Chamber on the move after 30 years at Churchgate House

GREATER Manchester Chamber of Commerce is to move from its home at Churchgate House, Oxford Road to a new base on Deansgate.

The business support and lobbying organisation, which has been based at Churchgate House since 1983, has taken 8,742 sq ft at Bruntwood’s revamped Elliot House in a move to accommodate its growing team.

The relocation is expected to be complete before Christmas. The project is being led by the Chamber’s finance director Mike Mason, who said: “These are exciting times for Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.  As an organisation over the last two years we’ve grown from a company employing fewer than 15 staff to one which employs well over 50 – prompting the need for larger premises.  

“The company expansion has been due – in large part – to a significant increase in our activities – not least in the successful management of a major Employer Ownership of Skills programme, expansion of our international trade activities and significant additional membership services.

“Crucially the new building will also allow us to create a Members Area – something which we’ve previously been unable to offer, due to lack of space.”  

Built in 1878,  Elliot House was the home of the Manchester Education Committee and later the Manchester Registry Office. More recently the building was the temporary home of Manchester Central Library, during the recent renovations.

The Grade II-listed building takes its name from John Kenneth Elliot, who was Manchester’s chief education officer from 1955 to 1968.

Bruntwood invested more than £2.5m in the building in 2013.