Tucked away at the back of The Towers Business Park is The Towers, a Grade II* listed building on Wilmslow Road in Didsbury.
Built between 1868 and 1872 for John Edward Taylor, to designs by Thomas Worthington with carving by Thomas Earp of London.
John Edward Taylor was the editor of the Manchester Guardian.
It later became the home of engineer Daniel Adamson, where the Manchester Ship Canal project was first conceived in 1882.
As an integral piece of shipping history built in 1903, The Danny was originally a working tug boat, playing a small but vital role amongst International trading networks within the canals of the North West. After WWI, canal traffic declined as companies turned to road and rail to move goods; the Danny was then given a radical Art Deco style refit by her new owner to see her fit for purpose as a passenger boat.
It was then that her name changed to that of the ship canal’s founding father and first Manchester Ship Canal Company chairman, Daniel Adamson.
From 1920 it served as the headquarters of the Shirley Institute, later part of the British Textile Technology Group.
The Shirley Institute operated as a research centre dedicated to technologies pertaining to the textile sector.
Photo 1936: Manchester Local Image Collection.
Photo 1945: Manchester Local Image Collection.
The BCIRA was credited with several key developments. Specifically, it developed Ventile, a special high-quality woven cotton fabric that was researched on behalf of the Ministry of Defence; it was patented and licensed to industry.
Ventile is a high-quality textile made of cotton with a very close weave.
Originally created to overcome a shortage of flax used for fire hoses and water buckets, its properties were also useful for pilots’ immersion suits, but expensive and leaky if exposed to sweat or oils.
It also developed the tog, an easy-to-follow measure of the thermal resistance of textiles, as an alternative to the SI unit of m2K/W
The estate was redeveloped as Towers Business Park in the early 21st century.
The house remains in use as offices.
Wikipedia
So here we are today, supported by several layers of industrial and commercial history, from days and days of labour, invention, innovation and production.
What’s going on?
Essity, NCC Education, I Love Cosmetics, Sitel Group, and a national house builder have signed leases at the Manchester office complex, averaging eight years, bringing the Park to 95% occupied.
The new arrivals join existing tenants including Syngenta, British Airways, Cisco, Regus, and Hitchenor Wakeford.
