49, Spring Gardens

MANCHESTER

SJ8498SW SPRING GARDENS 698-1/28/379 (North East side) 03/10/74 No.49 (Formerly Listed as: SPRING GARDENS (North East side) National Provincial Bank)

GV II

Commercial building, probably textiles warehouse; now offices. 1888-91, by Alfred Waterhouse. Sandstone ashlar, slate roof. Rectangular plan on end-of-block site, with curved corners, and loading bay to rear. Eclectic style, with some Gothic features. Three storeys with basement and attic, 5 unequal bays plus the corners, symmetrical; with sill-bands and string-courses to all floors, Lombard frieze over 2nd floor, slender brackets to moulded cornice, and blind-arcaded parapet interrupted by gabled attic dormers. The centre bay has a large square-headed entrance with arched chamfered doorway and recessed double doors, and over this a bracketed stone balcony with ornamental iron railings. The windows of all floors (including the basement) are of 2, 3, 2, 3 and 2 lights, those to the basement square-headed and furnished with iron bar grilles, those of the 3 main floors with stilted shouldered heads and colonnettes which have knobbly foliated caps and square abaci, and all sashed without glazing bars; the curved corners have matching 3-light fenestration, with curved glazing; and the attic dormers have coped gables with kneelers, ball-finials on the apexes and the kneelers, and windows with altered glazing. Mansard roof with side-wall chimneys. Returned sides similar, the left with a segmental-headed loading bay entrance to the rear bay. Interior not inspected.

Listing NGR: SJ8405998209