A view of Manchester House, 145 High Street, Stockton. Manchester House is on the corner of Wellington Street, and is currently occupied by Leveys paint. J Kindler the plumber was also a gas fitter, and the shop shows a range of gas mantels for sale. R Leng appears to have been a ladies clothing shop of some description going by the contents of the shop window.
The two urn shaped stone carvings on the roof are still there, but the ornate ironwork around the R LENG sign, and the first floor balustrade railings have long gone unfortunately. I assume the two white posts outside the premises were for tying up horses ? I’d be interested to know if anyone can add any further detail or authenticate the 1869 date.
Photograph and details courtesy of David Brown.
Thanks for the comments so far.
It would appear that the building was indeed completely rebuilt at some stage after this picture was taken, possibly as suggested, as part of the new M&S development.
The only other detail I can add is that the original sepia photograph is annotated in pencil on the reverse ‘W S Ord, Regent St, Stockton,1869’. This ties in with the label on the frame it’s mounted in, as Ord was apparently a supplier of gilt and carved picture frames at that time and worked from 6 Regent Street, the lane that runs up the side of the current M&S site.
David, the current building on the corner of Wellington Street looks like a total rebuild to me.
The construction and design does not fit in with the 19th building, and even the two urns are different in size and shape.
Didn’t Leng’s eventually operate a business dealing in high-quality luggage and leather goods on Bishopton Lane?
From memory I thought it could be the same building, but when you compare this to the current building, it looks to me like 145 High Street must of been completely rebuilt either before or when Marks & Spencer took over the plot c1927. The current layout of the building is much larger, it entirely fills the plot back along Wellington Street to the next building (which can be seen in this picture) and has 3 stories. The current frontage seems to of been built with several similar features to those seen in this picture, but they are different. Apart from the overall size, the stone vases have become stone urns, the pitched roof has become a mansard roof and the wooden sign has become wider and made of masonry. Coupled with the windows being in different places and sizes then surely there are too many differences for any of Manchester House to of survived?
You can make your own comparison in Google Maps – Street View or here on Picture Stockton:
http://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2003/05/05/marks-spencer-stockton/