Thearchitecture of Manchester demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles. The city is a product of theIndustrial Revolution and is known as the first modern, industrial city.[1]Manchester is noted for itswarehouses,railway viaducts,cotton mills andcanals – remnants of its past when the city produced and traded goods. Manchester has minimalGeorgian ormedieval architecture to speak of and consequently has a vast array of 19th and early 20th-century architecture styles; examples includePalazzo,Neo-Gothic,Venetian Gothic,Edwardian baroque,Art Nouveau,Art Deco and theNeo-Classical.
Manchester burgeoned as a result of theIndustrial Revolution and theBridgewater Canal andManchester Liverpool Road station became the first true canal and railway station used to transport goods. The Industrial Revolution made Manchester a wealthy place but much of the wealth was spent on lavish projects that were often at the expense of its population. Engineering developments such as theManchester Ship Canal symbolised a wealthy and proud Manchester, so too did Mancunian buildings of theVictorian era, the finest examples of which include the neo-gothictown hall and theJohn Rylands Library. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the city had nearly 2,000 warehouses. Many ofthem have now been converted for other uses but their external appearance remains mostly unchanged so the city keeps much of its industrial, brooding character.
The1996 IRA bombing sparked a large regeneration project with new buildings such asUrbis forming a centrepiece of the redevelopment. Over the last few years there has been a renewed interest in buildingskyscrapers in Manchester with Manchester City Council signalling it would be sympathetic towards 'iconic' skyscrapers that 'reflect the historic non-comformist attitude and uniqueness of the city'. TheBeetham Tower was completed in the autumn 2006 and until 2018 was thetallest building in the UK outside London (at which point it was surpassed by theSouth Tower at Deansgate Square, also in Manchester). City centre regeneration coincided with theproperty boom of the 2000s with one urbanist remarking on"the sheer number of cranes and the noise of the building work, with the sound of pneumatic drills in my ears wherever I went".[2]
Manchester was grantedcity status in 1853 due to its rapid development and was the first to be granted such status since Bristol in 1542. Manchester was on a provisional list forUNESCO World Heritage site status emphasising the city's role in the Industrial Revolution and its extensive canal network.[3]Castlefield, west of the city centre is Britain's onlyUrban Heritage Park that aims to preserve the character and history of the area.
TheRoman fort,Mamucium, on the sandstone bluff at the junction of the RiversIrwell andMedlock gaveCastlefield its name. The fort's remains including a short, seven feet high section of wall are protected as ascheduled monument.[4] The Romans left Mamucium in 410 AD and the settlement was subsequently occupied by Saxons who renamed itManigcastre. It was taken by theDanes in 870 AD, the significance of which is seen in the street patterns and names. Thegate suffix inDeansgate and Millgate derives from theOld Norsegata meaning road.[5] In the tenth century the cliff at the junction of the Irwell and theIrk became the preferred site when a church dedicated to St Mary was built at St Mary's Gate and the Danish town grew around it. The settlement was important enough to be given the right to strike coinage byKing Canute.[6]
There has been a church on the site ofthe cathedral since 1215.[7][8] Another medieval survival is theHanging Bridge across the filled-inHanging Ditch, a stream south of the cathedral. All that remains are two sandstone arches now incorporated into the cathedral's visitor centre.[9] When Thomas De la Warre obtained a licence to refound the church as a collegiate parish church, acollege of priests was built of redCollyhurst sandstone on the site of his manor house. The college had a large hall, warden's lodgings and rooms for the priests.[10][11] Two ancient halls survive outside the city centre,Clayton Hall is a rare example of amediaevalmoated site[12] andBaguley Hall is atimber-framed hall from the 14th century.[13]
Shambles Square, created after the 1996 bombing with thetimber-framedOld Wellington Inn,[14] Sinclair's Oyster Bar[15] and the Mitre Hotel[16] preserves some of the city's oldest buildings of their type. The original site of the Shambles was the location of butchers' shops and abattoirs.
