Northern Assurance Building

MANCHESTER

SJ8398SE PRINCESS STREET 698-1/27/321 (North East side) 03/10/74 Nos.9 TO 21 (Odd) Northern Assurance Buildings

GV II

Includes: No.8 CLARENCE STREET. Shops and offices. 1902, by Waddington, Son and Dunkerley; slightly altered. Probably iron-framed, with cladding of sandstone ashlar and some grey granite, steeply pitched slate roofs on several levels. Irregular plan on corner site. Elaborate building in eclectic style with French Renaissance accent. Mostly 5 storeys and attic, but with return side to Clarence Street partly 3 storeys and attic; principal facade of 3 wide bays (windows of 3, 2 and 3 lights) plus a broad curved corner, symmetrical except for this. Panelled frieze over ground floor (interrupted by central entrance arch), 1st and 2nd floors in French Renaissance style with superimposed triangular pilasters surmounted by ball finials, and enriched panels between floors, the centre feature rising to the 3rd floor and finished as a balustrade parapet with ball finials, the outer bays at 3rd and 4th floors recessed and the heads bridged by semi-circular arches with pierced spandrels, string-course over 4th floor with egg-and-dart enrichment, attic windows under richly decorated shaped gables, that in the centre 2-tiered and flanked by octagonal turrets; curved corner similarly treated and finished as a cylindrical turret which has domed roof with corona and finial, flanked by similar turrets. Central round-headed doorway recessed in a giant round-headed arch which has a 2-light window under the head. Sashed windows without glazing bars, those at 1st and 2nd floors, in centre of 3rd floor, and central gable all recessed behind colonnaded screens; mullion-and-transom windows at 3rd and 4th floors, mullioned windows to attic. Similar fenestration to the corner. Return side to Clarence Street smaller and simpler.

Listing NGR: SJ8387298182