Corstorphine & Wright is proud that the refurbishment of Westwood Cottages in Moss Side, Manchester has recently completed. This £1.1 million scheme, owned by One Manchester, has revitalised a row of six 19th century cottages into contemporary, affordable rental homes.
The buildings were originally built in 1876 as six alms-houses by John Robinson of Atlas Works in memory of his sister, Edith Marianne Robison. A dedication to her can be seen engraved along the front of the building.
After being left empty for nearly 10 years, a substantial amount of work has been undertaken to achieve the high-quality design and delivery worthy of a historic building like this. Many elements of the original features have been preserved. This includes intricate brick detailing; mosaic floor tiles and the original gothic arched entrance doors being reinstated. Our teams of architects working on this project collaborated closely with planning and local heritage officials to make sure the refurbishment has been sympathetic and successful.
The six two-bedroomed homes have each had a full internal refurbishment. Living space has been extended through the addition of a single-storey rear conservatory and attached utility room. When the alms-houses were first built, the residents didn’t have the luxury of indoor plumbing. Thankfully, that’s not an issue today but the outhouses have been retained and can be used today as storage, bicycle storage or as a potting shed.
Corstorphine & Wright has worked with client One Manchester and MC Construction from conception to completion on this project. It has been wonderful to see this fantastic building go from disrepair to being carefully brought back into use and retained for future generations.
