Trail:

York Street

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Manchester, Parrs Bank (former), Spring Gardens

Spring Gardens is the centre of Manchester's financial quarter.

On the corner of York Streetis Charles Heathcote's superb former Parrs Bank of 1902. His usual bold Edwardian BaroqueGlossary Term, with Art NouveauGlossary Term motifs in the ironwork. All of red sandstone with an angle dome and corner entrance. The arched windows have paired DoricGlossary Term columns between, supporting nothing more than big scrolled brackets. The banking hall (now used as a pub/restaurant) is amongst the most opulent of any of the date surviving in Manchester, and for that matter, in London. First a foyer in mahogany with IonicGlossary Term columns framing the doors, then the sumptuous banking hall, with green marble walls and IonicGlossary Term columns. The ceilings are encrusted with richly moulded plasterwork, and some of the original stained glass survives in the windows.

Glossary

Art Nouveau

A European decorative style at its peak c. 1890-1910, marked by swirling ornament derived from natural forms. True Art Nouveau design aimed to be distinct from all previous styles. Compare Free Style.

Baroque

The term, originally derogatory, for a style at its peak in 17th- and early 18th-century Europe, which developed the classical architecture of the Renaissance towards greater extravagance and drama. Its innovations included greater freedom from the conventions of the orders, much interplay of concave and convex forms, and a preference for the single visual sweep. The revival of the style in early 20th-century Britain, often termed Edwardian Baroque or Neo-Baroque, drew more on English prototypes than on the more expansive variants of the Continent.

Doric

The simplest and plainest of the three main classical orders, featuring a frieze with triglyphs and metopes. A Roman Doric column has a simple round capital with a narrow neck band and a plain or fluted shaft. A Greek Doric column has a thin spreading convex capital and no base to the column.

Ionic

One of the orders of classical architecture, distinguished in particular by downward- and inward-curling spirals (called volutes) on the capital of the column.

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