Home Trade Warehouse, Dale Street, Manchester

WAREHOUSE BUILDING is, and has been, in progress in Manchester on a very large scale during recent years, probably due to the fact that older buildings do not provide the conveniences and facilities for business which are now found necessary. Plans are annexed of the principal floors of a recently completed warehouse for Messrs. I. J. and O. Cooper, Ltd., a firm nearly a century old, which may reasonably be taken as the best, and consequently as a type of the class. An enormous amount of constructional detail had to be worked out conjointly by the architects, Messrs. John Bowden and Co., Ridgefield, Manchester (a firm also in its second generation), and the managing directors before "the working drawings could be completed, some of which are very briefly outlined in this article. 

It is necessary to explain that warehouses are of three types: home trade, shipping, and packing warehouses. The building illustrated is a home  trade warehouse. The first essential is good light for the display of the goods; it is the controlling factor in the selection of the site, which in the case under review is bounded by streets on three sides and a square on the fourth. The broad idea of the plan is to have the whole of  the floor area of the sale rooms entirely free of cross walls, open from window to window, and to supplement the window light by a large oblong well extending from the ground floor upwards with a glass roof, so as to provide a bright, attractive, and healthy interior. The building is eight floors in height, including a basement partly above ground and very well lighted, and a sub basement lighted by carrying down wide cellar areas. These eight floors are subdivided into twenty five departments. The sub basement is used for packing cases and storage, and contains the strong room, built of brick, of which more below, the floor is cement. The basement is the packing and the despatching department. The ground floor contains the main entrance, adjoining it are the board room, secretary's office, the large counting house and various offices; also the loading hovels and a communications room. from which both customers, the staff, and those in other towns can communicate directly with every one of the 25 departments in the building. A portion of this floor, owing to the high rental value of the frontage to the square, is walled off as shown on the plan, and let as a large shop; but this is quite an exceptional feature, and not a characteristic of warehouse plans. 

The first and the upper floors, all identical in plan, are the sale and show rooms, in which, owing to the great extent of the floor area, goods are laid out without being piled up to any great height; the planning of the fixtures so as to utilise the floor area to the beat advantage, and to enable customers to pass readily from department to department, is an important section of the architects' details.  Complete supervision and control by the managing directors, and the most perfect light even in the centre of each floor are thus secured.  The construction and sections of the window heads have been the subject of careful study they are carried up as far as possible above the ceiling line, and by a bevel down to the ceiling the available light is increased to the utmost possible extent.  Towards the narrowest of the three streets the brick piers arc reduced to a minimum, and the largest possible area of glass  is obtained. The window openings are also utilised for ventilation; hopper fresh air inlets are provided everywhere, and the large well hole prevents any accumulation of foul air below the ceilings. The air is consequently perfectly fresh throughout the building, and to a marked degree in the basement and sub basement   an important detail in an establishment with a staff of 400, and large numbers of callers and customers constantly in the building. 

The construction throughout is fireproof. The instructions given to the architects were to sub ordinate everything to that. Cast iron columns, which are in general use for warehouses as well as wrought iron rivetted standards, have not, in cases of great fires, been found trustworthy. Columns of solid steel have therefore been substituted from bottom to top; those carrying the roof are of extremely small diameter; they increase on each floor, and those on the ground level are apparently about 9 in. in diameter. This warehouse is stated to be the first and possibly the only one in this country constructed with solid steel supports.   The girders are all encased in concrete, and the whole of the floors are laid with wood blocks on a concrete bed, which forms the ceiling of the floor below. The interior has an extremely ornate appearance. In the main entrance the steps are of polished granite, the dado is of several varieties of rich vari-coloured marbles, the plinth being black. The whole of the salerooms are coloured in light tints to enhance the light. The outer walls are of polished stone on agranite base up to the first floor, and of pressed brick and terracotta above. As will be seen from the plans, the elevations are broken up by recessed bay windows; the piers and window openings are well balanced, and the general detail is worked out in the Italian style. The elevations form a striking contrast to those of similar buildings erected a generation or two ago, when a plain brick wall with oblong window openings, 14 in. flat arches, and 6 in. stone sills were considered ample for warehouse purposes. 

