Trail:

King Street

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Manchester, Midland Bank, King Street

King Street runs west from Spring Gardens and is dominated by HSBC, the former Midland Bank,on an island site at the top (east end) of the street. It is the King of King Street, the major work in Manchester of Sir Edwin Lutyens in collaboration with Whinney, Son & Austen Hall, who took care of the practical side. Carving was by J. Ashton Floyd of Manchester. Designed 1928, erected 1933-5. It is a nearly square block and treated as such, with the upper motifs identical on all four sides. The two angle porches are in King Street, and the entrances all have pilasters which dieGlossary Term away and disappear, as at his Midland Bank on Poultry in London. The elevationGlossary Term steps back and contracts and the tops of the centre motifs have French pavilionGlossary Term roofs. Sheer walls with simple openings contrast with the texture of the lower entrances and the upper stages. The proportions are ingeniously calculated, as Lutyens in his later years adored to do. The top stage is two-thirds of the stage from the obelisks to the next set-back, and that middle stage is two-thirds of the bottom stage. Also the walls above the first floor sillGlossary Term have a very slight batterGlossary Term: 1 in. in every 11 ft (2.54cm in every 3.4m). The banking hall could not be sky lit, so Lutyens gave it arcading on all four sides and wooden galleries much as in Wren churches. The galleries have large arched windows to let enough lightGlossary Term in. The Delhi orderGlossary Term, with bells, which Lutyens devised for the Viceroy's House in New Delhi (1913-29), is used.

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Manchester, Branch Bank of England (former), King Street

Also in King Street, No. 82 is the former Branch Bank of England by Charles Cockerell, 1845-6. The bank had been given the right to establish branches in 1826 as compensation for its loss of monopoly of joint-stock banking. Cockerell succeeded John Soane as the Bank's architect in 1833. He was asked to supply plans for new buildings for branches in Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol in 1844. The Manchester design is the earliest and most expansive, though the general spirit is the same. Only five bays with giant attached columns and a crowning motif of an aediculeGlossary Term window in an archGlossary Term which pushes up the pedimentGlossary Term. The pedimentGlossary Term is three bays wide, and in this part the lower windows are large and arched with a recessed tripartite arrangement with lunetteGlossary Term over. They correspond to the banking hall. Cockerell uses one of the simplest of Greek ordersGlossary Term, from the Temple of Apollo at Delos, which he had employed at Oakley Park, Shropshire. Inside a tunnel vaultGlossary Term leads to a saucer domeGlossary Term, continuing as another tunnel vaultGlossary Term. The dome stands on four cast-iron TuscanGlossary Term columns with pierced capitals. The King Street entrance is an early 20th century insertion and the original arched opening on the west side of Pall Mall was reinstated in 1995 when the building was reduced to the status of an entrance foyer to the office block behind, by Holford Associates.

Glossary

Aedicule

(lit. little building): Architectural surround, consisting usually of two columns or pilasters supporting a pediment.

Arch

Types include: Basket arch or Anse de Panier (French, lit. basket handle): three-centred and depressed, or with a flat centre. Chancel: dividing chancel from nave or crossing in a church. Crossing: spanning piers at a crossing in a church. Depressed or three-centred: with a rounded top, but curving inward more at the sides. Four-centred: with four arcs, the lower two curving inward more than the upper, with a blunt central point; typical of late medieval English architecture. Jack arch: shallow segmental vault springing from beams, used for fireproof floors, bridge decks, etc. Ogee (adjective ogival): a pointed arch with a double reverse curve, especially popular in the 14th century; a nodding ogee curves forward from the wall face at the top. Parabolic: shaped like a chain suspended from two level points, but inverted. Relieving or discharging: incorporated in a wall to relieve superimposed weight. Shouldered: with arcs in each corner and a flat centre or lintel. Skew: spanning responds not diametrically opposed. Stilted: with a vertical section above the impost i.e. the horizontal moulding at the springing. Strainer: inserted in an opening to resist inward pressure. Three-centred: see Depressed, above. Transverse: spanning a main axis (e.g. of a vaulted space). Triumphal arch: influential type of Imperial Roman monument, free-standing, with a square attic or top section and broad sections to either side of the main opening, often with lesser openings or columns. Tudor: with arcs in each corner joining straight lines to the central point. Two-centred: the simplest kind of pointed arch.

Batter

Intentional inward inclination of a wall face.

Die

The upright part of a pedestal, i.e. between base and cornice.

Elevation

Any face of a building or side of a room. In a drawing, the same or any part of it, represented in two dimensions.

Light

Compartment of a window defined by the uprights or mullions.

Lunette

Semicircular window or blind panel.

Order

One of a series of recessed arches and jambs forming a splayed medieval opening, e.g. a doorway or arcade arch. Also, an upright structural member used in series, especially in classical architecture: see Orders.

Orders

The differently formalized versions of the basic post-and-lintel (column and entablature) system in classical architecture. The main orders are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. They are Greek in origin but occur in Roman versions. Tuscan is a simple variant of Roman Doric. The Composite capital combines Ionic volutes with Corinthian foliage. Though each order has its own conventions of design and proportion, there are many minor variations. Superimposed orders: orders on successive levels, customarily in the upward sequence of Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite.

Pavilion

Ornamental building for occasional use in a garden, park, etc.; or a projecting subdivision of a larger building, often at an angle or terminating a wing.

Pediment

A formalized gable derived from that of a classical temple; also used over doors, windows etc. A broken pediment has its apex omitted. An open pediment has the centre of the base omitted. A broken pediment with double-curved sides is called a swan-neck pediment.

Saucer dome

An internal dome of flattened profile.

Sill

Horizontal member at the bottom of a window or door frame; sometimes spelt cill. Also the horizontal member at the base of a timber-framed wall, into which the posts and studs are tenoned.

Tunnel vault

The simplest kind of vault, in the form of a continuous semicircular or pointed arch; also called a barrel vault.

Tuscan

One of the orders of classical architecture, a simpler variant of Roman Doric.

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