The Hudson Building in central Manchester was given a complete facelift by the Maysand team.

But the building's familiar cream-coloured facade had to undergo radical surgery before being restored to its former glory.

The faience covered columns were suffering from deep cracks and the façade was discoloured. We took the whole front of the four-storey building down, block by block. Each piece was then marked; those that could be salvaged were put in storage and those that couldn't replaced by new blocks which had to be made before the rebuilding, which took 16 weeks.

"It was a very delicate operation. Each block had to go back in exactly the right place to make sure everything line up with the existing steel and brickwork," says Maysand's Mick Fowles, who oversaw the operation. And true to Maysand form, "the finish wasn't just inch perfect, it was millimetre perfect!" adds Mick.

The Hudson Building is a shining example of the East Manchester regeneration scheme.