Summary
Decorative cast-iron electricity junction box of the early C20 by Hardy and Padmore.
Reasons for Designation
The electricity junction box at Library Walk, in the civic heart of Manchester, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for its well-detailed, customised design by a world-renowned company, surviving with relatively little alteration;
* as an increasingly rare example of the type.
Historic interest:
* illustrating the development of electricity into a mass-consumed utility, and the romance and respect which were accorded to its infrastructure in the early years of the twentieth century.
Group value:
* for its strong visual relationship with adjacent listed buildings and the surrounding conservation area.
History
Consumer electricity arrived in Manchester in 1893 and by 1920 the number of consumers was around 20,000. Distribution and supply infrastructure was needed to transfer current from where it was generated to its point of use. The junction box, or feeder pillar, was designed to control the electrical supply to a number of buildings in the surrounding area.
This junction box was produced in the early C20 at the Worcester foundry of Hardy and Padmore. It is first shown on the 1:1250 Ordnance Survey map of 1948, on the east side of Cooper Street outside the Town Hall, and it is also marked in the same place on the 1:2500 map of 1951. Later maps do not mark these boxes, but by 2013 it was slightly further to the south-east, on the south side of Princess Street. It was relocated to Library Walk in 2015 to allow the relocation of the cenotaph to the north end of St Peter's Square, to accommodate additional tramlines.
The Scotsmen Robert and John Hardy set up their foundry in Worcester in 1814. Richard Padmore joined the partnership in 1829. The foundry was an important English supplier of goods worldwide including lamp posts, tram wire supports and poles, bollards, thresholds and manhole covers. A number of their products are listed including several gas lamps. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1967.
Details
Early C20 electricity junction box manufactured by Hardy and Padmore Ltd for Manchester City Council.
MATERIALS: cast iron.
PLAN: rectangular.
DESCRIPTION: the longer sides of the box are parallel with the south wall of the town hall extension, the front facing south. It has a low pyramidal cap with castellated edges above a moulded cornice, supported at each corner by an inward-scrolled corbel. Each of the two longer sides is a door with a moulded surround, two decorative strap hinges at the right hand side, and a Jacobean-style geometric strapwork relief. On the front this strapwork surrounds a detachable plaque featuring the crest of the City of Manchester, but there is no crest on the rear face. The two short sides are plain with moulded edges. They each have a circular relief reading ‘Hardy and Padmore Limited, Worcester’ and the east side has a raised banner at the base with the registered design number. The box is painted, black.
