Smithfield Market Hall is a Grade II listed building in the Manchester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 8 October 1973. Market hall. 3 related planning applications.
Smithfield Market Hall
- WRENN ID
- upper-joist-equinox
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Manchester
- Constituency
- Manchester Central MP: Lucy Powell (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 8 October 1973
- Type
- Market hall
- Address
- Smithfield Market Hall, 39, 43 and 45, Swan Street, M4 5JZ
- OS grid reference
- SJ 845 987
- Coordinates
- 53.48548, -2.23487
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Smithfield Market Hall is a former wholesale market hall, dated 1857 on the frieze at the front and noted as "altered 1867" on the north side. It is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features a slate and glass roof supported by an internal iron frame. The building has a rectangular plan and is designed in a classical style.
The facade facing Swan Street is a single storey with five symmetrical bays, where the center and ends project slightly forward, and the center is topped with a pediment. It includes a moulded plinth, punch-dressed quoins, a lettered frieze, a dentilled cornice, and a parapet with panels and upstands. The central bay features a round-headed archway with an ornamental cast-iron fanlight grill, rock-faced voussoirs, and a bulls-head keyblock, framed by a tetrastyle pilaster portico with Corinthianesque capitals that incorporate rams' heads, along with a mutuled pediment topped with an acroterion.
The outer bays contain large Venetian-form openings with round-headed archways that have similar voussoirs and monogrammed keystones. The frieze of these three sections includes inscriptions: "SMITHFIELD / MARKET HALL" in the pediment of the center, and "ERECTED BY THE" "CORPORATION OF THE CITY" "ANNO DOMINI 1857" from left to right. The intermediate bays have altered shuttered openings beneath horizontal panels with grills pierced by circular openings.
The north side has a layout of 1:3:1 bays, featuring large round-headed arches with imposts, and a metal and glass canopy attached at the impost level. The interior has not been inspected.
Local climate
Smithfield Market Hall sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,060 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 23 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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