Horticulture Building (Toronto) 1907 and was designed by local architect G. W. Gouinlock in the Beaux-Arts style. It is a one-storey building, in the layout of an "E", with a large glass dome at the intersection of the wings. The glass dome is the site of the main entrance facing south. The wings extend to the east and west to the north. The site was previously the location of Toronto's Crystal Palace building, an exhibition hall fashioned after the design of the Crystal Palace in London, England. Toronto's Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire on October 18, 1906, spread by sparks from a
London Road Fire Station, Manchester within the Whitworth Street Conservation Area. In 1986 the fire service left London Road for its new fire station, London Road Fire Station closed and the building was sold. After the sale the building was mainly used for storage whilst planning applications to convert it into a hotel were made in 1986, 1993, and 2001, with varying degrees of success. The coroner's court was the last to vacate the premises, in 1998. In 2001, the building was placed on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register. By 2004 it was in steep decline, and momentum was building for the fire station's