Gaskell Memorial Tower and King's Coffee House

Incorporated on the tower are two depictions of Mrs Gaskell, a stone bust and a bronze relief.

[1] Its initial function was to provide council offices, a coffee house with a ballroom, and a memorial to Mrs Gaskell.

[4] Watt also wanted to commemorate the novelist Mrs Gaskell, who had lived in Knutsford, and who had based some of her works on the town, in particular the novel Cranford.

[2] At the rear of the building is a pair of large Doric columns which had been moved from St Peter's Church, Manchester, and nearby are the wheels that transported them.

[1][2] At a higher level than the bust is an offset oriel window, and near the top of the tower are randomly projecting blocks.

Below the relief is carved:[12] On the front of the tower below the bow window is a plaque with an inscription reading:[6] The statue was designated as a Grade II* listed building on 18 January 1949.

He described Watt's buildings in Knutsford as a "monstrous desecration of a small and pleasant country town", yet conceded that younger critics might call him the "Gaudí of England".

[14] Referring specifically to the tower and former coffee house he criticised its "remorseless imposing of crazy grandeur on poor Knutsford".

Hartwell et al. in the Buildings of England series consider that Watt's houses elsewhere in the town show him to be the equal of Edgar Wood and Mackintosh.