A Captain America filming location, a gigantic bedroom with its own bar and a beautiful underground pool: Inside England’s ‘best large hotel’ – on a stunning dockside site in Liverpool

• Ted Thornhill checked in to Titanic Hotel Liverpool, declared Large Hotel of the Year by VisitEngland
• The hotel is located on a site used as a filming location for Captain America: The First Avenger 
• READ MORE: Travel as we know it could be on the brink of EXTINCTION by 2040. Here’s why… 

It’s on the site of a filming location for Captain America: The First Avenger – and it’s a marvel of a place to stay.

Titanic Hotel Liverpool won the Large Hotel of the Year gong at this year’s VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. And I can confirm that it was a worthy recipient, with the location’s Captain America cameo adding an extra dollop of allure.

I learned about the site’s cinematic pedigree from Andrew, a banterous and chatty taxi driver who delivered us to the hotel for a short stay from Liverpool Lime Street railway station.

He revealed that in the 2011 blockbuster, the scene where a freshly bulked-up Steve Rogers chases a Hydra agent driving a yellow taxi was filmed on Regent Road next to the historical Grade II listed North Warehouse of Stanley Dock that houses the hotel.

The chase sequence continues within the iconic Stanley Dock complex, with the Hydra agent – plot spoiler – attempting to get away in a sinister little black submarine.

Titanic Hotel Liverpool won the Large Hotel of the Year gong at this year’s VisitEngland Awards for Excellence. Pictured is the subterranean adults-only spa

Ted Thornhill and his family checked into the hotel. Pictured above is their split-level dock-view superior double room, which he said could easily accommodate not only his family, but his two-bedroom London flat

Stanley Dock has also been used for gritty scenes in Peaky Blinders and 2009’s Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr.

These days the Victorian North Warehouse looks almost unrecognisable from its screen appearances thanks to a £36million regeneration project that has put Titanic Hotel Liverpool centre stage on the site since it opened in 2014.

The DNA of the building has been beautifully preserved outside and inside, with the 153-room four-star hotel seducing with lashings of exposed brickwork, steel columns, alluring black-and-grey hues and bedrooms that the VisitEngland judges say are ‘spacious’ but that I’m keen to point out can be gargantuan.

Ted said of his room, pictured: ‘As well as the dimensions, I’m also happy to firmly endorse the statement floorstanding lamps standing sentry in the top left and right corners, the smart ensuite with its rain shower and standalone tub, the sumptuous beds, the studded-metal bar complete with a duo of stools – and the transfixing [photographic] links to the liner the hotel is named after’

The DNA of the historical Grade II listed Victorian North Warehouse that houses Titanic Hotel Liverpool ‘has been beautifully preserved outside and inside’, says Ted

This scene for Captain America: The First Avenger was filmed on Regent Road, which is next to the Stanley Dock location of Titanic Hotel Liverpool

Captain America is pictured above in Liverpool’s Stanley Dock, startled by his transformation

My partner, six-year-old daughter and I were in a split-level dock-view superior double room with a huge double bed swathed in Egyptian cotton and a sofa bed on an elevated section at one end.

Upon entering we went wide-eyed. You could – quite literally – fit our two-bed South London flat inside it.

As well as the dimensions, I’m also happy to firmly endorse the statement floorstanding lamps standing sentry in the top left and right corners, the smart ensuite with its rain shower and standalone tub, the sumptuous beds, the studded-metal bar complete with a duo of stools – and the transfixing links to the liner the hotel is named after.

These came courtesy of wall-mounted photographs of the Titanic being built and a deck plan above the bed revealing the layout of the ship’s cabins, along with vintage ad posters.

I found them mesmerising.

The Titanic never docked at Liverpool, but the company that owned it – White Star Line – was headquartered in the city on James Street in what the locals dub ‘the streaky bacon building’, on account of its brown-and-white striped exterior.

The 153-room four-star Titanic Hotel Liverpool seduces with lashings of exposed brickwork, steel columns and alluring black-and-grey hues

Pictured above is Stanley’s Bar & Grill, where Ted enjoyed ‘excellent fish and chips and a fine bottle of Chablis (£45)’

We learned this on a Liverpool City Sights bus tour that doesn’t earn you any cool points, but does stitch some of the most interesting parts of the city together for you, with amazing facts revealed by a knowledgeable guide at every gear change.

