Description

MANCHESTER

SJ8497NW PRINCESS STREET
698-1/32/336 (South West side)
03/10/74 No.82
Asia House

GV II*

Packing and shipping warehouses, now offices. c.1900-10, by
Harry S.Fairhurst. Iron frame with cladding of brown sandstone
ashlar and buff brick on polished granite plinth (roof
concealed). Irregular trapeziform plan on island site. Free
Baroque style. Six storeys with basement and attic, 7 bays
plus chamfered corners, a boldly ornate design with channelled
rusticated brown masonry to the first 3 storeys, a giant Ionic
pilastrade to the 2 top floors rising from panelled pedestals
at 3rd floor (in the same material against a brick
background), curved and banded corners at this level (rising
from large cartouches), a plain frieze and very prominent
modillioned cornice, and a pilastered attic storey which is
brick in the lower half and stone in the upper, the parapet
raised at the ends. The ground floor has round-headed openings
with run-out voussoirs, including a central doorway with
cavetto surround, swagged voluted keystone and elaborate
wrought-iron overlight, and windows with large triple
keystones; the 1st and 2nd floor windows, including 2-storey
canted oriels to the 2nd and 3rd and the 5th and 6th bays, all
have moulded architraves, those at 1st floor with triple
keystones and open pediments, those at 2nd floor with cornices
surmounted by curved wrought-iron railings; the windows in the
centre and end bays at 4th floor have open-pedimented
architraves with balustraded balconies, the other windows of
the top 3 floors have moulded architraves with triple
keystones. Attic windows mostly corniced, those at the ends
with pediments enclosing cartouches, with blind oculi above.
Interior: unusually elaborate decoration, including tiled
porch and corridor with Ionic pilasters and Venetian windows
of green glazed terracotta; Art Nouveau stained glass,
staircase tiling, and door furnishings: probably the best
example of its kind in any Manchester warehouse. Forms part of
uninterrupted linear group of similar buildings on this side
of Princess Street.

Listing NGR: SJ8428897624

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Asia House, Manchester at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4806374

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House