Rylands Building
The Rylands Building is a Grade II listed building and former department store on Market Street in Manchester, England. It is situated in the Smithfield conservation area, which was known for its markets and textile warehouses, close to the Piccadilly area of Manchester city centre. 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 the entrepreneur John Rylands. 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 style. It is clad in Portland stone and features a decorative corner tower and eclectic 'zig zag' window lintels. The work was completed in 1932. 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 until its closure in 2021, outlasting other Manchester department stores including Lewis's, Affleck & Brown and C&A.
Not much to say on this one. Was looking at it for a while, but always seemed quite tight as restoration had begun. It had been reported on back in the day and probably visited all the way since, yet I hadn't seen what it looked like since 2011. I was out filming in the city-centre, got chased by a drunk guy and ended up in the Debenhams building to hide. It turned out to still be really cool. Returned a few days later with @jtza and Alex to show them this and we did CWS Bank on the same afternoon. Debbie always delivers.
Construction was well underway on the lower floors.
Moving upwards, the features just kept getting nicer from there, really. Most of it is totally void of any interest, though.
Nice offices on the third or fourth floor.
This staircase was just adorable.
Top floor. Class.
Tily toilets.
Dual ballrooms were just incredible. So much colour had remained in the skylight despite a considerable amount of decay.
Boardroom. I particularly loved the gigantic window over Picadilly Gardens.
Staircase looking over the city, with a beautiful lift shaft and tiled walls.
From here, we headed onto the roof and found quite a few structures with some interesting bits and bobs.
Rooftop to finish with.
Here is the exact same photographs in video format. JPG to MP4:
Thanks to @jtza because half of these photographs are his. Hope he don't mind.
Thanks for reading
The Rylands Building is a Grade II listed building and former department store on Market Street in Manchester, England. It is situated in the Smithfield conservation area, which was known for its markets and textile warehouses, close to the Piccadilly area of Manchester city centre. 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 the entrepreneur John Rylands. 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 style. It is clad in Portland stone and features a decorative corner tower and eclectic 'zig zag' window lintels. The work was completed in 1932. 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 until its closure in 2021, outlasting other Manchester department stores including Lewis's, Affleck & Brown and C&A.
Not much to say on this one. Was looking at it for a while, but always seemed quite tight as restoration had begun. It had been reported on back in the day and probably visited all the way since, yet I hadn't seen what it looked like since 2011. I was out filming in the city-centre, got chased by a drunk guy and ended up in the Debenhams building to hide. It turned out to still be really cool. Returned a few days later with @jtza and Alex to show them this and we did CWS Bank on the same afternoon. Debbie always delivers.
Construction was well underway on the lower floors.
Moving upwards, the features just kept getting nicer from there, really. Most of it is totally void of any interest, though.
Nice offices on the third or fourth floor.
This staircase was just adorable.
Top floor. Class.
Tily toilets.
Dual ballrooms were just incredible. So much colour had remained in the skylight despite a considerable amount of decay.
Boardroom. I particularly loved the gigantic window over Picadilly Gardens.
Staircase looking over the city, with a beautiful lift shaft and tiled walls.
From here, we headed onto the roof and found quite a few structures with some interesting bits and bobs.
Rooftop to finish with.
Here is the exact same photographs in video format. JPG to MP4:
Thanks to @jtza because half of these photographs are his. Hope he don't mind.
Thanks for reading