We got on at Albert Dock and by the time we’d circled back round had learned that there is far, far more to Liverpool than The Beatles and its two football clubs.

I’ve always known that Liverpool was a great city – my father, mother and sister all went to the university there, studying architecture, maths and physics, and French.

And they all thoroughly enjoyed their time there.

Ted writes: ‘These days the Victorian North Warehouse looks almost unrecognisable from its screen appearances thanks to a £36million regeneration project that has put Titanic Hotel Liverpool (right) centre stage on the site since it opened in 2014’

Ted takes a bus tour of Liverpool, learning along the way that Liverpool Cathedral (above) is the longest church in the UK at 188 metres (616ft) in length

Pictured above is Liverpool’s Lime Street station – the oldest still-operating railway terminus in the world (launched in 1836). Ted travelled to the station from London Euston with Avanti West Coast

But I had no idea that Liverpool is home to the biggest outdoor clock faces in Britain (on the Royal Liver Building); that Lime Street station is the oldest still-operating railway terminus in the world (launched in 1836); that it’s home to one of the world’s most expensive and rarest books (Birds of America by John James Audubon, on display at Liverpool Central Library, is worth millions); that it has more Georgian buildings than Bath; that it has more public statues than anywhere in Britain apart from Westminster; that it has 2,500 listed buildings; that Liverpool Cathedral is the longest church in the UK at 188 metres (616ft) in length; that the X-ray machine was designed and developed in Liverpool in the 19th century; and that arguably, Liverpool’s St George’s Hall was the world’s first air-conditioned building.

We hopped on a Mersey ferry cruise and learned even more facts, including that Birkenhead Park (across the River Mersey from Liverpool) was the first public park in the world.

Of course, no trip to Liverpool would be complete without a visit to The Cavern Club where, in the words of the club’s website, The Beatles’ forged their musical identity’.

The Fab Four played their first gig at The Cavern, located on Mathew Street, on Thursday, February 9, 1961. And went on to perform there another 291 times.

The cellar club these days is a surreal mixture of live music venue and museum, with displays stuffed with musical memorabilia lining the walls and the floorspaces crammed with groups of hyperventilating tourists taking selfies.

We joined in.

Ted and his family visited The Cavern Club where, in the words of the club’s website, The Beatles ‘forged their musical identity’. The Fab Four played their first gig at The Cavern, located on Mathew Street, on Thursday, February 9, 1961. And went on to perform there another 291 times

Ted and his family hopped on a Mersey ferry cruise and learned that Birkenhead Park (across the River Mersey from Liverpool) was the first public park in the world

Back at the hotel, we snapped more photos in the epic corridor outside our bedroom – surely the widest in the hospitality industry – and then descended to the hotel’s Stanley’s Bar & Grill for excellent fish and chips and a fine bottle of Chablis (£45), delivered by well-drilled and chirpy staff, who thoughtfully handed our daughter a little Titanic activity booklet.

In the morning, an impressive breakfast buffet was laid out in the same venue, but then heartbreak for the little one, when we discover that the hotel’s bewitchingly luxe subterranean pool is adults-only.

But this was the only fly in the ointment during a memorable stay in that marvel of a hotel we discovered is in a marvel of a city.

TRAVEL FACTS 

Ted and his family were hosted by Titanic Hotel Liverpool, where rooms start from around £145 a night. Visit www.titanichotelliverpool.com.

PROS: Beautifully restored building, friendly staff, amazing bedrooms with mesmerising photos, solid food and drink offering, fascinating location with links to Hollywood, stunning spa.

CONS: Adults-only spa pool a disappointment for families.

Rating out of five: 4.5 stars 

VisitEngland Awards for Excellence Large Hotel of the Year Award

This recognises ‘full-service hotels providing truly memorable guest experiences and demonstrating excellence across every aspect of the business’.

Eligibility criteria:

• A full-service hotel – that must include a reception/check-in area, restaurant, bar, dinner and breakfast.

• Likely to offer a minimum of 35 bedrooms. However, a business with fewer than 35 bedrooms can apply if it is a full-service hotel with extensive facilities.

For more visit www.visitengland.com.

Avanti

Ted used Avanti West Coast to reach Liverpool from London Euston. Visit www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk.  

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