The Rylands Building is a Grade II listed building and former department store in Market Street,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. Situated close to the Piccadilly area of

Manchester city centre Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...

, the building was originally built as a warehouse by J. Gerrard & Sons of Swinton for the Rylands textile company (Rylands & Sons Ltd) which was founded by

John Rylands John Rylands (7 February 1801 – 11 December 1888) was an English entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the owner of the largest textile manufacturing concern in the United Kingdom, and Manchester's first multi-millionaire. After having lea ...

. That firm had occupied warehouses in High Street ever since 1822. Its west-facing side is on High Street; The building was designed by the eminent Manchester architects, Fairhursts (Harry S. & P. G. Fairhurst), in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. It is clad in Portland stone and features a decorative corner tower and eclectic 'zig zag' window

lintels A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of ...

. The work was completed in 1932. The building is situated in the Smithfield conservation area of Manchester, an area which was known for its markets and textile warehouses. Following a fire, in 1957, which destroyed the premises of Paulden's Department Store, in All Saints, the company acquired the Rylands warehouse building and converted it to a store. This was then a direct rival to the Lewis's store, on the opposite side of Market Street. In 1973 Debenhams, the owner of Paulden's rebranded the store in their name. It remained

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

until its closure in 2021, outlasting other Manchester department stores, including

Lewis's Lewis's was a chain of British department stores that operated from 1856 to 2010. The owners of Lewis's have gone into administration many times over the years, including 1991. The first store, which opened in Liverpool city centre, became ...

, Affleck & Brown and C&A. The Rylands Building can be seen in the background of

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

's 1954 painting, '' Piccadilly Gardens''.

References

{{coord, 53.4823, -2.2386, region:GB-MAN_type:landmark, display=title Commercial buildings in Manchester Debenhams Department store buildings in the United Kingdom Towers in Greater Manchester Grade II listed buildings in Manchester Grade II listed commercial buildings Art Deco architecture in England

See also

References