Workshops, Shop And Warehouse

698-1/0/11144 BACK TURNER STREET 26-FEB-03 40 AND 42 Workshops, shop and warehouse

II Workshops, shop and warehouse, empty at time of inspection (June 2002). Warehouse late C18 or early C19, workshops and shop late C19, both with minor late C20 alteration. Red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings and slate and sheet roof coverings. PLAN: Both buildings extend back from narrow frontages and occupy the whole of their narrow plots. EXTERIOR: Warehouse part to left. Single bay, 4 storeys with doorway to right with basket arched head, formerly with stepped approach. To left stacked window openings below rubbed brick flat heads, the window openings diminishing in height at each ascending level. Sash window frames, 2over 2 panes to lower floors, 4 over 2 pane to upper floor. To left, loading bay with stacked half-glazed double doors set back within full-height recess below double hoist beams with central pulley wheel. Plain parapet. Workshop and shops to left with ground floor frontage made up of display window above basement window to left, raised doorway to shop to centre and tall doorway to right. Continuous lintel beam extends the full width of the frontage, the openings with shouldered heads between plain pilasters. All ground floor joinery concealed by C20 roller shutters. 3 first floor windows above wide storey band have shallow-arched heads, moulded brick surrounds and 2 over 2 pane sashes on ashlar cill band. Second floor openings repeat this pattern. Wide semi-circular arched window to upper floor set within coped gable with stepped corbel decoration to surrounding brickwork. INTERIORS: Not inspected. A pair of industrial buildings of early and late C19 representing the workshop and warehousing components of a surviving enclave of small-scale buildings which developed from the late C18, alongside dwellings with integral workshops in attics and cellars. They contrast in scale and form with the large scale factories and warehouses of surrounding districts, and are now rare survivals of an important phase in the development of industrial Manchester.