Lloyd House, Lloyd Street and Southmill Street, Manchester

The Manchester Shipping and Packing Company's warehouse and offices, situate in Albert Square, between the Memorial Hall and Bradshaw and Blacklock's warehouse, is a very successful work by Messrs Speakman and Charlesworth.  The main angle of this building, looking into Albert Square, is circular, resting on clustered granite shafts, forming a sort of loggia or porch, from which access may be had to the offices in the building. This circular angle is finished with a spiral termination of timber, and slated altogether, forming an effective and pleasing architectural feature. The front towards the side of the Memorial Hall is particularly good in design; and the way in which the chimney stacks are worked into the main gables is very artistic and somewhat original in treatment. On the Lloyd‑street front appear the staircases, and the architectural student would do well to carefully examine these features of the design. The ascent of the stairs is pleasingly marked on the external wall by stepping arcades, formed of light Gothic shafts, left open for light and ventilation, through which arcaded openings the staircases are seen ascending from a well‑designed Gothic doorway in the street. Altogether this building reflects considerable credit on the talent of its architects, and alone is sufficient to perpetuate their names, and through its medium they have left their mark upon the architecture of the Gothic revival of this city.[The Critic 15 June 1872 Page 259]

LLOYD'S HOUSE, a large pile of warehouses near Albert Square, will be found very well worth a visit. It has three facades of French Gothic character, treated with great simplicity and good taste. The mode in which the open staircases, with their shafted and foliated stone window openings, are made to harmonise, while they all necessarily vary with the rapid declivity of the side street, struck us as especially commendable. The building has been erected from the designs of Messrs Speakman and Charlesworth, the architects of two other good commercial works in the city; Lancaster Avenue in Fennel- street, near the Cathedral, and a carriage repository in Devonshire-street Oxford-road. These are both works of little stone and much brickwork, but each of them masterly in its way. [Building News 29 July 1870 Page 77]

ABRIDGED PROSPECTUS - The objects of the Company are the erection of shippers' offices and warerooms of superior character, fitted with all recent improvements: and the laying down of an extensive plant of first-class modern machinery to meet the great and increasing demand that now exists for the rapid and prompt dispatch of goods to foreign markets. A most eligible site for the purpose has been secured, containing upwards of 2,200 square yards of land, within 500 yards of the Royal Exchange and the General Post Office and two-thirds of a mile of the goods station of the London and North Western and Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Companies. [Times Tuesday 9 August 1864 page 3]

Reference    Times Tuesday 9 August 1864 page 3 - Abridged prospectus
Reference    Building News 29 July 1870 Page 77
Reference    The Critic 15 June 1872 Page 259