Description

MANCHESTER

SJ8398SW KING STREET
698-1/28/193 (North side)
03/10/74 No.81
former Reform Club

GV II*

Includes: No.50 Manchester Club SPRING GARDENS.
Political club, now office and club. 1870-1, by Edward
Salomons; altered. Sandstone ashlar with polychrome dressings,
hipped slate roofs. Double-pile plan, the rear range
projecting to the right, on end-of-block site, with chamfered
corners. Venetian Gothic style. Three storeys with basement
and attic, 5 bays plus the corners, symmetrical; chamfered
plinth, cornices to ground and 1st floors, 3-sided oriels to
the corners finished as turrets with slated spirelets,
prominent bracketed main cornice and blind-arcaded parapet.
The ground floor has an elaborate round-headed doorway in a
porch composed of colonnettes and concave under-hang to a
projected balustraded 1st-floor balcony, coupled square-headed
sashed windows with shafts to the other bays, and at the
corners similar colonnettes to elaborately bracketed
under-hangs of the oriels (a window to the left corner and a
doorway to the right). The tall 1st floor has an arcade of
large round-headed arches with banded 2-centred extradoses and
hoodmoulds, carried on coupled columns with carved capitals,
each arch containing a tall 2-light sashed window with
round-headed lights and circular tracery, and a balustraded
balcony; and the 2nd floor has small coupled 2-centred arched
windows with shafts and an impost band,and a small
wrought-iron balcony to the central pair. (Former dormer
windows and central spire now removed.) The oriels have very
elaborate treatment, including tall slender arcaded windows to
1st floor with carved emblematic panels above, a prominent
balcony to 2nd floor with wrought-iron balustrade, and an
arcaded cupola with projecting grotesques. Return sides
similar in the 1st bay, but differing and simpler to the rear
of this, the right-hand side with an arcaded quadrantal
2-storey oriel in the angle of the rear wing. Interior (as
reported 03.10.74): hall and staircase with linenfold
panelling, 2-storey Grand Dining Room, and huge billiard room
within the roof.

Listing NGR: SJ8402798281

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Manchester Reform Club at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q6747487

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)