Merchants Warehouse

SJ 8397 NW, 698-1/30/39,

MANCHESTER, CASTLE STREET (West side), Merchants Warehouse

20.06.88

GV

II

Former canal warehouse serving Bridgewater Canal terminus, offices from early C21. Dated 1823 on pier between shipping holes; altered, fire-damaged and derelict when surveyed: Brown brick in English garden-wall bond, with some sandstone dressings, slate roof (damaged). Rectangular plan of 6 structural bays occupying whole of west end of north quay. West facade (to the canal) 4 storeys and 1:2:6:2:1 windows separated by former loading slots. The centre has two semi-circular arched shipping holes rising into the 1st floor, with a cylindrical sandstone pier and responds which have concave caps brought to a square, that in the centre inscribed "1823", timber lintels and wooden screens in the arches above; the loading slots have doorways at ground floor but are otherwise bricked-up, and those to the right have wooden gabled hoist-canopies; small round-headed windows with glazing bars and tilting casement openings in the lower half, all damaged. Moulded stone cornice with blocking course. The east facade is 3-storeyed, with similar windows and 4 surviving 3-stage loading slots (only partly bricked up) but the top floor of the northern half and its roof are missing. INTERIOR: not inspected, but reported to have timber beams, and remains of winding gear in roof. Distinctive feature of Bridgewater Canal terminus site, of considerable historical interest.

Listing NGR: SJ8309997526