Burlington Rooms (Schunk Laboratories, Manchester University) And Attached Railings

The Burlington Rooms, also known as the Schunck Laboratories, is a villa that is now part of a university social club. It was originally built in 1871 at Kersal for Edward Schunck and was moved to its current location in 1904. The building is constructed of yellow brick in Flemish bond, with sandstone dressings and a slate roof. It has a rectangular plan, two storeys over a basement, and features four bays, with the first and fourth bays slightly projecting.

The façade includes two string courses, a projected eaves cornice, a pedimented gable on the first bay, and a square clock turret on the fourth bay. The tall basement has three windows, and the basement area is protected by spiked railings. There is a segmental-headed doorway in the fourth bay, accessed by a doglegged flight of steps, which leads to a recessed panelled door with a stone tympanum inscribed with "18" "71" and the monogrammed initials "HES" in a roundel.

The ground floor features segmental-headed windows with moulded segmental-headed architraves and six-pane glazing, including tilting-casement openings. The outer bays on the first floor have similar windows, while the central bay has round-headed windows. A stone plaque between the second and third windows on the ground floor notes that the building was bequeathed to Owens College by Edward Schunck, DSc FRS, for chemical research and was re-erected here in 1904. The short clock turret has corner pilasters, a central clock face, a stone frieze, and a pyramidal roof topped with a weathervane.