Brooklyn Manchester Hotel - Brilliant for Disabled Guests

The train from Huddersfield to Manchester didn't have a voiceover and on the northern train, we were sat by the toilet.  I don't remember Manchester Oxford Road station other than there being a hill to get out.

Something the charity I founded, Leigh Network, does is bring families affected by the life limiting, debilitating and terminal illness, mitochondrial disease, together.

In August 2022, we held our very first weekend for adults!

I found the Brooklyn Manchester Hotel on the CHUC (Ceiling Hoist Users Club) website and chose it for that reason. Many with Mito require accessible rooms, including a hoist and a profile bed. Fortunately, the Brooklyn provides all three. Although, there’s only one profile bed and two hoist rooms.

Throughout the organising of such a monumental weekend, for our charity, the staff were brilliant and put my frazzled mind at ease.

When we arrived at the hotel we went into a beautifully decorated foyer. With dim lighting, a checked floor and artistic items hung everywhere. My mum was both amazed and amused by the chair that sat at the reception desk. It was pretty cool and looked like a headless man wearing a suit sat in the chair.

We then went up to our room, the lift, although it spoke, we had to keep putting our room card in so that the lift would move, which was a bit of a faff.

Finding our room in the dark grey corridor was a bit like trying to navigate a cave. Once we found our room, I was impressed!

Although quite dark, it was big. Two large single beds looked out of the window. In the far corner as you come in, there is a desk and chairs set. The TV, although we didn't have it on, was on the far wall, which seems to be a new hotel fashion.

The light switch and bathroom door handle were hard to see as it was all camouflaged in the grey. I have suggested to the hotel, that they highlight it in yellow.

The bathroom was lovely! It was huge! A shower seat you could flip up was against the grey wall. The toilet was to the right of the door. It had one bar and nice toilet paper. What I liked was the sink. It had pole either side that you could hold on to. The sink was wide too. My chair fitted well underneath.

Image of shower as described with glass panel, fold up seat, grey wall and bath to the right.

Image of toilet and sink as described with black handrails, main mirror and pull-out mirror, grey tiled floor and white tiled walls.

We then went down for dinner and to meet with the families. We sat with friends in the dimly lit restaurant. The table was good for the chair. My friend also uses a wheelchair, so it fitted two of us. The waiters were nice, very helpful and friendly. When I’d been waiting a while for the food, I called a waiter over and said, ‘Where’s our food please? I'm hungry.' About fifteen or so minutes later, we were tucking in.

I hadn't seen the Mito gang since before the pandemic, so we had a much overdue catch up.

That night, I slept fantastically! The bed was super soft and squashy (at breakfast the next day, someone did say the bed was 'too comfortable', this made me laugh, you can't please everyone).

Breakfast at the Brooklyn Manchester was nice. They have a selection of traditional English, cereal, pastry, fruit and yoghurt. Something lovely that made the weekend really special was the staff put a few of the tables together so that we could all eat and enjoy each other's company.

As mito is a fatiguing condition, I planned lots of rest time.

Many mito warriors are incredibly creative, so we arranged to do arts and crafts. The hotel was very good and provided us with round tables that made talking easy and fun.

We then had a delicious lunch that accommodated everyone’s dietary requirements, giving us interesting sandwiches.

At night, we organised a three-course dinner. Once again, staff went the extra mile and decorated the area beautifully.

Beautiful round dining table with black chairs set up with white tablecloth, silver cutlery and white napkins, water and wine glasses, each person has a place name and a Leigh Network band, leaflet and gift for them. At the centre of the table is a vase with a sunflower and foliage in. 

The meal was scrumptious!

Main meal on white plate, chicken
on top of a flat mushroom, gravy,
potato and vegetables beautifully arranged.

Dessert of cheesecake with
caramel sauce and popcorn on white plate

Many of the families would definitely return due to the disability friendliness. Our hoist room guest said that they rarely take their daughter on holiday because of not knowing if hoist needs will be met. Another family were amazed that the hoist went from the bed to the bathroom. We would definitely return.