The Portico Library And The Bank Public House

MANCHESTER

SJ8498SW MOSLEY STREET 698-1/28/240 (East side) 25/02/52 No.57 The Portico Library and The Bank PH (Formerly Listed as: MOSLEY STREET (East side) No.57 Portico Library and Lloyds Bank)

GV II*

Subscription library, subsequently bank and library, now public house and library. 1802-6, by Thomas Harrison of Chester; altered. Sandstone ashlar (roof not visible). Rectangular plan on corner site at junction with Charlotte Street. Classical style. Two storeys with basement and attic, presenting a slightly projected 3-bay pedimented loggia with 4 giant Ionic columns; with a plinth (steps between the columns), 1st floor string-course carried round, moulded architrave, plain frieze and dentilled cornice also carried round; 2 doorways and 3 square 1st-floor windows under the loggia. Inserted in the front wall is a VR post box.The right-hand return wall to Charlotte Street has a doorway into the side of the loggia, a square window above this and another at 1st floor, then breaks forward as a 5-bay colonnade of giant Ionic semi-columns, each bay containing a tall sashed window at ground floor, with pediments and cornices in alternate bays, a square window at 1st floor, and an attic storey expressed as a pilastered parapet; and terminates with one bay beyond. Interior: formerly galleried, with reading room at ground floor level and library on gallery, but ceiling inserted at gallery level c.1920 and ground floor remodelled recently, leaving only the columns of the gallery exposed; 1st floor not inspected, but reported to have saucer dome. History: founded as social, literary and philosophic society, the first honorary secretary being P.M.Roget (author of the Thesaurus); until Public Libraries Act of 1856 was chief circulating library in Manchester; mentioned by Thomas De Quincey in his "Confessions of an Opium Eater".

Listing NGR: SJ8414398139