Works and Offices London Road Holmes Chapel

Benger House was constructed on former agricultural land in 1939 as the new headquarters and manufacturing plant for Benger Foods Ltd., a manufacturer of “ethical pharmaceutical products.” At the time these included Auralgicin, a treatment for ear infections, and Benger’s Food, a milk supplement. The new headquarters building saw the company re-locate from its Manchester base (Otter Works, Mary Street, Strangeways) to new purpose-built premises in Holmes Chapel designed by the architectural practice of J.H. Andrews and Butterworth. Benger Foods Ltd. was established as Mottershead & Co. in Manchester in 1790, acquired by Frederick Baden Benger in 1870, changing its name to Benger Foods Ltd. in 1903. The company was taken over by Fissons Ltd. in 1947.

The building is composed of two principal elements, a large imposing rectangular office block facing the A50, and a series of axial planned laboratories and production facilities in three wings which lead off from this building at right angles to the north and east. The two storey office and administration block is set well back from the main road and creates a commanding position above terraced front lawns with ornamental retaining walls. This building contains the main architectural interest. To the south of the office building is a flat-roofed single storey gate-lodge controlling access to the rear of the site. The office building is of two storeys and is built of two contrasting tones of brown brick laid in Flemish bond with imitation stone dressings. The imitation stone has been largely covered with thick granular paint in recent years which obliterates some of the detail. The front elevation is symmetrical and of seventeen bays, defined by giant order pilasters, and punctured by a central projecting tower which contains the main entrance. This entrance is emphasised by a large double-height semi-circular arch, and prominent keystone, which is sub-divided by a decorative iron balcony. The original wooden entrance doors remain but, as throughout the building, the original metal windows characteristic of 1930s industrial architecture, have been replaced with windows of white powder coated aluminium. To either end of the façade the design is terminated by a smaller projecting tower with the window dressings balancing the central opening of the entrance tower. The façade is topped with a decorative parapet in imitation stone which hides the roof. This is supported on steel trusses and covered in Westmorland slate. Stylistically the office building is a mixture of Art Deco massing and stripped classical detail. The north and south elevations are of similar design, four bays wide, and contained between additional double-height towers. Single storey wings (with a small central emphasis provided by imitation stone pediments to the inner courtyard space) project eastwards from these elevations and are of a more utilitarian character as befits productions facilities and laboratories such that the pitched roof is revealed, there is a reduction of decorative detail, and large replacement windows dominate the symmetrical design. A later single storey extension has been added to the north, and a cross wing which originally connected the eastern wings to form a courtyard has been demolished. The interior is principally reached by the front entrance which opens into a lobby of original timber and glass screens, and wall lights, before reaching the central staircase hall. The decorative detail to the timber screens echoes that of the parapet. The staircase hall is top-lit by a domed decorative glass lantern of twelve sections in blue and pink glass. The decorative motifs to the base of the dome mirror those of the external balcony railings. The dome lights a staircase of speckled pale green cast terrazzo with a strongly moulded newel post and balustrade. The ground floor and tall dados are also terrazzo and tiles in the same colour respectively. Above the entrance lobby is the original board room. The decorative intent of the staircase hall is carried into the first floor corridors which are also top lit, the glazing contained within decorative plaster coving. Some of the original six-panel wooden doors survive. Elsewhere the interior of the building is either strictly utilitarian in character and/or has undergone considerable alteration leaving the staircase hall, board room, and first floor corridor as the site of any internal architectural interest. The two single-storey blocks which run at right angles to the office building are both large open-plan spaces (one open to expose the steel roof trusses, the other enclosed by a false ceiling) with no evidence of their former function, or machinery. At a later date a new wing containing laboratories was added and which also created an enclosed space, or courtyard. This has recently been demolished. Contemporary with this laboratory was a new single storey rear extension to the office building which acted as a circulation space. This space encloses the only remaining original windows to the office building. To the north of the office building, from its junction with the north-east wing, is a further single storey open-plan post-war extension which is also devoid of any significant details.[Peter De Figueiredo, Heritage assessment: former Fissons Pharmaceuticals Building, London Road, Holmes Chapel, November 2010]

Reference    Builder 22 May 1936 Page 1049
Reference    Builder 26 June 1936 Page 1302
Reference    RIBA Journal 3 April 1939 page 572
Reference    Builder, 20 January, 1939
Reference    Architect and Building News, 27 January, 1939
Reference    Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3 April, 1939