Shelter

701/0/10040 WELLINGTON ROAD SOUTH 11-JUL-07 (Southwest side) Shelter

GV II Shelter, built c1937. Portland stone.

EXTERIOR: Rectangular shelter with open front, situated to rear of pavement, set into pre-existing stone retaining wall, with raised ground level to sides and rear. Designed in a Neoclassical Greek Revival style. Open-fronted with two Corinthian columns flanked by square-section end pilasters supporting an entablature and flat roof. In centre of north-west side wall is cast-iron rainwater hopper, with flower motif, and rectangular downpipe.

INTERIOR: Side and rear walls carved with plain rectangular panels. Three panels on rear wall separated by two pilasters. Moulded cornice. Against rear wall is full-length wooden bench.

HISTORY: One of a pair of shelters probably built by the County Borough Works Office. Designed to emulate the architecture of the War Memorial Art Gallery (q.v.), designed by James Theodore Halliday of Halliday, Paterson & Agate of Manchester and opened in 1925. This shelter and its pair on Greek Street are set into the art gallery's boundary walls, which were previously the walls of Stockport Grammar School, which stood on the site from 1832 to 1915.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION The shelter on Wellington Road South is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The shelter, which is one of a pair, displays a distinguished architectural design quality in its use of the Neoclassical Greek revival style * The quality of materials and craftsmanship are exceptional for so functional a structure * It is in well preserved, original condition * It has group value with the similarly styled War Memorial Art Gallery (q.v.) into whose boundary wall it is set, and with the shelter in the boundary wall fronting Greek Street (q.v.)