Car Showroom

Now sadly partitioned and cloaked by poor signage, this once elegant single storey structure no longer turns heads. In fact it is so anonymous as not to be recognisable from the crisp Miesian aesthetic, once so overt. The steel and glass box to the front is raised on a plinth and effectively acted as such for the presentation of the cars in the showroom. Along the rear wall is a lively abstract relief mural, by artist unknown, that elsewhere would be cast concrete or fibreglass; this one is carved from the blockwork that forms the wall! The Northern Design Group are something of a mystery here, local aficionados knew nought of their pedigree nor further practice until a lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture produced a set of photographs from his father’s archive to reveal that NDG practiced from Ramsbottom and his father, John Sagar, was one of the directors!