Middleton Market Place

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 9 Oct 2021

At the junction of the A664 Assheton Way and the B6189 Market Place. #1 on the left is the Assheton Arms. Originally a J.W.Lees pub it now only operates as a B&B Image #3 in the middle is the Grade II listed https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1068505 building built in 1892 for the Manchester and Salford Bank. The local architect Edgar Wood was responsible for its design comprising buff-coloured terracotta with a clay tile roof, 3 bays and 3 storeys. There is a panelled round-arched door between bays 2 and 3 with blocked archivolt and coat of arms above. Three 3-light mullion and transom basket-arched windows within segmental recesses on the ground floor. Secondary doors to extreme left and right. Similar 4-light windows on the first and second floor the latter within bold gabled dormers. All windows have leaded lights. The gabled dormers are only narrowly divided by the plane of the roof which continues down to a deep eaves projection. Elaborate rainwater heads with rosette motifs and downpipes with flamboyant brackets convey the rainwater to a trough at first floor sill level. The trough has bead-and-reel enrichment and channels water to an internal drain. Bold ridge chimney stacks. It became a Williams Deacon bank and subsequently the Royal Bank of Scotland. Having stood empty for many years plans to turn it into a nightclub were rejected. It has recently opened as the Lekki Lounge https://www.lekkiloungemanchester.co.uk/ describing itself as having the best Afro Caribbean cuisine in Manchester. #5 on the right has for many years been a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland but that too has now closed.

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