John J. Parkinson-Bailey in his book "Manchester, An Architectural History" says of this building in St. Anne's Square, "The Gardens was Royal Insurance Company, H. S. Fairhurst & Son, 1959.  Expensive building in granite and Westmorland stone, costing £365,000.  Overlaid by David Backhouse's postmodern building.  The Gardens, "Manchester's Unique Shopping Experience", in 1986.  At rear a small sloping atrium.  The ground floor now given over to a Disney shop".  In 2010 the Disney shop has gone and in its place is a branch of Links of London.  Interestingly the side of the building has a series of medalions sporting images of bees, the symbol of Manchester's industrialism.

Before there was a Royal Insurance building on the site there was one owned by the Lancashire Insurance Company, as my copy of an 1886 map of the site shows.  Ironically that building also had a corner turret, which can be seen in the images below the map.