BIG NEW CITY OFFICES

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 10

BIG NEW CITY OFFICES

Plan Of Building Society

A six-storey office building, costing not less than £lOO,OOO, will be erected almost immediately by the Canterbury Terminating Building Society at the corner of Manchester and High streets, near the Embassy Hotel. This was announced last evening by the chairman of directors (Sir Ernest Andrews).

The -Building Society, founded only a few years ago, had expanded so rapidly that it required extra office space. I thad, therefore, purchased the valuable city section from the Hunter Brown estate, Sir Ernest Andrews said. When the City Council was approached about alterations to the property, the society was informed that it should have been condemned.

The directors decided to demolish the present building and build a new one of four storeys. But there were so many inquiries from outsiders for office space that it was agreed to extend the undertaking to six storeys immediately, rather than make additions later.

There had been protracted negotiations about obtaining possession; but this would now come by the end of April, Sir Ernest Andrews said. Prices had been obtained for the demolition and this should be started in >r , little more than six weeks. The architect for the new building was Mr B. J. Ager and Mr E. G. S. Powell was the consulting engineer. It would be a handsome building. Sir Ernest Andrews said, extending from the right-of-way next to the Embassy Hotel to the corner and about half-way through the tapering block towards High street, with an outlook over the former clock-tower site.