Atlas Chambers

MANCHESTER

SJ8398SE KING STREET 698-1/27/197 (South side) No.98 Atlas Chambers

GV II

Insurance company office, now banking hall and offices. 1929, by Michael Waterhouse (grandson of Alfred Waterhouse), for the Atlas Assurance Company. Steel-framed with cladding of Portland stone (roof not visible). Narrow rectangular plan on corner site, with chamfered corner. C20 classical style. A 6-storey 4-window facade plus 3-window attic, consisting of a 2-storey banking hall with a cornice, then 3 regular storeys (the upper 2 with shallow giant pilasters) with another cornice, and the top floor and attic treated as a 2-storey 3-window pedimented penthouse with flanking 1-storey wings. The banking hall has a plate-glass screen with a bronze doorway set in the centre and surmounted by a bronze Atlas with golden globe, a bronze plaque on the corner and a cartouche above this, and its left return side (to Brown Street) has a similar plate-glass screen with fluted Doric columns distyle in antis. The upper floors have very regular fenestration (matching that of Ship Canal House to the right) consisting of tilting casement windows with margin panes and plain surrounds, the one-window corner and 6-window return side matching the front (but the attic storey set back at this side). Forms group with Ship Canal House (with which it is easily confused at first sight; q.v.).

Listing NGR: SJ8398798247