The Grand in Southport unveils new Princess Grace Suite as £4m transformation continues

THE ground floor of the stunning art deco venue on Lord Street, formerly The Grand Casino, opened in July, featuring The Grand Brasserie and Chloe's Piano Bar. Friday, 14 October 2022, saw the official opening of the second phase in the ambitious project, with people able to view the Princess Grace Suite on the 1st floor. The stylish function and events space seats 250 people while its huge windows provide beautiful views across Lord Street as sunlight floods into the room. The suite also features the legendary Disney windows, which were created in the 1930s following agreement from Walt Disney himself when the historic building was used as a cinema.

The scenes feature a series of Disney characters including:- Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, and have been lovingly restored. Owner Andrew Mikhail, who heads Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group, has led a £4million investment into the venue already, with more to come.

Harry's Bar and the Sky Bar on the top floor are scheduled to open in Spring next year while Phase II of the extensive renovation programme will see hotel rooms and spa facilities added.

Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group has already invested extensively, in Southport, transforming Lord Street's 'Northern Quarter' through The Bold Hotel, the Lord Street Hotel, the Lord Street Hotel Sports Bar and Punch Tarmey's Irish themed bar. The firm also operates the feature bar in the centre of Southport Market.

The Princess Grace Suite has hosted its 1st event, a 40th birthday party for champion boxer Martin Murray. Martin held the WBA Interim Middleweight title from 2011 to 2014, the British and Commonwealth titles between:- 2010 and 2012, and challenged 5 times for a world title. He's not alone in believing the new venue will prove to be a knockout. While the official opening is this Friday, the suite is already open for viewings for anyone who wants to look around it with event bookings in mind. The room has been named in honour of Grace, 1 of Andrew and Vicky Mikhail's children (Chloe and Harry have been similarly honoured), as well as Princess Grace of Monaco.

The Grand General Manager Eimear.McElroy said:- "The Princess Grace Suite is a 250 seater function space that is perfect for weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, surprise parties, conferences, events and other celebrations. We have had a lot of inquiries already! It is an absolutely beautiful space, the same quality upstairs as it is downstairs. People will also get the chance to admire the room's famous Disney windows. They are all back and fully restored. It took a long time to ensure they were perfect. This building is a blend of the old and the modern, offering our guests a real contemporary experience while respecting the heritage of this magnificent building. During the day, the light floods into the room, it looks really good. It's a fantastic view looking out onto Lord Street, both during the day and also at night, when the lights in the trees are sparkling."

A number of events have already been booked in which people can look forward to. Eimear said:- "We have an 80s Disco Bingo Night with Brendan Riley, on Saturday, 26 November 2022, which has already sold out! We have a Wine Club event on 3rd November. Our topic will be the vineyards of Italy, with my old sommelier from Glasgow, John Marshall, taking people on a journey from Veneto to Campania, Piedmont to Puglia. Visitors can enjoy an evening sampling 6 superb wines with specially selected nibbles to match for £30 per person. John is from Kentucky and lives in Glasgow and comes down to Southport specially to host our Wine Club. Our 1st Wine Club event went really well, we had lots of really positive feedback from our guests. Lots of them are already booked for this event and are bringing more friends with them! We are working on organising lots more fun events for people to enjoy and are already very busy with our Christmas bookings, including on Christmas Day."

The magnificent Grade II Listed art deco building was opened in 1923 and has since entertained generations of Sandgrounders as a cinema, as a bingo hall, as an early car showroom, and as the former Grand Casino. It celebrates its 100th birthday next year with the future looking bright. Eimear said:- "We have lots more work to do over these next few months. This building is huge! It is like peeling an onion, with so many different layers to it. Once Christmas is out the way we will continue to work on opening our new Sky Bar and Harry's Bar on the top floor, which will both be ready to enjoy for Spring time. The hotel aspect will take shape after that, it is a big project. It will take a good 6 months to completely refurbish the roof at the back of the building. We are looking forward to it. It is the building that never stops giving! People who have come in and spoken to us have been saying that restoring and reopening this building is fantastic news for Southport. It has that real wow factor and is really putting Southport firmly on the map. We have the 100th Anniversary of the building coming up next year; we have really big plans for that. People will be excited with what they can look forward to!"

Your wedding, your party, your conference. The Grand creates the occasion that will become a treasured memory, all taken care of by a passionate and dedicated team. Find out more by visiting:- TheGrand.Co.UK.

Strictly stars shine brightly for St Joseph's Hospice

9 supporters of St Joseph's Hospice in Thornton performed live at its Strictly St Joseph's event last month which has raised around £10,000 for the charity.

The annual event, now in its 2nd year, took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in Liverpool, and was supported by Marshside School of Dance in Southport which provided the professional dance partners and training sessions for all 9 participants.

During the evening, Clare Whitehead performed a fabulous Jive to Candy Man with her dancer partner Olivia. Christine Makin danced a wonderful Waltz to It Is You with her dance partner Lisa. Jennifer Swain performed a stunning Salsa to Conga with her partner Emma.

Becca Cordey and her dance partner Tash danced a cheerful Cha Cha Cha to Prince's iconic hit Kiss. Donna Murphy performed a dazzling Samba to Hot Hot Hot with her partner Megan.

Sarah Gadzina danced a cheeky Charleston to Yes Sir! That's My Baby with professional dancer and owner of Marshside School of Dance, Kaz Leach; and Aaron Pearson performed a tremendous Argentine Tango to Edge of Seventeen with his partner Lucy.

The Audience Award, chosen by the audience on the night, was presented to Elizabeth Brown Blackburn and her professional dance partner Eleanor who performed a funky Street Latin dance to September.

Then, the title of Strictly St Joseph's Champions 2022 was awarded by the judges to Joseph McEvoy and his professional partner Grace who rock and rolled the roof off to Jailhouse Rock.

During the evening, guests enjoyed a 4 course meal and entertainment from singer Scott Chapman on top of the Live Strictly dance show and a disco at the end of the night.

Four judges kindly gave up their time to support the Hospice on the night, including:- Professional Dance Teacher, David Beckham Doyle; Professional Latin dancer, Wendy Greenwood; Olympian, Rebecca Romero MBE; and Theatre Manager, Sarah Massey.

All 9 contestants have raised thousands of pounds for the Thornton based charity by raising their own sponsorship.

Maxine Armstrong, head of fundraising and lottery at St Joseph's Hospice, said:- "Our 2nd Strictly St Joseph's event was another fantastic success. All 9 dancers were absolutely fabulous. They really put their heart and soul in to learning their routines and their energy and performances on the night were just brilliant. To top it all off they have all raised an incredible amount of money for the Hospice. We'd also like to thank everyone who bought a ticket for the event for showing such generosity and support to the Hospice on the evening. We also raised lots of money from our auction and our raffle as well as from the audience voting on the night. A huge thank you to Marshside School of Dance for helping us for a second year running to make this event such a great success as well as to our judges for giving up their time to support the Hospice. All the money we raised from Strictly St Joseph's will fund compassionate end of life Hospice care for people from our communities across Merseyside and West Lancashire as well as support for their families during a very tough time."