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Manchester
Civic Buildings
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Municipal
& Public Buildings of Manchester
Nineteenth
century Manchester saw the emergence of a new ruling elite -
the self-made businessman and the textile industrialist millionaire.
These nouveaux riches - men with money and influence,
eagerly sought not only economic, but political power. After
the Municipal Charter of 1838, these "city fathers"
(as they liked to be called) were given the opportunity to create
a fully fledged advanced city with all the trappings of a civilised
metropolis. They did it in a grand manner. In 1845 Manchester
began to create public parks; in 1851 an Act of Parliament authorised
the introduction of a half penny rate to create public libraries
and museums; later came free hospitals for the treatment of
the poor, the introduction of underground sewers and various
Planning Acts to improve the living conditions of its people.
There was an immense and ever growing sense of civic pride in
the city - nowhere more in evidence than in Warehouse's exuberant
Town Hall, whose floors are decorated with mosaic bees, symbol
of the industry which had created the wealth to make the modern
city possible. What follows are some of the best examples of
Manchester's civic buildings.
The Municipal
Buildings
Manchester
Town Hall Extension
On completion
of the Central Reference Library in St Peter's Square in 1934,
work began immediately on constructing the Town Hall Extension.
Designed by Vincent Harris, as a result of an open competition,
(he had also designed the Library next door), it was to be eight
storeys high and intended to house various growing municipal
departments including gas, electricity, rates, rents, street
cleaning, etc, and a cinema with demonstration rooms beneath
ground level.
Its
200 foot southern wall was curved to parallel the Library next
door, separated by the Library Walk between. Many authorities
reckon this to be Harris's best work. It also includes a large
council chamber at first floor level.
The
total cost of the building was £750,000 and it was opened
officially by King George VI in 1938. A commemoration in the
form of a carved inset stone on the library side at the Mount
Street end marks the occasion. The extension is connected by
two covered bridges to the main Town Hall building. On the Mount
Street side is a covered arcade, and on the opposite side, in
St Peter's Square is the official City of Manchester Visitor
Centre (Tourist Information).
Stylistically,
the building is Gothic in character, with heavy masonry, deep
pierced ornately carved tracery effects, and a typically steeply
pitched roof, yet interpreted in a modern style in Darley Dale
stone. Internally it has stained glass windows by George Kruger
Gray, which represent ancient Lancastrian Coats of Arms.
Victoria
University of Manchester
The University
began life under the name of Owens College, the original quadrangle
block commissioned in 1869, and designed by Alfred
Waterhouse, who had been responsible for many other buildings
in Manchester. After various other name changes, it became the
Victoria University in 1880. (Nowadays, the "Victoria"
is dropped). From then until the outbreak of the Fist World
War it saw considerable expansion, followed by many years of
inter-war stagnation before the boom of the 1960s which saw
a revival in its fortunes and a more-or-less constant expansion
since then.
Waterhouse's original building on Oxford Road, still forms the
heart of the main campus, despite many extensions and other
buildings added all around it over subsequent years. Work was
not actually completed until 1902, and was completed by his
son, Paul (as the Refuge
Assurance Building had been). It was built in the then fashionable
modern Gothic style. The later phase of building included the
addition of the Museum and the Beyer Laboratories from 1883-87.
Later, Paul Waterhouse completed the Christie Library between
1895 and 1898, and the Whitworth Hall, completed in 1902. Paul
Waterhouse went on later to add extensions to the Manchester
Museum from 1911-27, the later part completed by Michael Waterhouse.
Other additions include the Botanical Laboratory in 1911, and
the John Morley Laboratories in 1909, both by Paul Waterhouse.
Further later extensions included the Physics Laboratory designed
by J W Beaumont in 1900-01, the New Physics Laboratory by Percy
Scott Worthington in 1930-31, and the Dental School by Hubert
Worthington in 1939-40.
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Town Hall Extension
from Albert Square
Bridges over Lloyd Street
connect the Town Hall
to the Extension Building
Town Hall Extension from
St Peter's Square
University of Manchester
Former Mechanics
Institute Building
Memorial Hall,
Albert Square
Above &
Below: The Reform Club,
Spring Gardens/King Street
Masonic Hall,
Bridge Street
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The Manchester
Reform Club
Designed
by Edward Solomons and John Philpot-Jones in 1870-71, the Reform
Club in King Street was the last to be built in the popular
so-called Venetian Gothic style. It comprises three storeys
topped by a balustraded parapet and with corner rounded gable
end towers with lanterns and spires. The windows of the first
floor have small balconies, with a larger balcony over the main
ground floor entrance. Marble lined state-of-the-art lavatories
were installed in the 1890s. Inside is a grand staircase with
wood panelling climbing up to the second floor billiard room.
It was here that the city's gentry escaped to sample privacy,
quietude and the fellow company of other like-minded men.
The Mechanics'
Institute, Manchester
In 1854
the architect John Edgar Gregan was commissioned to build the
new Mechanics' Institute at 103 Princess Street - it was intended
to be a centre of learning and education for the 'educable working
classes'. It was to be Gregan's last work. The Institute had
already been in existence since 1825 in a premises in Cooper
Street, but the new building was to mark the growing success
of the venture. Workmen, ranging from shopkeepers to labourers,
could attend evening classes to study English, grammar, writing,
reading, arithmetic and Latin, as well as several foreign languages
and music.
The building is in the palazzo style, common in the warehouses
in the vicinity of Portland Street, and stands out as superior
to most of those that followed. It has three tall storeys with
a basement and hidden attic storey behind a balustrade. It is
built in red brick with stone string courses and semicircular
pediments over the first floor windows. Later it became the
Museum of Labour History,
which subsequently moved to the Pumphouse - now the Peoples'
History Museum, though it still contains many labour history
archives which are available for inspection by special permission.
Memorial
Hall, Albert Square, Manchester
On the corner
of Albert Square and Southmill Street stands the Memorial Hall.
It was designed and built by Thomas
Worthington in 1863-66. Described as a brick and stone clad
building of Venetian Gothic style with distinctive stone tracery
on all windows and a decidedly palatial exterior. The building
was originally a commemoration of the secession of Nonconformist
clergy in 1662. The ground floor was always intended as a commercial
space, available to any concern that was prepared to pay the
rent - now a pub (The Square Albert). Worthington designed this
two colour building after his second tour of Italy in 1858,
and this is thought to be the main influence in his design.
The Masonic
Hall, Bridge Street, Manchester
The Masonic
Hall was designed by Percy Scott Worthington in 1929. This Grade
II Listed building is in Portland Stone and won the Royal Institute
of British Architects Gold Medal for Worthington in 1930. Externally
it is rather plain and forbidding, with its rusticated ground
floor and severe sheer walls rising two floors, and relieved
only by the square cut windows. A low balustraded balcony is
cantilevered out over the ground floor entrance.
However, its interior is a joyous affair in the Neo-classical
style with a huge coffered barrel vaulted ceiling supported
on elegant Ionic columns.
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