The Main office Block to The Linotype Works

The Main Office Block to The Linotype Works

This is a former office block to the Linotype machinery works, now converted to residential use. Built in 1897 with minor alterations made in the early twentieth century and internal alterations in the twenty-first century, it was designed by Stott and Sons for the Linotype Company Ltd. The building is constructed in red brick with buff terracotta detailing, slate roofs concealed behind deep parapets, and a copper tower roof.

The building forms a stepped linear range aligned north-south, serving as the frontage to what was formerly an extensive workshop development to the west. The front elevation is symmetrical, comprising a two-storey, seven-bay central range with flanking two-storey and single-storey ranges extending to north and south.

The entrance is contained within a slightly advanced bay, featuring a wide segmental-arched opening with banded decoration below a shallow six-light rectangular overlight. Above this sits a three-light mullion and transom window in moulded terracotta, positioned beneath a massive rectangular tower. The tower is surmounted by an ogee pyramidal spire supporting a flagpole and incorporates clock faces on each elevation set within keyed moulded surrounds. The tower features a deep decorative frieze, moulded cornice, ornamental metal parapet railings, and a fish-scale roof.

The three bays on either side of the entrance contain three-light mullion and transom windows to the ground floor, with bowed three-light oriel windows immediately above, supported on pairs of console corbels. The bays are delineated by piers with foliated terracotta ornamentation at their heads. Moulded sill and lintel bands extend through the piers and onto the return elevations and flanking ranges. Above the upper floor windows, a deep parapet rises above a dentilled cornice. The company name, LINOTYPE AND MACHINERY LIMITED, is painted on the brickwork of recessed panels on the parapet and the flush face of the tower, surrounding the date AD.1897 in a recessed panel on the tower. Set-back two-storey sections link the central range with longer single-bay flanking ranges, all detailed in a matching style. The single-storey ranges have deep terracotta parapets incorporating a rinceau frieze.

The Linotype machine, first successfully trialled in America in 1885, allowed a complete line of justified type to be set as a single lead-alloy slug before returning the moulds for each letter to their correct storage space in the machine. This 'hot-metal' printing technology revolutionised newspaper publishing. The UK Linotype patent was purchased by British businessmen including Lord Kelvin and Sir Joseph Lawrence, who had witnessed the machines in operation during a visit to the United States. The Mergenthaler Linotype Company also sent three experimental machines to England in 1889. The Linotype Company Limited established its head office in London in 1889 and a factory in central Manchester on Hulme Street. As demand grew, much larger premises were required. This office block was developed as part of an extensive manufactory established in 1896 on a 30-acre site within the Broadheath Industrial Park, land purchased from the Earl of Stamford's Oldfield Estate. The Broadheath Industrial Park, created in 1885, was probably the earliest planned industrial park in the world, encompassing 101 hectares. In addition to the extensive works, the Linotype Company built a development of 172 workers' houses known as the Linotype Housing Estate.

In 1903 the Linotype Company merged with the Machinery Trust to become the Linotype and Machinery Company Ltd. The lettering to the right of the tower, which originally read 'Company', was presumably repainted after this date. The factory employed hundreds of workers in the manufacture of printing machines, and its success led to the enlargement of the Broadheath manufacturing district and the consequential growth of Altrincham's population in the early twentieth century. The company still existed in 2001, though the factory was in multiple use by the 1990s. The site began to be redeveloped from 2013, with some facades incorporated into new housing and the office block itself converted to residential use in 2019. The former Engine House and Chimney base of the factory were listed in 2021, when they were still awaiting a new use.

This boldly detailed and well-preserved office building of 1897 formed the prominent centrepiece of a massive printing machine factory developed on a greenfield site in Altrincham. Its ambitious scale and the richness of its exterior detailing distinguish it from many other commercial buildings of the period, and its clock tower ensures its continued prominence in the landscape.