The buildings are heated throughout on the Swedish Reck system, with radiators in every room: the cistern supplying them is placed under the roof, and the hot water flows downwards, passing through each in turn. The architects have worked out the details of the counting house with great care. In the centre is a long counter, with subdivisions and shelves constructed of iron, with an overhanging flat top, open in front, in which the ledgers and books required for daily use are placed. It stands over an opening in the floor, surrounded by an iron rebated frame. In the evening, or in case of fire, the fitting sinks into the opening and is lowered into the fireproof safe formed in the sub basement, the overhanging flat top accurately fitting the rebate of the iron frame let into the floor so that when it is lowered the flooring is continuous and complete. The safe or strong room in the sub basement is formed to fill in the space between four columns, and is built with thick outer brick walls, so that even if the whole building, including all the iron supports, were to be absolutely wrecked or to collapse, the books, forming the alpha and omega of the business, would be retained intact. Hydraulic power is used to raise and lower this ledger counter.

An essential feature of a home trade warehouse for which the architects have to provide, are facilities for the rapid receiving and sending away of hundreds of parcels and packages daily; they had to work out a complete system of labour and time saving appliances. Two sets of lurries any. provided for, with separate loading doors and hoists ; for those bringing goods two large recessed hovels are provided on the ground floor with staging and a large hoist ascending from the basement despatching room, but not breaking through the first floor. As will be seen from the plan, lurries can be completely backed into the hovels. On the other hand, carts or lurries fetching parcels back up against the outer wall to a loading door, adjoining which is a hoist extending the full height of the building; there are, therefore, separate despatching and receiving hoist doors, and all necessary labour saving conveniences. An essential point which had to be working out was how parcels of any size or weight from any upper floor could be transmitted to the loading door.

A shoot the whole height of the building, with openings on every floor, would obviously have been impossible, as the velocity of the parcels would have been too great. The architects and managing directors therefore devised a most ingenious and simple appliance, which works with unfailing reliability. A wooden trough is laid from floor to floor, inclined at a high angle, large enough to take any package. At the floor level is an opening, beyond which the trough rises for a few feet; this repeats on every floor, the direction of the trough being reversed on each floor. A parcel can be placed in the trough at any level; it shoots to the floor below, jumps the opening, and ascends a few feet. Its velocity is completely checked, and its course reversed: it then shoots down in the opposite direction to the floor below, and so on from floor to floor, until the loading door is reached. The velocity can never exceed that of a fall of 12 ft., although it  may descend from the top of the building to the street level. Its position is shown on the plan behind the safety staircase. The extent to which the architects have had to work out labour saving appliances may be appreciated when it is stated that automatic and self-registering weighing machines are placed in the hoist, so that every case of goods, sent away or received, is weighed whilst passing down or up the building to or from the loading doors. The whole building is lighted with electricity  by two series of lamps   one for ordinary use after dark, and the supplementary system for use during foggy weather.  So powerful is the latter that during the densest fog the most delicate colours of the goods can be distinguished. Practically the warehouse is entirely independent of daylight.  The wires are all laid in steel pipes, so that fusing or any risk of fire is impossible; but assuming a breakage or short circuit, no woodwork or inflammable material is near which could ignite. 

For the use of the staff, male and female, numbering at least 400, the architects have pro vided a large and comfortable dining room on the top floor, with a kitchen, scullery, and larder attached, fitted up with the most elaborate and modern cooking appliances, worked by a special staff under the supervision of an experienced manager.  The walls of the kitchen are lined from floor to ceiling with white glazed tiles; the whole of the cooking is done by steam, and the appliances are on a scale to cook food for hundreds at a time. Three separate large cookers or boilers are set apart for vegetables, another for tea, so constructed that nothing tan be drawn from it until the tea is properly brewed, and a large iron oven the, size of a cottage dwelling room is provided for roasting  meat. Coke is the fuel used for heating it. The consumption of fuel for roasting the meat required for 400 is only 2d. per day. Mechanical appliances are provided for many ol the ordinary kitchen processes. An essential feature  is the low temperature of the kitchen and the retention of heat by the whole of the utensils, which, although worked at a temperature of 300, can be felt by the hand without the slightest discomfort. The larder is fitted with slate shelving, and has a remarkably low temperature. The kitchen department has a separate hoist from the street, so that food can be conveyed to it, without its passing through the warehouse. There is also a separate enclosed safety stairs down to the street. Everything is scrupulously clean.  An elaborate system of fire alarms is provided on every floor. The fixtures are placed in the large well, so as to be easily seen and readily found. The striking of a disc, one of which is  placed on every floor, sets everything at work, a  gong is sounded which would be heard all over the building, an indicator would localise the out break, and the staff form a drilled fire brigade, which would be in action within two minutes. The latter is the only detail for which the architects are not responsible.

Reference           The Building News 10 August 1906. Page 176