This building on the corner of Chapel Street and Ford Street is a bit of a puzzle.  After consulting the Manchester Central Library's digital image collection I discovered that it was once a branch of Barclay's bank.  The building has an Art Deco appearance which possibly dates it to circa 1930.  The bank entrance was at the corner.  The door on the Chapel Street was probably to provide a separate access to the offices above. 

The puzzle is that above the corner door is a coat of arms which appears to be the City of Manchester's, which is odd enough considering this is Salford.  The solution to this puzzle is that this building was once a branch of the Union Bank of Manchester which traded between 1836 and 1940, although it was affiliated with Barclay's Bank from 1919.


I took the images above in March of 2013 during a working day but, as you can see, the building was securely shuttered suggesting that is unoccupied.