A medico-legal specialist, an architect-engineer partnership and an experienced beautician – not an obvious combination, but they've all found a place to call home at Trafalgar House in Altrincham.
The building on Manchester Road has become one of Altrincham's most talked-about business addresses.
Transformed at a cost of £3 million by local family business Selbourne Group, it offers high-spec office and studio space at prices well below the city centre – and has attracted a tenant mix that reflects just how broad the appeal has become.
Thirty years in the making: The Treatment Room
Of the three businesses we visited, only one has been at Trafalgar House long enough to renew a lease. Laurie Bellis, who runs The Treatment Room from Studio 3, is now into her third year – and shows no sign of going anywhere.
Laurie has been in the beauty and wellness industry for three decades, working in some of the best spas and clinics in the country, including Naked Health in London, which she describes as one of the first of its kind in the UK.
"I've always been beside the best and done the best training," she says. The Treatment Rooms reflects that: a range that runs from classic beauty treatments and waxing through to reflexology, massage, electrolysis, micro needling, dermaplaning and skin peels, alongside a carefully curated product range she passionately believes in herself.
What ties it all together, though, is something simpler. "The core of it is helping people with stress," Laurie says. "People come in one way and go out another." Since lockdown, demand for massage and de-stress treatments has grown noticeably – people carrying tension in their backs or a posture suffering from working at home. Laurie's repeat clients, she says, are proof that it works.
The decision to stay at Trafalgar House was not a difficult one. Ground floor access matters – she sees pregnant clients and wheelchair users who could not manage stairs. The parking and calm, clean environment is also key.
But the standout feature for Laurie was the community around her. "It's the wellbeing zone," she says, referring to the health and beauty hub at Trafalgar House. "Everyone here is brilliant at what they do. It fits together beautifully."
She cross-refers clients to other practitioners in the building when they need something she cannot provide, and they do the same for her. As a sole trader and a mother managing her own hours, the flexibility suits her perfectly. 'My nine-year-old son says it's the best place I've ever worked,' she laughs. 'That's good enough for me.'"
Architecture meets engineering at Archikei
Annase Wu and Billy Law only moved into Trafalgar House in May, but the business they have built together has been some time in the making.
Annase is an architect; Billy is a structural engineer. On their own, each offers something valuable. Together, under the banner of Archikei Ltd, they offer something that the industry rarely provides: a one-stop service for clients navigating the complexities of planning, building control and structural design.
The problem they are solving is one that anyone who has undertaken a significant building project will recognise. "Normally you have to go to an architect," Billy explains, "and then that architect will ask you to find another person to do the structural calculations. What we are doing is providing a one-stop service."
The chaos that results when the two disciplines are kept separate is something both have seen repeatedly. "All the chaos ends up focused on the client," says Billy. "With us, they just need to bring us the questions and we solve it."
Both are originally from Hong Kong. Annase studied and worked in the UK, spent time back in Hong Kong, and returned again. Billy moved to the UK in 2020, gained his UK chartership, and worked in London on infrastructure and civil engineering projects before going out on his own. The business grew steadily and the time came for a physical base.
Trafalgar House offered exactly what they needed: a high-spec, well-managed space in an area Annase knows well, at a sensible price. But there was another reason too - clients, it turns out, want to meet in person.
"Some clients just love to meet face to face," says Annase. "They want to discuss the design, see it presented – maybe with VR, maybe with a presentation board."
Having somewhere professional to bring them – rather than visiting a client's house mid-renovation – has already made a difference. They have signed up for a year to start, with an eye on a larger suite if things continue as they are. Going by the wall of completed projects behind them when we visited, that seems a reasonable expectation.
From surgery to solicitors’ reports: Ross Medical Legal
Ray Ross has had quite the career. Originally from the east coast of Scotland – schooled near Dundee before moving south with the RAF in 1972 – he arrived in Manchester in 1984 as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Wythenshawe Hospital. By 1996 he was doing nothing but spinal surgery. He retired from surgical practice in 2012, but here at Trafalgar House, he is still very much at work.
Ross Medical Legal, the practice Ray runs with his daughter Rachel as business manager, provides medico-legal reports for solicitors' firms.
Its specialism is spinal injury and medical negligence – an area, Ray notes, that is growing. "The government has just set aside sixty billion pounds to meet claims for the next two years in negligence," he says. "It's absolutely massive."
What he brings to that work is something that cannot be replicated quickly: four decades of experience at the sharp end of spinal surgery, and the judgment that comes with it.
Part of that judgment involves explaining to lawyers – and ultimately to courts – the crucial difference between a complication and an act of negligence. "The general public have a very poor understanding of the difference," Ray says. "If you have surgery, there are possible complications. If a wound gets infected, that doesn't mean it was negligent. There's a subtle difference."
The move to Trafalgar House was driven by two practical considerations. Disabled access is non-negotiable when many of your patients arrive on crutches or in wheelchairs, and Ray's previous premises in Didsbury had become a problem on that front. Here, a ground-floor suite and an adjacent disabled toilet ticked the box immediately.
The commute from his side of town helped too. When Selbourne Group, the owner of Trafalgar House, offered to reconfigure the space to create the consulting room he needed, the decision was made.
Beyond his own caseload, Ray plans to rent the space to a handful of other specialist consultants who will use it on a monthly basis.
“I'm still keen to build a business,” he says. “We'll give it a go.”
Businesses interested in joining the Trafalgar House community can contact Selbourne Group at selbournegroup.com or email office@selbournegroup.com
Viewings can also be arranged through: Canning O’Neill (0161 244 5500), Williams Sillitoe (0161 850 8030) or Savills (0161 236 8644)
Photography: Laura Marie Linck
