44 Peter Street



44 Peter Street in 2010 is described as "exclusive and contemporary grade A offices with on-site parking".  It was built between 1988 and 1990 and was designed by the Fairhurst Design Group.  The building is clad in stone and features a doorway and windows that compliment the portico of the adjacent Free Trade Hall.  Above, it has a pediment and a mansard roof.

The history of the site reveals that it has been occupied by wide variety of buildings.  The 1844 OS map shows that it was home to an Ebenezer Chapel.



It appears that in 1865 the chapel was converted into the Tivoli Theatre of Variety.
 

In 1921 it was converted into a cinema and then in 1936 it was so badly damaged by fire that it was demolished.

The aerial image below was taken in 1946.  It shows the war damaged Free Trade Hall without a roof and next door the building occupying the site of the former Tivoli Theatre.  It isn't clear if it also has its roof missing or if the shadow is being cast on a lower roof by the wall of the Free Trade Hall.

 

A photograph in the Manchester Central Library collection, taken in 1950, shows a four-storey "Art Deco" office building occupying the site.  The building was home to John Line & Sons Limited.  (Click on the link below).

John Line & Sons

John Line & Sons Limited were a wallpaper manufacturing company founded circa 1880.  Line was originally a cabinetmaker in Bath.  In 1874 he acquired a furniture business in Reading that was then run by Line's three sons.  It was in Reading that they started trading as a wallpaper wholesaler.  Among the designers who worked for Lines were Christopher Dresser and C. F. A. Voysey.  The company became well known for its flock wallpapers and are credited with playing an important role in the revival of interest in scenic papers in the 1930s.