The former Blackfriars Road School in Salford, which dates back to 1891, is to be put up for auction with Manchester auction house, Pugh, next month, with a guide price of £1m.
The five-storey, 10,000 sq ft building, at 29 Blackfriars Road, close to Manchester city centre, has been used most recently as warehousing, storage and office space by an automotive textiles business.
The brick-built property still has many of its 19th century features, including original exposed beams and sash windows.
Along with dozens of other properties and plots of land, the former school building will appear in the next online property auction, held by Pugh on July 17.
Pugh director, Edward Feather, said:
“This is such a characterful and attractive building with a proud history and, while it has been used as business space, there are all kinds of new potential uses it could be put to, especially given its size and great location.”
He added:
“Blackfriars Road is known for having some well appointed and sought-after apartments that have been developed within conversions of historic buildings such as the former Textiles Institute.
“Although obviously the appropriate planning consent would need to be gained from the local authority for any change of use, residential accommodation is just one alternative use that this property would be fantastic for.”
A date for the auction has been set for July 17, you can participate online via – www.pugh-auctions.com.
Blackfriars School was officially known as the 9th Board School, has a rich history dating back to the late 19th century. The school was designed by the architect Henry Lord and constructed between 1894 and 1895. It was built to replace the condemned Richmond Hill School and provided modern educational facilities for the time. The new school accommodated 666 children, including 290 infants and 376 older students. Its design featured separate spaces for infants and mixed-age groups, as well as specialized rooms like a cookery classroom.
Located on Blackfriars Road, the school was part of a broader educational initiative by the Salford School Board, reflecting the Victorian era’s emphasis on improving public education. The building included several classrooms and facilities arranged transversely across the site, with a main frontage on Blackfriars Street .
The area of Blackfriars itself is an outer-city suburb of Salford in Greater Manchester, known for its historical significance and redevelopment over the years. Today, very few buildings from before the 1960s remain in Blackfriars, except for notable structures like the old Sacred Trinity Parish Schools, which were built in the early 1890s.
