Telephone Buildings

The Telephone Buildings, located at 5 New York Street in Manchester, is a former telephone exchange built in 1909 by L. Stokes and Beaumont. The building features a red brick exterior with cream faience dressings and banding, blue brick bands at the quoins, and a granite basement. It has a leaded roof and a rectangular plan, standing three storeys tall with a basement and attic.

The façade facing New York Street consists of five bays, with a central entrance that has a segmental arch and paired wooden doors. The windows are square-headed, with pairs in the outer bays and triples in the other bays. The central bay features a canted oriel that extends through the first and second floors, all windows adorned with flush faience mullions. Below the first-floor windows, there are diamond-pattern panels.

Above the second floor, there is a faience console cornice, and the attic has square-headed windows with moulded surrounds, including a Diocletian window in the centre. The building is topped with six chimneys that rise between the bays and are linked in pairs at the roof level. The eaves gutter is complemented by a subsidiary cornice. The left and right-hand return sides of the building are similar in design.