Details
Railway goods warehouse. 1877 for London and North Western Railway Company. Italianate style. Red brick with stone dressings, blue brick plinth and banding, white brick cornice and lettering.
PLAN: Trapezoid plan running N-S and narrower at S end. Four storeys to N and E road elevations, four storeys and basement to W, railway line side. W elevation has seven original openings, two originally directly entered by railway tracks. S elevation had opening for two railway tracks, all tracks originally linked inside building by turntables. N elevation has two taking-in doors from road. No doorway openings in E elevation.
EXTERIOR: Eaves cornice of diagonal-set white brick and brick brackets to N, E, and S sides, plain brick parapet to W elevation with white brick lettering, `LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY'S GOODS WAREHOUSE'. Most windows have segmental heads and multi-pane ironwork glazing bars, stone sills and impost blocks, blue brick keystones and banding decoration. 110m E elevation (Wellington Road North) has 33 bays with paired windows except for that to extreme left (S). The lower windows become larger as the land falls to the S. 13-bay N elevation (Bowerfold Lane) with taking-in bays in bays 4 and 10 with gablets over and timber doors. Inserted ground-floor door in bay 10. Windows to remaining bays. Parapet to NW corner rebuilt in plain brick after bomb damage. 32 bays to W elevation. Seven original arched openings of differing widths in bays 1/2, 6, 11/12, 17/18, 23/24, 27/28, 31/32, a number with low platforms across their base. Two inserted doorways, one in bay 7, one in bay 22 which is entrance to modern goods lift. Four taking-in bays in bays 5, 13, 21, and 24. Paired windows except for those to right of taking-in bays. 11-bay S elevation. Two wide openings, altered, with sliding timber doors. Large, bricked-up window to bay 1. Windows to upper storeys 3:1:3:1:3
INTERIOR: Brick jack arches to basement and ground-floor levels, and timber floors above on transverse and longitudinal rivetted I-section steel beams, supported at principal intersections by cruciform cast-iron columns. Two longitudinal rows of I-section columns set in concrete bases on E side of ground floor, indicating a later change in floor level. In central area of W side of ground floor some cruciform columns set on deep bases where basement infilled and floor level lowered. Timber roof trusses have steeply inclined and glazed north-facing roof pitches and shallower, slate-covered south-facing pitches. Sixteen transverse bays with the outermost N and S bays wider with symmetrical, slate-covered trusses. Hydraulic pipes in N basement. Some metal tracks and a turntable survive on ground floor, which is now subdivided by storage units and office accommodation. Staircase at N and S end of building, inserted lift shaft in breeze block towards centre of building, second lift shaft to southern end which does not open onto top floor. Inserted vehicle ramps linking floors. Storage units on previously open first and second floors. Manual gravity hoist, Six hydraulic jiggers, and two electric-powered hoists located within roof space. Jiggers and manual hoist mounted on timber beams and posts supported by timber roof structure, electric motors supported on steel frames. Trap doors located beneath pulley wheels of hoists, replicated down through the building.
HISTORY: The present building was constructed in 1877 for the London and North Western Railway Company, and replaced a smaller storage building on the site, which was destroyed by fire. The warehouse narrowly escaped destruction from a bomb in World War II, sustaining slight damage to NW corner of building.
SOURCES
University of Manchester Archaeological Unit, Bryant's Warehouse, Stockport. An Archaeological Survey (October 1999, unpublished)
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
The former LNWR warehouse is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* As a large and impressive later C19 goods warehouse designed to promote the standing of the private railway company which built it through a degree of architectural embellishment and prominent display of the company name
* It was designed to enable the efficient storage and transfer of goods between rail and road, and retains a range of different hoist mechanisms which include a manual hoist, six hydraulic jiggers, and two electric-powered hoists, positioned over trap doors replicated down through the floors, which illustrate how the building operated
