Victorian Corner Building on Hanging Ditch, Manchester

3 October 2019 · Manchester

The curved facade of this Victorian commercial building on Hanging Ditch holds its ground against the flat glass of modern Manchester rising behind it. Alternating bands of sandstone and red brick run floor to floor, interrupted only by the deep bay windows that push the facade outward at each storey. Up at the roofline, mock-Tudor half-timbered gables and pointed dormers mark the building's era without apology. The Arndale tower visible to the right is the contrast the building doesn't need but gets anyway — a century of architecture compressed into a single street corner.