Bank of Athens. 57 Mosley Street (Portico Library)

By the end of the First World War, the Portico Library was in financial difficulty. When Joseph Sunlight arrived with a client and a proposal to alter the ground floor he was treated as a “white knight,” the saviour of the institution. Architecturally, the division of the building ruined Harrison’s interior. Financially, the scheme saved the Portico Library

A feature article on the new Bank of Athens, with illustration of the interior and advertisements for the contractor and sub-contractors appeared in the Manchester City News of 18 June 1921. Much of the article provided detailed information on the Bank of Athens, its history etc. Although many of the sub-contractors advertised, precise details of the building alterations were fairly minimal

In casting about for a convenient site and premises, the bank authorities could hardly have chosen a more suitable place than the old Portico Library in Mosley Street. From a business point of view, it is admirable. It stands right in the heart of that circle wherein are the warehouses which have helped to make Manchester famous - "filled with wondrous goods and costly merchandise," where the "merchant princes" here made their fortune - hence are shipped goods to the uttermost parts of the earth. .....

It stands greatly to the credit of the people concerned that the Bank of Athens, in taking up its Manchester headquarters there, has not taken away one jot or tithe of its architectural beauty, but in its scheme of essential alterations, has rather emphasised it. The pillared columns are still there, but the stonework all round has been so retouched as to give the whole building the appearance of new life and purpose. This is a tribute to the excellent work of the architect, Mr Joseph Sunlight of 4, St Ann=s Square, Manchester, under whose directions the works have been carried out. The picture on this page conveys but a moderate idea of the classic beauty of the large room in which business is transacted. It bespeaks a solid worth and a substantial outlook. From first to last, it is a work that is highly creditable to all the contractors who have done their several parts, and whose claims are set out in the various advertisements in these pages. Manchester people are glad that the old Portico scheme is still preserved to them in a form at once bright and most attractive. And the Portico Library still carries on its varied and influential work. [Manchester City News 18 June 1921.Page 6]

The conversion of the ground floor and basement of the Portico Library into banking premises. Building Regulations approval 27 January 1920. Drawings dated 1919.

Reference    History of Portico Library
Reference    Manchester City News 18 June 1921.Page 6