One of Manchester’s landmarks, the 250,000-sq ft Refuge Assurance headquarters in Oxford Street, is being put up for sale. The company are having new offices built for them in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and have appointed W H Robinson to market their Oxford Street complex.
Facilities include a panelled boardroom, a 15,000-sq ft assembly and dining hall complete with sprung dance floor and a stage with orchestra pit, strongrooms, a 217-ft clock tower, district heating and an electricity substation in the basement. An adjacent 1.6-acre site offers car parking. The asking price is £3m, and the property will be available in autumn next year.
The building is listed and consists of three parts built between 1895 and 1930. No 1 Building, 50,047 sq ft net, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse; No 2 Building, 61,560 sq ft net, by his son Paul; and No 3 Building, 63,625 sq ft net, by Stanley Birkett.
Refuge say they leave the building “with regret”. However, “it has proved more and more difficult to adapt the building to meet modern-day business requirements without destroying the magnificent Victorian interior”.
Agents W H Robinson suggest that “with imagination and entrepreneurial flair”, the building could be “transformed into a thriving multi-purpose centre”: a hotel and convention centre, leisure complex, flats, offices and a museum or art gallery are all possible combinations. And the 1.6-acre car park has obvious redevelopment potential.
