Union Cold Storage Building Miller Street Manchester

We, my sons and myself, have recently erected a refrigerating store near the Market, Manchester. It has basement and sub‑basement and nine other floors. It is faced on two sides with stock bricks, panelled with arches, and has terra-cotta mouldings, bands, cornices, etc. Taking basement walls, face‑work, setting round terra-cotta, windows, openings, lift recesses, etc, the brickwork from first to last averaged 750 bricks per man per day of ten hours, on ordinary wages. [C H Heathcote]

COLD STORES, MILLER-STREET, MANCHESTER — This building, recently completed, is ten stories in height, with an additional small flat on the roof for the condenser used in connexion with the refrigerating machinery. The basement floor is 32 feet below the level of the street, and in a portion of it are the boilers and machinery. The offices are on the ground floor facing Charter-street. With the exception of the entrance door and the office windows, there is no opening on the Miner-street and Charter street fronts. This has given the architects an opportunity for a bold treatment of lofty arched recesses, a strong cornice for shadow, and broad 'bands of warm, buff terra-cotta alternating with deep red brick. The building occupies a plot surrounded by four streets. The Beswick-row and ledger-street fronts are utilised on the ground floor for loading, there being platforms and large hoists sufficient to deal with five lurries at one time. The Union Cold Storage Co. have widened Ledger street sufficiently to allow a glass roof covering over the lurries loading in that street. The work of building was carried out by Messrs. Neill & Sons under the superintendence of the architects, Messrs. Chas. Heathcote & Sons, Manchester. The most difficult part was the excavation to such a depth, and this was rendered worse by the bursting of one of the Corporation mains in the neighbourhood, causing the basement to be flooded. The ground floor columns and beams were in position in July 1902, the eighth floor was fixed in October, and the whole building, except the machinery and insulation, finished in November. The building from footings to the roof tank is 150 feet high. [Builder 7 March 1903 page 257]

Reference    Building News 4 December 1903 page 754
Reference    Building News 6 March 1903 Page 340
Reference    Builder 7 March 1903 page 257