Joshua Hoyle Building, Including Roby House

The Joshua Hoyle Building, which includes Roby House, is a textile warehouse located in Manchester, built between 1904 and 1906 by Charles Heathcote and Sons. It features a steel frame with brick cladding and decorative elements made of green and cream glazed terracotta, topped with a slate roof. The building has an irregular plan on a corner site and showcases an eclectic architectural style with Elizabethan influences.

It stands five storeys tall with an attic and has six bays facing Piccadilly, along with a canted corner at the left end. The gabled end bays are complemented by slightly narrower central bays that have coupled gables, while the intermediate bays feature gabled dormers. All floors are adorned with 3-light mullioned windows, with the end and central bays displaying canted oriel windows that are tiered from the second to the fourth floors. The central bay includes enriched terracotta surrounds with raised lettering that reads "JOSHUA HOYLE AND SONS LTD" between the second and third floors.

The left end of the building has a canted corner bay, which is clasped between the gabled bays of the front and return walls. This bay features a Baroque-style arched entrance beneath a dentilled semicircular canopy, flanked by oculi with swags. The canted windows are tiered up to the fourth floor and are elaborately decorated. Additionally, there is a set-back turret with an octagonal roof topped by a wooden bellcote with a finial. The left return has one gabled bay with staggered windows, and behind that is a warehouse range with coupled loading doorways at ground level and 2-light windows above. The interior has not been inspected. This building is of considerable historical interest as an early example of steel-frame construction.