Sunlight House

Sunlight House is an office block located on Quay Street in Manchester, built in 1932 by Joseph Sunlight. It features a steel frame with Portland stone cladding and a slated three-tier mansard roof with a glazed center. The building has a large square plan with a central light-well and is designed in the International Modern style with classical elements. It consists of ten storeys plus four attic storeys that are successively set back. The facade has eight bays, including a wide canted corner on the right that rises to an octagonal turret topped with a domed lantern and an apex finial.

The ground and first floors are treated as a plinth, while the central section has a six-storey, five-bay pilastrade, a moulded frieze above the seventh floor, and an enriched cornice over the eighth floor, culminating in a plain parapet over the tenth floor. The building features very regular fenestration, with three-light casement windows in the five-bay center and two-light windows in the end bays, along with metal panels between the floors. The attic windows are three-light, with those on the first three tiers set in individual projected rectangular dormers.

The ground floor includes shop windows and a round-headed archway. The canted corner is treated as a tower, emphasized by narrow three-light mullioned windows that tier continuously from the second to the tenth floors, with carved decoration above the tenth floor. There is a one-storey drum above this, leading to a set-back two-storey continuation and a set-back lantern. The entrance porch at the ground floor features square-headed doorways. The right and rear elevations are similar but have a slated attic and extruded dormers. Sunlight House forms a group with Royal London House located to the right at Nos 188-202 Deansgate.