Description

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement to update text on the 17 September 2021

458/0/10054

ALTRINCHAM
WOODFIELD ROAD
The Main office Block to The Linotype Works

16-MAR-04

II

Former office block to Linotype machinery works, now residential. Dated 1897, with minor early-C20 alterations and C21 internal alterations. By Stott and Sons for the Linotype Company Ltd. Red brick with buff terracotta detailing, slate roofs concealed behind deep parapets, copper tower roof.

PLAN: Stepped linear range, aligned north-south and forming the frontage range to a former extensive workshop development to the west.

EXTERIOR: Symmetrical front elevation with two-storeyed, seven-bay range to centre, and flanking two-storey and single-storey ranges extending to north and south. Entrance bay slightly advanced with banded, wide, segmental-arched opening below shallow six-light rectangular overlight. Above, a three-light mullion and transom window in moulded terracotta sits below a massive rectangular tower, surmounted by an ogee pyramidal spire supporting a flagpole. The tower incorporates clock faces to each elevation set within keyed moulded surrounds, a deep decorative frieze, moulded cornice and ornamental metal parapet railings, with a fish-scale roof.

The three bays either side of the entrance have three-light mullion and transom windows to the ground floor, and bowed three-light oriel windows immediately above, supported on pairs of console corbels. The bays are delineated by piers with foliated terracotta ornamentation at their heads. Moulded sill and lintel bands extend through the piers and onto the return elevations and flanking ranges. Above the upper floor windows, a deep parapet rises above a dentilled cornice. The name of the company is painted on the brickwork of recessed panels on the parapet, and the flush face of the tower: LINOTYPE AND MACHINERY LIMITED, surrounding the date AD.1897 in a recessed panel on the tower. Set back two-storey sections link the central range with longer single-bay flanking ranges, all of which have window openings detailed in matching style to the main range. The single-storey ranges have deep terracotta parapets incorporating a rinceau frieze.

INTERIOR: Not inspected.

HISTORY: First successfully trialled in America in 1885, Linotype machines allowed a complete line of justified type (hence the name) to be set as a single lead-alloy slug before returning the moulds for each letter to their correct storage space in the machine. ‘Hot-metal’ printing revolutionised newspaper publishing. The UK Linotype patent was bought by a group of British businessmen, including Lord Kelvin and Sir Joseph Lawrence, who had seen the machines working on a visit to the United States (the Mergenthaler Linotype Company also sent three experimental machines to England in 1889). In 1889 The Linotype Company Limited established its head office in London, and a factory in central Manchester (Hulme Street). Soon much larger premises were required for manufacturing purposes. The office block was developed as part of an extensive manufactory established in 1896 on a 30-acre site. The land was purchased from the Earl of Stamford's Oldfield Estate, where it formed part of the Broadheath Industrial Park. This 101-hectare park was created in 1885 and was probably the earliest planned industrial park in the world. The Linotype Company built not only the extensive works, but also a development of 172 workers’ houses known as the Linotype Housing Estate.

In 1903 The Linotype Company and the Machinery Trust merged to become the Linotype and Machinery Company Ltd. Originally the lettering to the right of the tower read ‘Company’ and was presumably repainted after 1903. The factory employed hundreds of workers in the manufacture of printing machines, and its success led to the enlargement of the Broadheath manufacturing district, and the consequential growth of Altrincham's population early in the C20. The company still existed in 2001, but the factory was in multiple use by the 1990s and the site began to be redeveloped from 2013. Some facades were incorporated into new housing and the office block was converted to residential in 2019. The former Engine House and Chimney base of the factory were listed in 2021, when they were still awaiting a new use.

A boldly-detailed and well-preserved office building of 1897 which formed the prominent centrepiece of a massive printing machine factory developed on a greenfield site in Altrincham. Its ambitious scale and the richness of its exterior detailing distinguish it from many other commercial buildings of the period and its clock tower ensures its continued prominence in the landscape.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670195

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)