Lancaster House

Lancaster House, Manchester

Shipping and packing warehouses on Whitworth Street and Princess Street, Manchester, built between 1905 and 1912 to a design by architect Harry S. Fairhurst. Dated 1906. The building is steel-framed with cladding of brown and buff terracotta and some red brick, with slate roofs. It occupies an island site and follows a long rectangular plan in two distinct parts, executed in the Edwardian Baroque style. Nos. 67 and 80 (Princess Street) have been converted to offices, and No. 71 has been converted to apartments.

The left-hand portion forms a corner block to Princess Street, rising seven storeys with basement and attic. It comprises six bays plus a corner turret to the left. The ground and first floors feature rustication in banded brown terracotta with a dentilled cornice on consoles. Banded end pilasters to the upper floors continue as chimneys above the parapet. A frieze marks the second floor, and the third to sixth floors contain a five-bay giant arcade of round-headed arches with swags and enriched keystones. A dentilled main cornice runs across, and the attic storey is treated as a parapet. The three-sided corner turret has a two-one-two window arrangement with a segmental open pediment over the first floor. The fourth-floor windows have pedimented Gibbs surrounds. A very elaborate slender octagonal four-stage Baroque spire crowns the turret. A doorway in the chamfered corner opens to Princess Street, while a round-headed arched entrance sits at the right-hand end. Ground and first floor windows have keyed heads, with those at first-floor level being round-headed. The narrow facade to Princess Street follows a similar style, with a centre of four very narrow bays. The upper floors feature giant arcading matching the Whitworth Street elevation, and a colonnaded attic with a Diocletian window and elaborate parapet. At ground-floor level, a grey stone entrance contains a square-headed doorway flanked by windows, with a semi-circular overlight flanked by projected ship-prow motifs and a dentilled cornice. A five-sided corner repeats features from the other corner but finishes with a balustraded parapet. The rear presents a strictly functional glazed grid of small-paned windows.

The right-hand portion, No. 71, rises seven storeys with a complex arrangement of one, three, one, and three bays. The ground and first floors are clad in buff terracotta with a cornice; the upper floors are red brick with buff terracotta dressings. The composition is symmetrical except for the first bay, which rises one floor higher, resembling a sprinkler tower. The single-bay centre contains a round-headed doorway with wrought-iron Art Nouveau gates, with a dentilled band arched over it. At first-floor level sits a two-light overlight flanked by reliefs of seated allegorical female figures supporting an open pediment containing a cartouche with fronds. Above this a panel carries raised lettering reading "LANCASTER HOUSE". Pairs of small windows occupy the next four floors, and a round-headed arch at sixth-floor level contains a lunette. The three bays on each side of the centre feature banded piers and square-headed windows with triple keystones at ground floor, coupled windows at first floor, and banded brick giant pilasters to the next three floors with terracotta friezes and modillioned cornices. Windows at the second and third floors have linked architraves, those at second-floor level being segmental-headed. Large oculi with enriched terracotta surrounds appear at fourth-floor level. Coupled pilasters rise to the top two floors with open segmental pediments over the centre containing raised lettering reading "ANNO. DOM." and "MDCCCCVI" respectively. The fifth floor has windows with moulded architraves, and coupled windows sit above. A hipped roof with two tall chimneys completes the structure.