Manchester Ship Canal Company Dock Offices, Trafford Road, Salford
NEW SHIP CANAL BUILDINGS - It is expected that the new dock offices of the Manchester Ship Canal, which have been building for some months, will be opened early in the New Year. The offices are entirely of ferro-concrete, and have been designed architecturally with no attempt at disguise or evasion of the intrinsic properties of the material. A further work in ferro-concrete which is to be done on an adjoining plot, is the building of the new dock gates. These also will be simple in manner and impressive rather in the solidity and simplicity of their design than in any very familiar architectural manner. Two square towers, in elevation like truncated cones, will be joined by a flattened arch with flat top. The 60 feet (wide) gateway below will hold four iron gates, barred above and sheeted in steel below, which will roll into alcoves within the thickness of the towers. The gateway will be 18 feet from the ground to the springing of the arch. The building of this gateway should be completed within the first quarter of next year. [Manchester Guardian 23 December 1926 page 9]
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL NEW DOCK OFFICES – The dock office staff of the Manchester Ship Canal Company has now been transferred to the new dock offices in Trafford Road. The new premises, a large four-storey building in ferro-concrete designed by Mr Harry S Fairhurst, stands near the head of No 8 Dock, with its short façade to Trafford Road. Grouped round the administrative centre, which is in the middle, with its main entrance on the dock estate, are the various departmental groups, including those of the superintendents. The occupation of the new building brings the principal dock staff under one roof for the first time. Immediately adjoining the new offices a new gateway to the dock estate, to be known as the Dock Office Entrance, is being constructed at present. {Manchester Guardian 4 May1927 page 13]
NEW OFFICE BUILDINGS IN MANCHESTER (V): Manchester Ship Canal Dock Offices, Trafford Road- This is one of the most interesting ferro-concrete structures in the country. Its strong lines in piers and cornice seem to express very well a material cast in one big mould but with strengthening rods of steel within it. Obviously such material would call for as much repeat as possible and for as little moulded surface. The architect has therefore designed a series of strong piers all exactly alike, and has bound them together with a strong cornice. This latter, however, although it has been considerable projection, is reduced to its simplest form. There are none of the usual modillions and enrichments under it. When the architect has required finer detail than is possible in concrete, as in the infilling between his windows, he has used cast iron. The result is a building that looks eminently suitable to a dock, to stand among ships and giant cranes. The only criticism one can make at all is that the windows in the topmost storey, with plain sheets of glass and no bars like those below, look a little crude and hard. Probably some official insisted on the bars being given up. The dock gates too, are a very interesting piece of steel and concrete construction. Only in this material could so long a span have been obtained with any appearance of solidity. This long lintel and the piers hold the sliding doors, which shut back one behind the other into the piers. By this means the architect has been able to give an unimpeded opening to a broad roadway when the gates are pushed back, and yet close it entirely when desired. It is a cleaver piece of construction. One only wishes it had been a little farther away from the building, as its great scale takes a little from the dignity of the latter. [Manchester Guardian 16 August 1928]
Reference Manchester Guardian 10 July 1925 page 3 – contracts
Reference Manchester Guardian 23 December 1926 page 9
Reference Manchester Guardian 4 May1927 page 13
Reference C H Reilly: Manchester Guardian 16 August 1928 page 11 with illustration