Sand Aire House

Sand Aire House is a house, now used as offices, originally built in 1827 and attributed to the architect George Webster for Daniel Harrison. It later served as the headquarters of Provincial Insurance, with a 1935 extension to the Stramongate elevation designed in a matching style by Bradshaw Gass & Hope of Bolton. The house is constructed of tooled ashlar, with corner pilasters rising from a plinth. It features a first-floor sill band, a second-floor lintel band, and a cornice. The roofs are hipped with graduated slate and deeply overhanging modillioned eaves, and there are corniced stone chimneys.

The original house, now forming the west return facing New Road, has five bays (arranged 3:2). A Doric porch in antis, with a panelled door in a glazed surround, is located on the left-hand side, with sash windows either side and three sashes to each upper floor. The right-hand block has two sashes to each floor. The Stramongate frontage is ten bays (arranged 2:6:2), with a symmetrical design, except for an offset Doric porch featuring “SAND AIRE HOUSE” on the frieze. The two right-hand bays form the north return to the original house, containing two sashes to each floor. All sash windows have glazing bars in recessed surrounds, which are semicircular-headed on the ground floor. A single-storey wing projecting to the rear features a canted end and five sashes, all in recessed, semicircular-headed surrounds.