Developer’s bid to save 1860 mansion as part of new housing scheme
A Liverpool developer is aiming to save an 1860 mansion as part of housing plans on a 2.5-acre Trafford site.
Promenade Estates is to submit an application to demolish parts of the former Stretford Memorial Hospital in Trafford due to the estate’s dangerous condition. The move is to allow further investigations to commence into Basford House, which is close to collapse.
Promenade says it will strive to retain the mansion as part of its ambitions for housing on the site, which it acquired in October 2022 from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Daniel Hynd, of Promenade, said: “The whole estate had lain empty for around seven years when we bought it and the buildings are in a very poor state of repair.
“We have not been able to survey many of them properly because they are in such a dangerous condition, but what we have unearthed has confirmed their need to be demolished.
“Basford House might still be saved if we can act quickly. Its internal timber has been condemned and by demolishing the modern buildings around it, we will be able to make it sufficiently stable to complete our survey work safely. An exterior wall has already collapsed, and further deterioration is inevitable unless we can secure permission to intervene promptly.”
Hynd says that Promenade stands ready to invest more than £100,000 on interventions to keep the building standing.
“The application for prior notification to demolish is much quicker than seeking planning permission and time really is of the essence here. We’ve been working closely with the local authority and have kept them fully abreast of the issues and our plans.”
The company, which built its reputation on its sensitive restoration of listed buildings, such as Liverpool’s Grade II-listed art deco former airport terminal building, says it wants to make Basford House the centrepiece of its proposals for the wider site.
“We want to bring much needed quality housing to the area whilst delivering on our successful ‘brownfield-first’ strategy,” said Mr Hynd.
“When we come to submit our planning application our hope is that Basford House will be central to the whole development and that our designs are sensitive to this local heritage asset.”
The company is being advised by Cre8 Land and Planning and Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture.
Basford House was constructed for Manchester cotton baron Henry Beecroft Jackson in 1860 and served as a staging hospital during World War I, then a maternity hospital, before its latter use to provide geriatric care.
