Velvet House, perched on the corner of the well-known and lesser known, Sackville Street and Bombay Street, Manchester, is a grand building that Block Compliance Ltd, were recently commissioned with:
1. Fire Door Surveys
2. Building Safety Case Reports
Velvet House – an obscure history
Unlike its main buildings facing it and around it, little can be gleaned of Velvet House and the four more modern buildings down Bombay Street that our expert team worked on. It does appear to have been some sort of early 20th century warehouse – and its name perhaps indicates that.
Though Manchester is known for cotton due to its damp climate, its bee motif and its industrial heritage – velvet may refer to the fabric or be completely unconnected. Sackville Street, for example, is named after Lionel Sackville, the first Duke of Dorset, (born 18th January 1688, died 10 October 1765) and is also the name of a small urban park: Sackville Gardens.
Sackville Street and Sackville Gardens
More can be gleaned about the above two in a Google deep dive, with Sackville Street being home to UMIST, the birthplace of Vimto, commemorated close to Velvet House on Granby Row.
Sackville Gardens is a remarkable urban space featuring grand buildings, like the former Shena Simon 6th Form college, abutting the Rochdale Canal and the Gay Village’s Canal Street, as well as the only Beacon of Hope in the UK, at one end (marking HIV and AIDs), and, fittingly, at its centre a benched sculpture of Manchester code-breaker and mathematician Alan Turing, a gay man born in Beswick, and persecuted for his sexuality.
Manchester today
Modern Manchester is a veritable melting pot of old and new. It has one of the world’s oldest aqueducts on the Ashton Canal, running over Store Street. It has the world’s oldest passenger station (now part of the Museum of Science and Industry) at Liverpool Road, close to Castlefield, the Roman area. Castlefield itself is a glorious mix of mercantile warehouses, railway viaducts, an events space (Castlefield Bowl) and even a free admission National Trust garden on a disused viaduct.
Inward movement of people into Manchester
Most major UK cities are seeing outward migration, but Manchester is bucking the trend. It had the most skyscraper footings of any UK city in 2023, with, we believe, 53 sprouting up. If you cast your mind back, just 30 years, the only towers visible in the city centre were: the old CIS building on Miller Street, City Tower at Piccadilly Gardens and the beige Arndale Centre on Market Street. The Arndale remains the most visited shopping mall in the UK, with its footfall of 41 million per annum, surpassing the more modern Trafford Centre.
Gary Neville, Pep Guardiola – city dwellers
Gary Neville, of Manchester United fame, lives in the city centre with his family and his company, Relentless, are transforming the old Bootle Street Police Station, with St Michael’s. Here, the Sir Ralph Abercrombie pub has been protected from demolition, with it proudly bearing a plaque outside for its part in tending to the wounded from the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.
José Mourinho, when manager of Manchester United, lived in the impressive Lowry Hotel, on the banks of the Irwell in Salford; Pep Guardiola of Manchester City FC, lives in City Suites, opposite Dial House, Salford, close to the city centre. Dial House, a telephone exchange, is moving to Salford Quays and we await, with interest, the plans for Dial House.
Many others do too, with less fame and acclaim
Velvet House may not have the majesty of the Kimpton Clocktower, close by, or the gothic grandeur of the famed John Rylands Library on Deansgate, but it is a distinctively handsome building and one that Block Compliance Ltd are proud to be associated with.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help you with Fire Door Surveys, Fire Risk Assessments. Fire Safety and Building Safety Case reports, contact our team today at info@blockcompliance.net
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