Description

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on the 14 July 2022 to update the text

SJ 8498
698-1/17/11116

GREAT ANCOATS STREET, Ancoats (north-east side)
No. 29 (Derros Building)

GV
II

Women's shelter and rescue home, empty at the time of inspection. (March 1998). 1899, with C20 alterations. By Walter Richard Sharp, architect, of Manchester for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Central Hall Mission as a gift from Mr James Scarlett. Arts and Crafts style, with Vernacular Revival detailing. Red brick, with decorative banding in buff terracotta, and with close-studded jettied gable to attic storey to front. Blind timber-framed arcading as eaves band to side elevation. Contemporary interlocking clay tile roof covering with flat-headed dormer windows, and a tall side-wall stack.

PLAN: Narrow linear form with former coffee shop to narrow frontage to Great Ancoats Street.

FRONT ELEVATION (south-west): Single bay, Three storeys and attic. Former ground floor shop frontage now blocked up, but retaining decorative tile work to stall risers and tiled canopy above. Entrance doorway to angle on left. Above, canted oriel window with steeply-pitched tiled roof and mullioned and transomed window frames with leaded lights. Single-light window to right hand side of second floor and above, jettied close-studded gable with carved bargeboards and central two- light window.

SIDE ELEVATION (north-west): nine bays, three storeys and attics, with stacked mullioned and transomed windows to six bays, smaller single-light windows to two staircase bays. Some windows retain leaded lights and stained glass decorative panels. Triple storey bands between ground, first and second floor windows of buff terracotta, with decorative embellishment of window head panels. Two doorways with rectangular overlights. Seven flat headed dormer windows above eaves level.

INTERIOR: Altered and the original plan form disrupted by the removal of some internal partitions. Two levels of cellars, formerly kitchens, with hearths and storage areas. Staircase with square balusters and moulded handrails. Some original five panel doors, and wainscott panelling to ground floor. Floors supported by ovolo-chamfered crossbeams. Two glazed tile hearths to ground floor, and remains of tiled interior to former coffee house. Upper floor partitions remain in situ.

HISTORY: The women's shelter and rescue home was designed to provide non-institutional support for women and specifically for domestic servants, thought to be at risk, in the industrial district of Ancoats. There was both temporary and semi-permanent residential accommodation, training and recreational facilities, notably a ground floor coffee tavern, providing an alcohol-free environment for socializing. The Central Hall was a mission centre for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which recognised the need for a 24 hour refuge for women in addition to the permanent rescue home established by the church.

Listing NGR: SJ8475598644

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26413030

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)