Peel Building

The Peel Building, formerly known as the Royal Technical College, is now part of Salford University. It was constructed in 1896 and designed by Henry Lord. The building is made of red brick and terracotta with a plain-tiled roof.

It stands three storeys high with a basement and has a symmetrical layout. The central block features five bays, including a three-window range entrance gable and smaller outer gables. Each side of the central block has a narrow bay with paired mullioned and transomed windows. Beyond this, there are three additional bays on each side, consisting of two and three windows, leading to advanced outer gables.

The entrance is marked by a shaped gable, with octagonal pilasters forming stair-turrets on either side, topped by ogee domes. The round-arched doorway is flanked by coupled enriched Ionic columns that support an entablature with a balustraded parapet. Narrow round-arched sidelights accompany the entrance. Above the entrance, there are three mullioned and transomed windows on each floor, separated by plain pilasters, with an enriched frieze between the storeys.

Three shallow segmental arches project on moulded console brackets above the second storey, with a balustraded parapet. In the attic, a central round-arched window is flanked by octagonal pilasters and topped with a low relief frieze and arched niches in the gable apex. The central block is linked by a balustraded parapet to shaped gables on either side, which are accented with octagonal pilasters and pedimented heads above the upper windows.

Mullioned and transomed windows are present throughout, with round-arched heads on the ground floor. The flanking ranges consist of three bays on each side, divided into a 2-3-2 arrangement by octagonal pilasters, with subsidiary pilasters between the lower windows and pedimented heads above the windows in the central bay. The outer gables project beyond on each side, featuring octagonal angle pilasters and a central pilaster strip that culminates in a chimney stack at the gable apex. Various fluted axial stacks are also present. The interior has not been inspected.