Canal Museum

The Canal Museum is an 1895 canal warehouse, originally built for Fellows, Morton & Clayton, a canal carrying company. It was converted into a museum in 1980-81. The building is constructed of brown brick with blue and yellow brick and terracotta dressings, and has slate roofs. It features a plinth, pilasters, modillion eaves and gables. The windows are cast-iron casements with glazing bars, mostly segment-headed. The warehouse is four stories high with a 4 x 5 bay layout and has a double range design with gabled roofs. It spans a short canal arm, providing internal docking for two canal boats. The south front, facing the canal, has a segmental arch over the dock on the right, and two windows on the left. The upper floors feature regular courses of four windows each, with the fourth-floor windows being round-arched. Above the windows is a name panel, followed by two gables with round windows. The right return side has a full-width steel-framed canopy covering a loading platform and double sliding doors on the ground floor. Central, segment-arched loft doors are present on each floor, flanked by two windows. The rear of the building, facing Canal Street, is similar to the south front, with two ground floor windows and doors. The interior is largely original, including wooden beams and floors supported by cast-iron columns, now coated with a fire-resistant material. The roofs are king post truss construction.