IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Faulkner Street, MANCHESTER, M1 4ET

A narrow street linking George Street to Faulkner Street. In the background is a corner of the Grade II* listed https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1246952 former Watts Warehouse (now Britannia Hotel) on Portland Street with its large Gothic wheel windows Image dating from 1851.

By Fitzroy Robinson & Partners, 1971, on the site of a warehouse destroyed during the Second World War. Quite distinctive designs with, I think, concrete, stone, granite, aluminium and bronzed windows all thrown into the melting pot. Bank Chambers was built for the Bank of England and is reputed to be the most secure building in Manchester.

The junction of Chorlton Street with Portland Street in Manchester City Centre.

This large brickwork mosaic on the gable end of a building in George Street overlooks a public car park in Manchester's China Town.

Former warehouse dating from c1855 with quoins, keystones, sill bands and segmental windows. Grade II listed. One of a fine series of mid-C19th former warehouses on the south side of the street, built between c1850-65 to the designs of Edward Walters "in his personal and highly influential interpretation of the palazzo style" (Pevsner). Almost all occupy a whole block (to allow access to loading bays at the side), are of fine brick with stone dressings, and of five storeys and basement. "What matters in all is the conscientious and discriminating decoration, the amount of which depended on the purse of the client."

Part of Manchester's "Chinese Quarter", Faulkner Street, Manchester.

A slab-and-podium office block built in 1964 to the designs of Gunton & Gunton. Like a lot of Manchester's 1960s towers it has recently been refurbished, in this case reclad in 2003. Such work always seem to entail the loss of simple clean lines and the addition of fussy details, and while this is no exception, it's not a bad job.

A tidy example of 1960s curtain walling, the facade a characteristically strong rectilinear grid. It has recently been refurbished by ubiquitous local property developers, Bruntwood, and retail units added at street level. Behind is St James's House: Image

A gargantuan affair, almost 300 feet long. Pevsner remarks that the building "aptly encapsulates the spirit of self-confidence mixed with a touch of brashness". It is based on the Fondaco dei Turchi in Venice. Four prominences on the skyline, varying motifs to each floor, "culminating with wheel windows in the roof towers". Built by Travis & Mangnall, 1855-58. Grade II* listed. Pevsner notes that "S. & J. Watts was the largest wholesale drapery business in Manchester and the owner James Watts typical of the city's new mercantile princes". It is now a hotel.