Former Wholesale Fish Market

The former Wholesale Fish Market is located on High Street in Manchester and dates back to 1873. It originally featured a market building with a front range of shops and offices, though it has now been reduced to its outer walls. The structure is built of red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings and has a slate roof on the front range.

Architecturally, the building is designed in a Romanesque style and has a large rectangular plan with the front range at the west end, while the market area is situated at the rear. The south facade on High Street showcases four wide gables, each with a symmetrical three-bay layout. This facade includes a rusticated stone plinth, stone sill-bands, and imposts, as well as stepped gables adorned with a Lombard frieze and pitched stone copings topped with apex finials.

A prominent round-headed archway is flanked by round-headed windows, all featuring slender stone shafts with foliated caps and stone surrounds. The central arches contain wrought-iron gates and segmental lintels with inscriptions, including one that reads "OPENED:14:FEB:1873:BOOTH:MAYOR" and others stating "WHOLESALE:FISH:MARKETS." The north side of the building is similar in design.

The front block, which includes numbers 9 to 19 Thomas Street, is a three-storey, nine-bay range that is symmetrical, with the centre and end bays slightly projecting forward. The ends feature attics and a central pedimented doorway, with 20th-century shop fronts at ground level. The first floor has arcades of large round-headed arched windows, while the second floor features two- and three-light sash windows with shafts that have carved capitals. The building is further enhanced by a moulded brick frieze, a stone cornice, a central pedimented upstand, tall corniced chimneys between the bays, gabled dormers over the outer bays, rounded corners with doorways at ground level, and curved three-light windows in enriched stone surrounds on the upper floors. The building is topped with balustraded parapets and mansard roofs with wrought-iron cresting. The ends of the building return in a similar style.