Ardwick and Ancoats Hospital

This is a dispensary and hospital building, constructed between 1872 and 1873 by Daniel Lewis. It is built of red brick with polychrome bands, featuring steeply-pitched hipped slate roofs. The building has an irregular plan and is designed in the Gothic style, spanning three storeys and basements, with a 1:1:3:1:1 bay arrangement and symmetrical elements. The central three-bay section projects and is treated as a four-stage tower, incorporating a two-centred arched doorway inscribed with "ANCOATS HOSPITAL" above and "ARDWICK AND ANCOATS DISPENSARY" in an extrados band. The tower has two-light windows on the first and second floors, along with weathered coping, stone turrets, and an elaborate turret featuring an oculus and a tall, oversailing parapet with corner tourelles (formerly topped with a saddle-back roof). Throughout the building, windows have narrow arched lights with polychrome heads and impost bands. The central bays feature shafts, with mostly three-light windows on the ground floor, two-light windows on the first floor, and four- and three-light windows recessed on both floors. The second floor has two-light windows rising into gabled half-dormers. Later additions exist at the rear. The interior remains uninspected.

Historically, the building's construction was financed by a gift of £5,000 from Hannah Bra(c)kenbury, a subsequent bequest from her, and local fundraising. In 1875, it operated as a provident dispensary with means-tested membership. The site housed the world’s first dedicated fracture clinic in 1914. The dispensary is referenced in Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Mary Barton’ (1848). The building was the subject of L.S. Lowry's painting ‘The Outpatients’ Hall’ (1952), depicting the accident and emergency department which was operational until 1979. The hospital ceased operation in 1989.