Chorlton Town Hall & Dispensary Grosvenor Square, All Saints

The Town Hall and Dispensary was the first building to be erected in Grosvenor Square, on a site running from Cavendish Street to Boundary Street West, purchased from William Duckworth. The local government offices occupied a site of 1743 square yards and included accommodation for the police and poor law officials. The Cholton-on-Medlock Dispensary had been established during an outbreak of fever in 1825 and was the first institutional medical charity in the suburbs of Manchester. When it was forced to move from accommodation in the Police Office on Oxford Road, it became a party to the building of the new Town Hall. To achieve this, John Potter and the other twenty-three Trustees purchased a further strip of land from William Duckworth at a cost of £390. The design bore a marked resemblance to Salford Town Hall, which had been completed in 1828. Of nine bays with a central pedimented portico supported on four fluted Doric columns. The frieze decorated with wreaths. Lane deliberately set the building back from the main building line of the square to enable the Classical proportions to be better appreciated. Although the building was designed as one, two separate contracts were let for the building works, David Bellhouse jnr being appointed as main contractor.  The Dispensary, which occupied the right-hand half of the building, continued to provide out-patient treatment from the building for more than a century. Eventually it became part of Manchester Polytechnic. The main body of the building was demolished in the 1970s leaving just the facade.