Manchester Tennis And Racquet Club

SALFORD

SJ8398NW BLACKFRIARS ROAD 949-1/20/6 (South West side) 21/01/96 No.33 Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club

GV II*

Tennis and racquet club. c1880. By George T Redmayne, with later alterations. Brick with terracotta dressings, slate and part-glazed roof. Irregularly grouped as T-plan, with main courts buildings ranged parallel to street and set back from it with central wing advanced towards street, housing entrance, and flanking buildings filling in the angles each side. EXTERIOR: entrance block expressed as 3 storeys, with moulded round-arched doorway in flat-roofed porch to right, and round-headed window alongside. Arcaded range of 3 round-headed windows with continuous hoodmould to first floor, and blind round-arched window in raised upper storey. Fluted chimney stack alongside to right hand side. Shallow gabled range to right, with arcade of 4 bays to ground floor, with 3 round-arched windows. Paired windows set beneath wide relieving arch with terracotta panelling in the spandrel beneath gable above. Flat-roofed single-storeyed block to left of entrance, also with round-arched windows and high parapet. INTERIOR: substantially unaltered, with racquets court retaining original surfaces and complete real tennis court together with other principal reception rooms and staircase. HISTORICAL NOTE: the club was founded in 1878, and moved to its present site c1880. Originally it comprised a real tennis court, racquets court and bowling alley, to which a squash court was added as an upper floor in 1925. (Aberdare Lord: Willis Faber Book of Tennis and Racquets: London: 1980-).

Listing NGR: SJ8334798832