Bridgewater House

MANCHESTER

SJ8497NW WHITWORTH STREET 698-1/32/438 (North side) Nos.58 AND 60 Bridgewater House

GV II

Shipping warehouse, now offices. 1912, by Harry S.Fairhurst. Steel frame with cladding of sandstone ashlar and white glazed terracotta (roof concealed). Large rectangular plan, with loading bay at rear. Eclectic style. Eight storeys with basement, 19 bays, symmetrical, with strong horizontal division, the first 2 floors of stone, treated as a rustic with channelled rusticated piers, moulded frieze and prominent modillioned cornice, the upper floors of white glazed terracotta, the 2nd floor with a prominent panelled cornice on coupled brackets, the next 4 floors with tiered canted bay windows in alternate bays, and a modillioned main cornice interrupted in the centre by a 5-bay penthouse with pilastered end bays and a parapet with upstand. The ground floor has a massive sill-band (over rock-faced piers at basement level), interrupted between the 6th and 9th and the 14th and 17th bays by square-headed entrances with doorways which have profile medallions of the Duke of Bridgewater on the lintels and 3-light overlights at 1st-floor level; otherwise, each bay has metal-framed windows to the ground and 1st floors and bronze panels between these. The upper floors have square windows (except the canted bays) and various forms of enrichment including geometric panels, fasces, wreaths and corrupt-leaf pendants. Return sides have 2 bays in matching style (with monogram at 6th floor level), and continue in plain rectilinear grid form. Interior not inspected. Forms group with Palace Theatre to left (q.v.), and Refuge Assurance Buildings (q.v.) and India House opposite (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SJ8416597639