Summary
House, early C19, extended in the mid-C19, converted into offices in the mid-C20.
Reasons for Designation
16 Old Market Place, Altrincham is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is an elegant early-C19 town house with good detailing including a prominent classical-style entrance way;
* it retains characteristic internal C19 features including the main stairway, as well as some historic joinery and plasterwork.
Group value:
* it is part of a good group of C19 listed buildings located around Old Market Place, including the Unicorn Hotel (formerly Old Market Tavern), Bank House and number 7, and numbers 2, 2A, 4A and 4 (all listed Grade II).
History
16 Old Market Place was built in the early C19 as a domestic dwelling in the historic centre of Altrincham near to the town hall. It appears on the Altrincham Tithe Map (1835) as a rectangular terrace building facing onto the street (west) and with an enclosed yard to the rear (east). The Altrincham Board of Health Plan (1852) depicts a narrow ground-level passage running through the north end of the building, providing access between the street and rear yard. By this time a rear wing had been constructed, with a narrow neck where it was attached to the front range, and a wider wing beyond with a kitchen; there was also a detached square building at the eastern end of the plot. In the 1850s the house was owned by a property developer and occupied by a merchant and his family. The Altrincham Historic Town Plan (1876) provides a detailed footprint of the building, and depicts the chamfered sides of the narrow link between the front range and rear wing, indicating the presence of a canted-bay window; it also shows a small addition to the east end of the wing. The 1891 and 1901 Census of England and Wales records the house as the home of a surgical physician. Around the mid-C20 the rear wing was extended to the east by a two-storey flat-roof addition, possibly incorporating the earlier detached outbuilding. The northern passage was also closed off and incorporated into the main house. After the mid-C20 the building was converted into an office for the firm William H Lill and Co Solicitors (established in 1923); the roof of the section of wing abutting the front range may have been replaced with a flat roof to accommodate the fire escape.
Details
House, early C19, extended in the mid-C19, converted into offices in the mid-C20.
MATERIALS: a brick building with roughcast render to the front range and exposed brick to the rear wing. The roofs are slate clad; there is a main rendered central stack and a brick stack over the wing.
PLAN: a two-room deep front range oriented north to south with a rectangular footprint and a long linear rear wing, on a west-east alignment, with a courtyard to its north.
EXTERIOR: the building has three storeys and two bays. The front (west) elevation faces directly onto the street. It has painted-plaster quoins, window and door surrounds, and a low parapet behind which is a half-hipped roof. The main entrance is in the left bay and stands at the top of a set of curved steps bounded on one side by a cast-iron railing. The doorway is flanked by a pair of fluted Doric columns supporting an entablature and fanlight above, with radial bars; within is a four-panelled door. Each floor has a pair of windows; there are two-light box sashes without glazing bars on the ground (displaced to the right by the presence of the main entrance) and first floor and single-pane windows on the second floor. The rear gable-end elevation has a central uPVC door and above is a tall, round-arched, eight-pane timber-casement stair window. To the right are three-light C20 timber-casement windows on each floor; the left side of the elevation is partially obscured by the rear wing and above is a projecting second-floor fire exit.
The two-storey brick rear wing consists of a flat-roof section, a slate pitched roof and another flat-roofed L-shaped section. Part of the slate pitched roof has been re-covered with modern slate. The north elevation faces into the courtyard. At the west end is a first-floor, timber-framed, jettied, canted-bay window which abuts the stair window. The wall below appears to have been rebuilt and includes three C20 single-light windows. The rest of the north elevation sits slightly forward. To the east is a later jettied first-floor canted-bay window. The elevation also includes a ground-floor box bay window which appears to be C20 and a C19 segmental-head horizontal sash window. The remainder of the windows on this elevation, and those on the south and east elevations, are C20 timber and uPVC frames. There are C20 doors on the south and east elevations. The wing's brick walls have been subject to various phases of repair and rebuilding, and include evidence of blocked doors and alterations around many of the windows.
INTERIOR: the front door of the front range opens into a small internal lobby with a C20 glazed timber-framed internal door and a false match-board ceiling. All of the internal doors are C20 replacements. There is a central C19 dog-leg staircase against the east wall with a timber balustrade of turned spindles with squared and turned newel posts. A two-cell brick-arched basement is accessed by an internal stair, and contains a coal bin, coal shoot and benches. The room arrangement on the ground floor has been substantially reconfigured to create office rooms and toilet facilities. The original upper-floor rooms are arranged in a U-shape around the stairwell; some partitions have been inserted to create smaller rooms. The first floor retains C19 plaster cornices, as well as some in-built cupboards with bevelled-panelled doors and butterfly hinges. The long first-floor front room also retains plastered ceiling beams and timber panelling to the window reveals. There is a double-purlin timber roof.
The rear wing was reconfigured in the C20 and C21 to form office space, including the creation of corridor along its south side lit by internal glazing. A C19 cornice survives in the most westerly first-floor canted-bay room. There is a C20 staircase at the east end.
