Former Office Block Of Platt Brothers

The former office block of Platt Brothers is an office building constructed in 1883 by PB Alley. It is made of brick with stone dressings and has a Welsh slate roof. The building has two storeys over a basement and features a 13-window range with projecting corner pavilions and a central tower above an advanced entrance bay, designed in the French Renaissance style.

The entrance is accessed via steps leading up to a round-arched door, which is adorned with moulded stone corbels and a key to the arch. A continuous string course runs across the facade, creating an arcade of round-arched lower windows, each with stone aprons below. The outer and central windows on each side have paired round-arched glazing, while all first-floor windows feature stilted arched heads, with the outer and central windows also paired.

The building is further enhanced by a moulded string course and an overhanging stone moulded cornice. The steep hipped roofs over the corner pavilions have blocking courses above the cornice, and wrought-iron brattishing adorns the roofs. The central tower rises above the main roof-line, featuring a stone plinth and an oculus. Below the steep hipped roof of the tower is a modillion cornice, topped with a wrought-iron balconette beneath a clock, accompanied by ornate brattishing above.

The entrance steps are flanked by stone plinth walls, with a cast-iron rail and stone piers. The return elevation consists of three full storeys and a three-window range. The rear range includes an advanced central block with four wide segmentally-arched openings on the ground floor. This section has simpler detailing, with brick arched heads and stone springers and keys for the segmentally-arched windows. Roof lights are present in the rear slope of the roof, along with axial and end wall stacks.

Historically, this building served as the office block for Platt Brothers, which was once Oldham's largest employer and the world's leading manufacturer of textile machinery. It is one of the few remaining structures from the engineering works.