Central House

Central House is a shipping warehouse built in 1880 by Corson and Aitken, and it was renovated in 1989. The building is constructed of red brick with red sandstone dressings and features a steeply-pitched slate roof adorned with obelisk finials. It has an almost rectangular plan that runs at right angles to the street and is parallel to the Rochdale Canal on its north side, which follows a slight northward bend.

Designed in the Scottish Baronial style, Central House stands four storeys tall with a basement and attic. It has a five-window range flanked by large corner tourelles that rise from moulded corbels at the first floor and culminate in slated conical spires at the attic level. The facade includes a sill-band at the ground floor, a string-course at the first floor, another sill-band at the second floor, a string-course above the third floor, and attic dormers that break through the eaves. The second and fourth dormers feature crow-stepped, steeply-pitched gables topped with coupled cylindrical chimneys.

The heavily-moulded doorway is located next to the right-hand tourelle and has a balustraded balcony above it. The first-floor windows are arranged in a 1:2:1:2:1 pattern, with the outer windows being smaller. All floors feature single-light sash windows, with the second-floor windows having segmental heads. The attic windows are framed with moulded stone architraves, with the first, third, and fifth windows topped with segmental pediments, while the second and fourth windows are located in the gables. The tourelles have rectangular lancet windows. The interior has not been inspected. Central House is part of an uninterrupted linear group of similar buildings along this side of Princess Street.