Building Name

Ceylon Café. 35, Market Street Manchester

Date
1904
Street
Market Street
District/Town
Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Work
New Build

HANDSOME ADDITION TO MANCHESTER'S ARCHITECTURE - Trade or no trade, good business or no business, building operations appear to go merrily along in Manchester. It would be interesting to numerate the many handsome new additions to the street architecture of the city. In Market-street the latest is the picturesque frontage of the new establishment of the Ceylon Café Company Ltd. The enterprise is new in many ways to Manchester and none the less acceptable. It is conducted on lines that, as far as can be ascertained, are novel but which have secured a wide and a deserved popularity in Liverpool and Leeds. The frontage to Market-street is in the Indian style, carried out in Carrara-ware and of such material that it will not be allowed to assume the grimy hue of ordinary stone buildings. For the rest, the company provide accommodation that is cheap and not nasty, but elegant. At any rate, a somewhat hideous and windy  corner has been made more or less an ornament. Some 1200 customers can be entertained on the four floors devoted to the public and the basement and second floor are devoted to those who like refreshment with a smoke. Coffee and tea of the best are the stock beverages, and the public will take their rest and refreshment to the strains of an excellent string band located in a floor sunk below the level of the second floor café and visible and audible from the first floor; indeed the strains of the band can be heard in all the four spacious rooms from the basement to the second floor. Coffee and chess a la Gatti’s, music and elegant surroundings should commend the venture to Mancunians, many of whom are familiar with the establishments in Liverpool. The architect is Mr Aubrey Thomas. There was an informal reception yesterday and the café was thronged with invited visitors. Today the premises are open for business.

Reference    Manchester Courier 22 October 1904. Page 9 Column 7
Reference    Manchester City News 22 October 1904 Page 8