorts of Morecambe and Coney Island, and shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. She won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2007 for her latest novel The Carhullan Army.

The publication also has an introduction from Heysham-based writer, critic, Turner Prize judge Michael Bracewell – co-author, with Linder, of I Know Where I’m Going: A Guide to Morecambe and Heysham as well as some of the photographs from the RIBA archives, taken when the building first opened in 1933

The Midland Hotel costs £16.99, plus postage and packaging.

Alternatively you can pay by cheque. Send a cheque for £16.99 if you want to pick the book up from our offices or for £20.49 and we'll post it to you. Please make your cheque out to Litfest and send it to Box 751, Lancaster, LA1 9AJ. Please include your full name and mailing address with your cheque as well as your name.

The Midland hotel book is co-published by Litfest and Dewi Lewis Publishing

Project funded by Arts Council England. Publication sponsored by Urban Splash

The Midland Hotel £16.99 Add to Cart