Asia House

Asia House is a packing and shipping warehouse, now offices, constructed around 1900-1910 by Harry S. Fairhurst. The building occupies an irregular trapezoidal footprint on an island site. It is built in a Free Baroque style, featuring an iron frame clad in brown sandstone ashlar and buff brick, set upon a polished granite plinth. The structure rises six storeys with a basement and attic.

The exterior is characterised by boldly ornate detailing. The first three storeys display channelled rusticated brown masonry. Above this, a giant Ionic pilastrade extends across the two upper floors, rising from panelled pedestals at the third floor level and set against a brick background. Curved and banded corners are present at this level, originating from large cartouches. The façade includes a plain frieze and a very prominent modillioned cornice, surmounted by a pilastered attic storey which is brick in the lower half and stone in the upper. The parapet is raised at the ends. The ground floor has round-headed openings with run-out voussoirs, including a central doorway with a cavetto surround, swagged voluted keystone, and an elaborate wrought-iron overlight. The windows have large triple keystones. First and second floor windows, including two-storey canted oriels in the second and third, and fifth and sixth bays, have moulded architraves; those at the first floor have triple keystones and open pediments, while those at the second floor are topped with cornices and curved wrought-iron railings. Windows in the centre and end bays at the fourth floor have open-pedimented architraves with balustraded balconies. The windows of the top three floors have moulded architraves with triple keystones. Attic windows are mostly corniced, with those at the ends featuring pediments enclosing cartouches, and blind oculi above.

The interior features unusually elaborate decoration, including a tiled porch and corridor with Ionic pilasters and Venetian windows of green glazed terracotta. Art Nouveau stained glass is present, along with staircase tiling and door furnishings, making it perhaps the finest example of its kind within any Manchester warehouse. The building forms part of an uninterrupted group of similarly styled warehouses along Princess Street.