Photos by John Moss

Manchester's Great Buildings

The Architectural Heritage of Manchester

Manchester architecture can trace its origins way back to Roman times, and the city has many fine buildings from all periods of history. In many ways, Manchester's buildings give visible evidence to its history, as well as to its regional identity, its social, economic and cultural growth over the years.

Alphabetical Listing:

• Academic & Educational Institutions
• Banking Halls
• Beetham Tower
• Castlefield
• City Centre Churches
• Civic Buildings
• Fire Stations & Railway Stations
• Imperial War Museum North
• Insurance & Other Commercial Buildings
• Libraries
• Manchester Blue Plaques
• Manchester's Listed Buildings
• Manchester Squares & Public Spaces
• Manchester Town Hall
• Mills
• New Bridges
• No.1 Deansgate
• Prisons & Police Courts
• Railway Stations
• Suburban Churches
  
• Statues, Monuments & Public Memorials
• The Edge
• Town Hall Extension
• Twentieth Century Buildings
• University of Manchester
• Urbis - Museum of the Modern City
• Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road
• Warehouses
• Who Built Manchester? Part 1 (Architects A-K)
• Who Built Manchester? Part 2 (Architects L-Y)

  A short walk through the city reveals the evident rapid growth and development that took place during the Victorian era of the nineteenth century. This was when Manchester grew up and came into its own. The fabulous palatial mill and warehouse buildings, offices, libraries and other civic buildings show immense civic pride. They show self-confidence. This was the city that demanded to be recognised - it was the first truly industrialised city - it was where the Industrial Revolution began.
  The City of Manchester enjoyed both wealth and political power by the end of the nineteenth century - the growth of expensive and highly ornate banking halls in King Street and York Street demonstrate this, though most have long since ceased to be banks, having been reinvented as clothing emporia, wine bars or nighclubs..
  But there have also been 20th century masterpieces too. The Central Reference Library in St Peter's Street and the neighbouring Town Hall Extensions demonstrate the determination of the city fathers to improve the civic amenities of the city. Later, award winning buildings in the banking zone, and recently, the erection of fine new bridges across rivers, canals and roadways.
  Comment should also be made of the City Council's imaginative thinking on the refurbishment of old, (and often derelict) buildings. It is heart-warming to see old beloved buildings rising Pheonix-like again into current use, often in new and imaginative reincarnations - the Corn Exchange became the Triangle, Watts Warehouse became the Britannia Hotel, Joshua Hoyle's fine warehouse converted into the Malmaison Hotel in Piccadilly. All these evidence a city which is in a state of constant renewal and reinvention - a city that is alive, organic and growing.
  More recently, the great glass structure of Urbis, the sky-rising Beetham Tower, Number One Deansgate, to name but a few, have risen above the city centre skyline. Manchester is, as it always was, a lively dynamic metropolis, whose love affair with fine buildings continues into the 21st century.

  
  Manchester Town Hall from the rear, Shambles Square and Minshull Street Police Station
  
  Urbis Museum, Manchester Cathedral & the Portico Library, Mosley Street

Google Search Custom Search