King Street
King Street [1] runs west from Spring Gardens and is dominated by HSBC, the former Midland Bank,on an island site at the top (east end) of the street. It is the King of King Street, the major work in Manchester of Sir Edwin Lutyens in collaboration with Whinney, Son & Austen Hall, who took care of the practical side. Carving was by J. Ashton Floyd of Manchester. Designed 1928, erected 1933-5. It is a nearly square block and treated as such, with the upper motifs identical on all four sides. The two angle porches are in King Street, and the entrances all have pilasters which dieGlossary Term [2] away and disappear, as at his Midland Bank on Poultry in London. The elevationGlossary Term [3] steps back and contracts and the tops of the centre motifs have French pavilionGlossary Term [4] roofs. Sheer walls with simple openings contrast with the texture of the lower entrances and the upper stages. The proportions are ingeniously calculated, as Lutyens in his later years adored to do. The top stage is two-thirds of the stage from the obelisks to the next set-back, and that middle stage is two-thirds of the bottom stage. Also the walls above the first floor sillGlossary Term [5] have a very slight batterGlossary Term [6]: 1 in. in every 11 ft (2.54cm in every 3.4m). The banking hall could not be sky lit, so Lutyens gave it arcading on all four sides and wooden galleries much as in Wren churches. The galleries have large arched windows to let enough lightGlossary Term [7] in. The Delhi orderGlossary Term [8], with bells, which Lutyens devised for the Viceroy's House in New Delhi (1913-29), is used.