Vienna House By Wyndham Andel’s Lodz. Enjoy Industrial Chic Luxury In Lodz

Anthea Gerrie stays at Industrial-Chic Vienna House By Wyndham Andel’s Lodz and Pays Homage To The Blood, Sweat And Tears Of Her Ancestors.

Lodz may be thousands of miles from the cotton plantations of the Deep South, but both have managed to expertly transform the former sweatshops for which they were once notorious into absorbing visitor attractions. In the case of the Polish city it’s Manufaktura, a huge 19th century textiles factory complex which now houses the fabulously stylish Vienna House Andel’s boutique hotel and art gallery.

Sleeping here was a poignant experience for me, given I was literally treading in the footsteps of my ancestors. Like tens of thousands who imagined its streets were paved with gold, they came to Lodz (pronounced Woodge rather than Lodge, as it’s often incorrectly dubbed) to work their fingers to the bone in the late 19th century rather than making the fortune they hoped for.

As tailors, they likely worked at Manufaktura, overlooked by its wealthy owner Izrael Poznanski, whose mansion next door to the Vienna House is a major Lodz attraction in its own right. In fact the whole of the outwardly forbidding red brick complex has been totally transformed into a lively shopping, dining and entertainment hub.

Some of the old mill machinery is lovingly preserved within the bowels of the hotel to acknowledge the building’s industrial heritage, with 277 stylish guest rooms and suites arranged around the perimeter, the choicest overlooking Manufaktura.

Colourful fabric headboards, cushions and runners in the rooms speak to the textile weavers of the past, nightclub-style lighting brings a touch of glamour to the bathrooms, and the hotel offering is completed with an excellent ground-floor restaurant and bar, a spa, pool and sky room for late-night drinks overlooking panoramic views. There’s also an impressive in-house contemporary art gallery well worth taking an hour to explore down the long, long corridors before setting off into town.

For a former industrial powerhouse, Lodz has a great deal of culture to explore, including the Museum of the Factory art gallery on the street side of Manufaktura close to the Vienna House. Visual arts have grabbed the city by the throat over the past decade, and the street murals are spectacular. To discover them at their point of greatest concentration, head for Piotrokowska, a broad boulevard more than three miles long lined with restaurants, shops and cafes.

Don’t miss the many sculptures celebrating notable local figures which punctuate this partly-pedestrianised thoroughfare including world-famous concert pianist Artur Rubinstein (poignantly playing a bronze piano endowed with wings), Nobel prizewinning author Wladyslaw Reymont, whose book about the city’s gold rush, The Promised Land, was turned into one of Poland’s most famous films, and philosopher Julian Tuwim.

Murals also stud the side streets, most obviously at OFF Piotrkowska, a courtyard whose old industrial buildings now house grungy-chic bars, shops and cafes which could have been born in Shoreditch, and more secretly in at least one of the private courtyards which have attracted street artists from all over the world – check out the Birth of the Day installation which plasters an entire apartment building with fantastical paintings.

Poland’s rail stations tend to be somewhat far-flung from the city centre, but allow most of a day before heading back to Warsaw, about a 90-minute ride, from Fabryczna railway station, whose diamond-paned roof throws fabulous shadows onto the concourse. The station sits right across from EC1, an impressive, converted power plant which now houses an excellent museum devoted to Polish cinema – allow enough time to enjoy the many absorbing film clips – and another dedicated to comic culture.