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oldskool
03-05-2011, 03:30 PM
Refuge Assurance Building Manchester 2011


Visited with Millhouse last week.
Not the norm for me but this place is fantastic and extremely photogenic.

I have to hold my hands up to the Manchester lot for sussing these places out the access was a bit of a head f--k god knows how they suss them out..

1.
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6776.jpg

The Refuge Assurance Building (also known as the Palace Hotel or Refuge Building), stands at the corner ofOxford Street and Whitworth Street in Manchester, England.

2.
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6773.jpg

The first phase of this Grade II* listed red brick and terracotta building was designed for the Refuge Assurance Company by Alfred Waterhouse and built 1891–1895. The inside was of Burmantofts faience and glazed brick. The ground floor was one enormous open business hall.

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6766.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6765.jpg

It was extended, with a striking 217-foot (66 m) tower, along Oxford Street by his son Paul Waterhouse in 1910–1912. It was further extended along Whitworth Street by Stanley Birkett in 1932.

5
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6763.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6773.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6757.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6745.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6739.jpg


The Refuge Assurance Company occupied the building until 1987. Although, the Refuge Assurance company had discussed turning the building into a new home for The Hallé, the funding required for the project did not materialise. It was converted to a hotel by Richard Newman in 1996, and is now the Palace Hotel, owned and operated by the Principal Hayley Group.
Some scenes of Hell Is a City were shot on the roof of the building.

10
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6762.jpg

11
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6760.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6761.jpg

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http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6769.jpg

14
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn350/traktor999/_DSC6770.jpg

Thanks for looking Oldskool...