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The Gaskell Memorial Tower (along with the adjacent Former Kings Coffee House) is a Grade II* listed building. The description by Historic England reads as follows;
"KNUTSFORD
SJ7478 KING STREET 792-1/3/47 (West side) 18/01/49 No.60 Former Kings Coffee House and Gaskell Memorial Tower
GV II*
Coffee house and council offices, incorporating Gaskell Memorial tower, now restaurant. 1907-1908. By W Longworth. For Richard Harding Watt. Coursed and squared rubble with flat roofs.
STYLE: Eclectic Italianate.
PLAN: asymmetrical with council chamber forming main range, the Gaskell Memorial tower projecting forward of this to the left, the entrance block of the former coffee house projecting to the right, leaving a small courtyard between them. Screen wall to courtyard to right, with pantiled roof above. 4-window range of coffee house and former ballroom facing on to courtyard, which is closed to the rear by screen of Roman Doric columns.
EXTERIOR: main entrance at corner of coffee house block, in recessed porch. The angle is carried on an octagonal column carrying inscriptions in a variety of typography, and richly carved low relief bands. Oriel window alongside with small panes, and 3-windows to first floor below stepped parapet. Tower to left with external stair, tiny bow window to ground floor, and upper window divided by a heavy transom. Domed cap carried on open lantern. Small courtyard recessed beyond tower, with windows of council offices in rear range.
Gaskell Memorial Tower closes this central courtyard to the left. Its white stone changes to yellow sandstone above the first floor. Recessed bow window to ground floor, and bust in niche over. Square oriel window offset above. Randomly projecting blocks, and bronze bust on inner face. Arcaded windows to upper storey, and open upper stage articulated by pilasters. Gateway to passage adjoins tower to left, with pantiled floor above archway.
INTERIOR: the internal planning remains substantially unaltered, and much of the original interior design survives, including 2 fire surrounds with copper hoods to ground floor, Boarded and panelled walling in lower rooms and former council chamber, and a mural in the former coffee house. An interesting composition, the architect clearly expressing awareness of the bold work of other Edwardian Free Style contemporaries, most notably Holden.
Listing NGR: SJ7523878637
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The
Gaskell Memorial Tower and King's Coffee House when they were originally built had a triple function as council offices, a coffee house with ballroom, and a memorial to the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, a former resident of the town who is often known as Mrs Gaskell.
Richard Harding Watt was a local business man who had made his money working as a successful glove manufacturer in Manchester. Watt had travelled extensively in Europe bringing back a love of the extravagant architectural styles which can be seen on his buildings in Knutsford.
He had studied drawing but had no architectural training and so he different commissioned a number of architects to work with him to execute his designs.
Watt wanted to commemorate the novelist Mrs Gaskell, who had lived in Knutsford, and who had based some of her works on the town, in particular the novel Cranford.
The building Gaskell Memorial Tower that he designed and worked on with William Longworth was officially opened on 23rd March 1907 in the presence of one of Mrs Gaskell's grandsons.
The design of the building is mainly Italianate but incorporates features of many styles of architecture that inspired Watt during his trips abroad.
There are two depictions of Mrs Gaskell incorporated on the tower, a bronze relief and a stone bust.
The stone bust is situated in a niche above the window facing King Street. The bust is a copy of a marble bust made in 1897 by Hamo Thornycroft, which is itself a copy of a plaster bust by David Dunbar, which was executed in about 1830–31.
The bronze relief located on the right face of the tower is by the sculptor Achille d'Orsi. In 1898 Watt had placed it on the front of Knutsford post office but it was later moved to the tower.
Below the bronze relief are carved the following words;
"THOUGH HE SLAY ME
YET WILL I TRUST IN HIM"On the right side of the tower, above the bronze relief, there is a carved a list of Mrs Gaskell's novels that reads as follows;
"MARY BARTON
CRANFORD
RUTH
THE HEARTOF JOHN MIDDLETON
THE SEXTON'S HERO
NORTH AND SOUTH
THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE
THE HALF-BROTHERS
THE CROOKED BRANCH
SYLVIA'S LOVERS
COUSIN PHILLIS (
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A plaque was placed on the front of the tower below the bow window on 29th September 1960 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mrs Gaskell's birth. The inscription on the plaque reads as follows;
"THIS PLAQUE WAS PLACED
HERE ON THE OCCASION OF
MRS GASKELL'S 150th BIRTH
ANNIVERSARY, SEP 29th 1960
AND TO RECORD THAT THIS
TOWER WAS ERECTED
TO THE MEMORY OF
MRS GASKELL BY
MR RH WATT IN MARCH 1907Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
"(née Stevenson; 29th September 1810 – 12th November 1865).
Elizabeth Gaskell was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–53), North and South (1854–55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC."
Elizabeth lived in Knutsford with her aunt after the death of her mother. She married William Gaskell at Knutsford Parish Church.
Elizabeth and her family worshiped at Knutsford's Unitarian Chapel on Brook Street, one of the oldest buildings in Knutsford, and is still used for worship. Her grave and that of her husband William and 2 daughters are located in the grounds of the chapel.
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