THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE)

THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE), WILMSLOW ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1270516
Date first listed:: 04-Mar-1974
List Entry Name:: THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE)
Statutory Address:: THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE), WILMSLOW ROAD

User submitted image — Uploaded by Barrie Price This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2002-07-04
Reference:: IOE01/04282/33
Rights:: © Mr Charles Madders. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1270516
Date first listed:: 04-Mar-1974
List Entry Name:: THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE)
Statutory Address 1:: THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE), WILMSLOW ROAD

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: THE TOWERS (SHIRLEY INSTITUTE), WILMSLOW ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Manchester (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SJ 85063 90163

Details

MANCHESTER

SJ89SE WILMSLOW ROAD, Didsbury 698-1/9/683 (South side) 04/03/74 The Towers (Shirley Institute)

GV II*

Mansion, now offices. 1868-72, by Thomas Worthington, with carving by Thomas Earp of London, for J.E.Taylor (the then proprietor and editor of the Manchester Guardian); altered internally (and with late C20 additions). Red brick with sandstone dressings and slate roofs. Irregular double-pile plan on east-west axis, with external kitchen attached at north-east corner and gallery at south-west corner. French chateau style. Two storeys with cellars, attics, and tower; an assymetrical 7-bay north front with stone plinth, band between floors, parapet, a slender octagonal turret at the left corner, an octagonal oriel at the right-hand corner, a square 2-stage tower above the entrance in the 5th bay (all these with slate spire roofs with swept eaves and the tower with a corbel table to the cornice), gabled dormers between these, and steeply-pitched hipped roof with various tall chimneys. The doorway has a C13-style porch with buttresses, moulded 2-centred arch with marble shafts, and projected curved balcony parapet with corner tourelles. All fenestration is of cross-window form, with double-chamfered stone surrounds, the dormers have Gothic enrichments including finials, and the oriel to the right has a prominent moulded corbel enriched with carved grotesques, and smaller grotesques at the angles of the cornice. The kitchen, attached at the left end by a short link, has a large mullioned window, and steep hipped roof with louvred penthouse ventilator. The west end, which is stepped and irregular, has (inter alia) a very large mullioned and transomed stair window with stepped sills, mounting round a corner, and at the south-west corner a square single-storey extension (the gallery) with pyramidal skylight roof. The south front, which is in matching style, includes a 2-storey canted bay window at the west end and a bold octagonal turret at the east corner, with features like those of the oriel at the front. Interior: L-shaped division between family and service accommodation, the principal rooms being in the south and west ranges and the services in the north and east; much original decoration in the former, including large entrance hall with screen of granite shafts to massive stone staircase with stained glass windows, coffered ceilings with painted panels here and in the parlour and library, Gothic panelled doors with original foliated brass furnishings; massive stone fireplace in kitchen, servants' stairs at east end. History: probably never occupied by J.E.Taylor, who sold it in 1872 to David Adamson, iron founder and engineer, one of the founders of the Manchester Ship Canal; occupied since 1920 by Shirley Institute (textile research).

Listing NGR: SJ8506390163

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 458458
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.