It was the home of the politician and reformer Richard Cobden and subsequently the site of Owen's College, the forerunner of the University of Manchester.

Richard Cobden lived at the house from 1836 to 1850, and it was his base during the years he acted as the main spokesman for the Anti-Corn Law League.

[1] When the college moved to its present site on Oxford Road in 1873, the building was bought for use as Manchester's County Court, which opened in 1878.

It was subsequently purchased for use as a set of barristers' chambers and has been comprehensively refurbished, with much of its original Georgian decor restored.

[3] The house of three storeys and a basement is a Georgian townhouse built in the mid-18th century and subsequently extended to the rear and altered.