The National Building, on St. Mary's Parsonage, was built between 1905 and 1909 by Harry Fairhust for the National Boiler & Generator Insurance Company.  The grade II listed building is built in a baroque style of red brick and pink terracotta.  A later extension was added to the building in 1968.  Asseal Architecture converted both buildings into a residential building comprising 121 apartments and renamed it Century Buildings.  The Home Design Awards 2005 gave the building a commendation for "Best Renovation and Conversion" and said this of it:

"The key was to insert glass-and-steel circulation bridges into the old lightwells of the listed building, thereby linking the two buildings without any major modifications to the fabric of the listed building (though a pitched roof extension behind the parapet was replaced by 19 new apartments in a lightweight two-storey structure that also supports new balconies on the rear façade overlooking the River Irwell).

The Sixties building was re-clad in a manner more suited to a residential building, by retaining its floor-to-ceiling glazing but adding timber panels, new floors on top and new balconies on the rear. A cantilevered walkway has also been provided at the rear of both buildings that will eventually become part of a riverside walk along the North bank of the Irwell."

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