Places · North West · Cheshire
Façade & building consultants in Warrington.
Halfway between Liverpool and Manchester, Warrington grew from a Mersey crossing into an industrial town and then a new town, with business parks and logistics hubs beside its Georgian and Victorian core. McKay Turner Consulting provides façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work across Warrington, close to our Cheshire base.
WARRINGTON 53.39° N, 2.59° W
A short history
A river crossing that became a new town
Warrington's place on the Mersey made it a market and industrial town. As a New Town from 1968 it grew fast, with business parks and housing spreading north and east.
- c. AD 70
Wilderspool
A Roman industrial settlement grows up at the Mersey crossing.
- 1255
Market charter
Warrington is granted a market, which still trades today.
- 1750
Bank Hall
James Gibbs designs Bank Hall, later the Town Hall.
- 1757
Warrington Academy
A leading dissenting academy opens. Joseph Priestley later teaches there.
- 1800s
Industry
Wire, soap, brewing and tanning make Warrington an industrial town.
- 1968
New Town
Warrington is designated a New Town, and Birchwood is built on a former munitions site.
- 2020
Time Square
A new market, cinema, council offices and civic square open in the centre.
- 2026
Omega
Highway works continue to open up land at the Omega business park.
Architecture
What makes Warrington's buildings distinctive
A Georgian town hall and red-brick industrial streets sit at the heart of a town that grew outwards in the 1970s and 80s, with business parks and warehouses along the motorways.
Key styles
Georgian
Bank Hall and brick town houses, with stone dressings.
Victorian industrial
Red-brick works, warehouses and terraces.
Black-and-white revival
Timber-framed revival shops and pubs on Bridge Street.
New Town
Brick housing estates and the Birchwood science park.
Business parks
Glazed offices and large warehouses by the M6 and M62.
Town centre
Time Square and new apartments in brick, glass and metal.
Warrington's material palette
Did you know?
The ornate gates outside the Town Hall were made for the 1862 International Exhibition and installed in Warrington in 1895.
The new market hall at Time Square continues a market that has traded in Warrington for over 750 years.
Many offices at Birchwood and the other parks date from the 1980s and 90s, and their glazing and roofs are now reaching the end of their lives.
Typical building types
What Warrington is built of today
Warrington combines a historic town centre with New Town estates, large business parks and major logistics sites.
Business park offices
Glazed and brick offices from the 1980s onwards.
Where: Birchwood, Gemini, Omega
Logistics & industrial
Large warehouses and distribution centres.
Where: Omega, Appleton Thorn, Winwick Quay
New Town housing
Brick estates built from the 1970s.
Where: Birchwood, Westbrook, Callands
Town-centre retail & leisure
Shopping centres and leisure buildings.
Where: Golden Square, Time Square
Apartments
Town-centre and riverside blocks.
Where: Town centre, Bridge Foot, riverside
Victorian terraces
Brick terraces and shops.
Where: Latchford, Orford, Howley
Schools & healthcare
Hospital, colleges and schools.
Where: Warrington Hospital, across the borough
Heritage
Listed civic and commercial buildings.
Where: Town Hall, Bridge Street, Buttermarket Street
Current construction trends
Where Warrington is building now
With the town centre rebuilt, attention is on business parks, logistics and new homes on the edge of the town.
Time Square
A new market hall, cinema, council offices and civic square delivered by Muse.
Omega highways
Phase 2 highway works to open up more of the Omega business and logistics park.
Ageing business parks
Offices from the 1980s and 90s need new glazing, roofs and cladding, or conversion to new uses.
Higher-risk buildings
Residential buildings of 18m or seven storeys and above, with at least two homes, must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator and have a safety case that covers their external walls.
Cladding Safety Scheme
Government funding for unsafe cladding on residential buildings over 11m in England. Every application starts with a PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of the external walls.
Remediation Acceleration Plan
The government expects buildings over 18m in its funded remediation schemes to be fixed by the end of 2029, with tougher action against owners who delay.
How we help in Warrington
Every era of building has its own risks
We match our inspections and advice to the age and construction of your building.
Georgian and Victorianto c.1914
Spalling brick, weathered stone, failed pointing and leaking roofs.
New Town buildingsc.1968–1990
Failed concrete, old windows and flat roofs at the end of their lives.
Business park officesc.1980–2010
Failing curtain-wall seals and gaskets, rooflights and cladding.
Apartmentsc.2000–today
Combustible cladding or insulation, missing cavity barriers and leaking balconies.
New buildtoday
Design and specification gaps, and workmanship on new façades.
The Quarter, Chester: a three-day intrusive survey across seven blocks and four wall types for a PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of a 160-apartment development.
Read the The Quarter case study →FAQs
Façade services in Warrington
Do you work in Warrington?
Yes. We work across the UK from our base in the North West, including in Warrington. A Director-level consultant leads every instruction from the first conversation to the final report.
Can you assess the external walls of residential buildings in Warrington?
Yes. Our intrusive investigations confirm how the cladding, insulation and cavity barriers are actually built. We then assess the fire risk using PAS 9980, which is also the starting point for Cladding Safety Scheme applications.
Can you survey business park offices and warehouses?
Yes. We carry out condition surveys of curtain walling, cladding and roofs on offices and industrial buildings, and give owners prioritised repairs and budgets for planned maintenance.
Which other services do you offer in Warrington?
Façade condition surveys, defect and leak investigations, thermographic surveys, technical due diligence, façade design reviews and expert witness work in façade disputes.
Work with us
Own or manage a building in Warrington?
We provide façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work in Warrington and across Cheshire.
Photograph: Jon Hallwood on Unsplash.