Marlsbro House

Marlsbro House

Factory, built in 1823, probably designed by millwrights and engineers Wren and Bennett.

Materials and Setting

The building is constructed of red brick with applied cement render, some iron framing, and slate roofs. It is prominently sited at the junction of Hilton Street and Newton Street in Manchester's northern quarter.

Exterior

The building comprises four storeys plus a basement and loft, extending 16 bays in length. The north-west facing front has its central four bays projecting by approximately 200mm. The render is applied in a checked pattern of light and dark grey, with grey paint at ground floor level. Windows have modern metal frames with external roller shutters at ground floor. Slim concrete sills are visible but no lintels. At the left is a gable parapet with kneeler. A short parapet rises above the third-floor windows, partly concealing the loft. The right-hand bay has a square parapet which rises to the ridge height of the pitched roof, reading as a stair tower and containing the principal entrance bay. This entrance, dating to the mid-20th century, is surrounded by grey mosaic panels. Another entrance to the ground floor lies in the third bay from the right, with a modern door and no surround. The pitched roof is slated with an applied coating. A clerestory is set back from the parapet, with cast-iron stays (actually principal rafters) running at a steeper pitch from the eaves above the glazing out to the parapet.

The north-east wall facing Faraday Street is four bays deep, with coped, kneelered gable, and matches the front in appearance. The rear wall has checked render only as far as the first windows; the rest is in plain grey-brown render. External metal fire escapes serve the second bay from the right and third from the left, accessed from altered window openings. A small chimney stack rises above the parapet between the fourth and fifth bays from the right, and another projects at the right-hand side of the left-hand bay, which is blind and check-rendered. Single-storey rendered-brick entrances project in bays 7 and 11 from the left. The roof matches the front in appearance. The south-west wall facing Hilton Street matches the front, with a matching entrance at the left, and a tall wooden door with applied moulded beads creating 18 panels at the right.

Interior Structure

The main construction is of "slow-burn" type, which omits joists in favour of heavy floorboards, probably 7 inches deep, resting directly on cross-beams. These beams are centrally supported by a single line of cast-iron columns. Unusually, this is supplemented by cast-iron ring beams built into the brick walls at the head of each floor. These are formed of inverted T-beams, with iron quadrants across the internal angles of the building. On the third floor the quadrants have empty slots which probably accommodated vertical wrought-iron tie-rods. The beams feature metal spigots which angle down into mortices in the ends of the timber cross-beams, secured by a bolt. In the end walls the beam soffit exhibits bolts for fixing the ends of the heavy millboard flooring. The combination of these structural elements forms a diaphragm at each floor.

The roof structure is composite, comprising timber and iron in mansard form. Iron I-section upper rafters are connected by an iron pin to the timber collar. A central wrought-iron tension rod runs from the ridge to the collar. Additional iron T-section rafters run at a steeper pitch down from the collar. The collar rests on cast-iron posts with a shoe cast into their heads. A wrought-iron tension rod runs from the shoe to the timber tie-beam. The lower principal rafters are partly external, rising through the lower-pitched roof below the clerestory, and are fixed to the external face of the shoe. The trusses are connected by cast-iron purlins with lugs to retain timber rafters in place, and which curve upwards at their ends where they are bolted to the principal rafter. Between the trusses, the loft wall is formed of a cast-iron framework pinned together, with a middle rail, posts forming three windows between trusses, and a top rail incorporating a gutter for the upper slate roof. The junctions of the middle rail display sockets which would accommodate vertical posts, now absent, supported off the tie-beam and supporting the clerestory. The wall below the clerestory is timber-boarded. The structure now displays some distortion and cracking to the tie-rods and the rails.

Much internal subdivision and lining out obscures the historic fabric, and no other features of interest are visible.