Princess Buildings

Princess Buildings, located on Princess Street in Manchester, is a group of various textile warehouses and offices that have been converted to office use. Built around 1860 to 1880, the buildings are likely iron-framed and feature a cladding of sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. The structure has an irregular rectangular plan and showcases an eclectic architectural style.

The buildings rise four storeys above a basement and attic, presenting a symmetrical facade with twelve windows divided by pilasters into bays of 1:1:3:1:1:3:1:1, complemented by curved two-window corners. The facade includes a plinth, an enriched cornice over the ground floor, and enriched sill-bands on the upper floors. The design features a bracketed cornice and an open-arcaded parapet with very tall slender chimneys that resemble pinnacles between the bays, topped by a mansard roof with flat-roofed dormers.

The ground floor has a wide segmental-arched entrance at the center, framed by a pilastered surround with foliated imposts and a volute keystone. There are moulded round-headed doorways in the second and sixth bays, also with pilasters. The windows throughout are sashed without glazing bars, featuring moulded surrounds and mullions. The first-floor windows have shouldered heads, the second-floor windows are segmental-headed, and the fourth-floor windows have two-centred arched heads with set-in shafts and carved capitals. The corner windows have curved glazing with prominent cornices on the first and second floors.

On the left return side, there are three sets of windows arranged as 3:2:3:3:2, with coupled round-headed doorways leading to Nos. 72 and 74 in the second bay and a similar doorway to No. 76 in the fifth bay. This side features segmental-headed windows on the second floor and round-headed windows on the third floor, adorned with colonettes of polished pink granite and sandstone caps. The right-hand return side follows a similar but simpler style. Nos. 72, 74, and 76 were added to the list on April 5, 1983.