G. W. Bonson's Heated Store Rooms and Workshop

Location/Address

Moss Lane, Altrincham, WA14 1BA First buildings on the south side of Moss Lane as you head westwards up Moss Lane into Altrincham

Type

Building

Roofed and walled permanent structures.

Description

L19th - E20th century: 4-storey warehouse formerly used as heated store rooms, and 3-storey probable workshop of Godfrey William Bonson's furniture business. Brief biography of Godfrey William Bonson (1858-1932): 1891 Census - (aged 32) "Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer and House Furnisher". First premises on Stamford New Road 1887, moved warehouse and workshop to a position by the railway (presumably Moss Lane) in 1894. Elected as Mayor of Altrincham 1909. Warehouse: brick-built, English Garden Wall bond (3:1 stretchers:headers) with pitched slate roof. Upper two floors (2nd and 3rd storeys) of south-east facing elevation glazed with 8 multi-paned windows with arched red-brick upper-lintels and stone sills. "G W Bonson's Heated Store Rooms" spelled out in white brickwork, filling space between and beneath top-storey windows. Modern restaurant name Tre Ciccio EST 2016 painted in black beneath the second row of windows. Lower two floors stretch down beneath street-level adjacent to Moss Lane rail-bridge. Ground floor of facade concealed by single storey extension housing Tre Ciccio restaurant, first floor has four bricked-up windows. On Moss Lane frontage, street level (first floor) occupied by Cancer Research UK, with two floors above, three windows on each floor, decorative red-brick upper-lintels and vertical and horizontal banding. Uppermost triangular panel of gable suggests more wording formerly occupied the space, but this is not legible. Decorative framing using angled bricks. Workshop: Building immediately adjacent to warehouse along Moss Lane. 3-storeys entirely of header-bonded bricks. Upper 2-storeys each with 4 multi-paned windows. Upper floor windows have stone(?) upper lintels and stone sills. Central storey similar to the Warehouse, with arched red-brick lintels and stone sills. Street level occupied by entrance to Tre Ciccio restaurant, a flat-topped arch/passage through to rear courtyard (flanked with cast-iron protective corner-guards at road level) and a barbers shop. Website giving details of the Bonson family history can be viewed at this URL: http://bonsonhistory.co.uk/html/godfrey_b_1858.html

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Statement of Significance

Asset type

Unique survival of warehouse building within the immediate area

Age

Architectural style and decoration (original lettering on SE elevation) and decorative street-fronting gable.

Rarity

Rare in its immediate environs

Historic Interest

Linked to local industrial business, dating to the turn of the century (19th-20th), and associated with a person of local importance and interest.

Archaeological Interest

Has the potential to retain historic fabric, possibly even evidence of former heating systems

Images and Documents

Photo

Street frontage of warehouse and adjacent workshop