In the 16th century domestic cloth weaving became important, and an Act of Parliament regulated the length ofManchester Cottons (which were actually woollens) to 22 yards. By 1641 Manchester was producing both cotton and linen cloth. A bequest from wealthy cloth merchant,Humphrey Chetham was responsible for theChetham's School and Library in the mediaeval collegiate building.[17]St Ann's Church, attributed toWren or one of his pupils,[18] was built in 1712 in St Ann's Square which became the fashionable area of town. Seven other churches were built during the 18th century, none of which survives.[19] St James Square (1735) was built by the Jacobites. Planned development occurred in the 1750s betweenMarket Street, Cross Street,King Street andMosley Street.[20]
Relatively few houses in the city centre survive from theGeorgian era, one isRichard Cobden's townhouse from the 1770s.[21] Another survival is row of three-storey town houses built in red brick with sandstone dressings, now used as shops and offices in Princess Street.[22]Terraced houses were built on Byrom Street andQuay Street for the middle classes at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries but few dwellings for the working classes survive except for a few north of Piccadilly Gardens and in Castlefield. Houses built for artisans and skilled workers had attic workshops housing handlooms for weaving.[23] Other city-centre dwellings had cellars and attics but none survive.[24]
TheIndustrial Revolution gathered momentum after theBridgewater Canal was opened toCastlefield on 10 July 1761.[25] The canal brought coal to the town fromWorsley and when in 1776 it had been extended, cotton could be shipped into the town from thePort of Liverpool. At Castlefield Basin are a series of early warehouses, such as the Dukes Warehouse and the Grocers Warehouse. By 1800 the Bridgewater at Castlefield was connected to theRochdale Canal and beyond that to theAshton Canal.[26] On the Ashton Canal theStore Street Aqueduct designed byBenjamin Outram, is believed to be the first skewed aqueduct of its kind and the oldest still in use[27] and a brick lock-keeper's cottage constructed about 1800 survives by Number 2 Lock.[28]
The canals shaped the layout of the city attracting wharves and warehouses, transporting coal and heavy materials and provided water to runsteam-engines. Largecotton mill complexes survive on the fringes of the city centre,Murrays Mills, theMcConnel & Kennedy Mills andBeehive Mill atAncoats were built from the 1790s. The oldest surviving fireproof mill is at Chorlton New Mills inChorlton on Medlock.[29][30]
Manchester was linked to Salford across the River Irwell by a ford and subsequently by Salford Old Bridge in the 14th century. During the 19th century more bridges were built. The old bridge was replaced byVictoria Bridge which has a single arch of about 100 feet span constructed fromsandstone in 1839.[31] Other Victorian bridges over the Irwell are the three-archedBlackfriars Bridge,[32] theskew archedAlbert Bridge[33] and thewrought ironPalatine Bridge.[34]
Modern bridges include theHulme Arch Bridge completed in 1997 and theTrinity footbridge across the Irwell designed bySantiago Calatrava in 1994. It has a rotund pylon which rises to 41 metres from which tension cables hang down to suspend the footbridge deck.[35] Merchants Bridge at Castlefield Basin, built in 1996 by Whitby Bird, is a dramatic curving footbridge contrasting with seven older bridges.[36]
TheLiverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first passenger railway was built in 1830 andManchester Liverpool Road railway station opened. The classically designed station and adjoining Georgian station master's house are part of theMuseum of Science and Industry.[37] The railways required large railway viaducts and bridges to carry the track into Manchester's several stations. Fourviaducts cross the canal basin at Castlefield, and from there an arched brick viaduct carries the railway to Manchester Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Deansgate Stations. At Castlefield there arecast iron arch bridges crossing theRochdale Canal, Castle Street and Chester Road.[38] Liverpool Road was the first of the city's stations, of which four remain in the city centre.Piccadilly andVictoria which has a long Baroque frontage and glass canopy are the largest, Piccadilly retains isVictoriantrain shed[39] and Victoria its Edwardianfacade.Deansgate has a curved corner frontage with mock portcullis and embattled parapet.Oxford Road was rebuilt in 1960 in concrete and wood.[40]
TheMidland Railway'sManchester Central Station, one of the city's main railway terminals was built between 1875 and 1880 and was closed in 1969. Its large arched roof – a huge wrought-iron single-span arched roof, spanning 210 feet (64 m), 550 feet (168 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) high is a listed building. The station has been converted for use as a conference centre.[41] The associatedMidland Hotel designed byCharles Trubshaw was constructed between 1898 and 1903 from red brick and brownterracotta and clad in several varieties of polishedgranite andBurmantofts terracotta to withstand the polluted environment of Manchester.[42]Mayfield Station, opened in 1910 next to Manchester Piccadilly by theLondon & North Western Railway, closed in 1960 and lies derelict.[43]Manchester Exchange operated between 1884 and 1969 nearManchester Cathedral, most of the station was in Salford and its 1929 extension east of the Irwell was in Manchester and was linked with the adjacent Victoria Station.[44]
Manchester's first town hall, designed byFrancis Goodwin, was constructed during 1822–25 in the neo-classical style with a screen ofIonic columns.[45] Its facade was re-erected as afolly inHeaton Park at the west end of its lake in 1913.[46] Manchester was granted a Charter of Incorporation in 1838.[47] Classical architecture gave way toNeo-gothic andPalazzo styles in theVictorian Era.Edward Walters designed theFree Trade Hall in the 1850s as a monument to thePeterloo Massacre and Manchester's pivotal role in theAnti-Corn Law League. Built as a public hall only the facade remains.[48] The old town hall was replaced by the presentManchester Town Hall, designed byAlfred Waterhouse. Completed in 1877, its Great Hall contains theManchester Murals byFord Madox Brown.[49]
Waterhouse was influenced byPugin and most of his designs were in theGothic Revival style. He is a prolific contributor to the design of Manchester's public, educational and commercial buildings. Waterhouse's exteriors used large quantities of "self-washing"terracotta to provide rich ornament in the polluted atmosphere and after 1880 his interiors were decorated with moulded and glazed faience both manufactured by theBurmantofts Pottery. He designed the Royal Insurance Office, in which he had an office, in 1861. The now demolishedManchester Assize Courts, built between 1864 and 1877 in the neo-Gothic style, was a major commission. In the 1860s Waterhouse designedStrangeways Gaol and its French Gothic style gatehouse in red brick with sandstone dressings[50] and landmark tower in red brick with sandstone dressings in the style of aminaret.[51]
TheCity Police Courts in red brick with an impressive tower in the Italian Gothic style was completed in 1871 in Minshull Street by another proponent of the Gothic styleThomas Worthington.[52] Worthington's last commission in the city was the flamboyant Flemish GothicNicholls Hospital, an orphanage that is now part ofThe Manchester College and has similarities with the Minshull Street Courts.[53]
Acres Fair moved to Castlefield in 1872 and after it was abolished, the market traders remained at Lower Campfield Market and Higher Campfield Market[54] which were later covered by large, glazed buildings with cast-iron frames by Mangnall and Littlewood. Lower Campfield Market is now the Air and Space Gallery of the Museum of Science and Industry.[55]
London Road Fire Station of 1906 was designed in theEdwardian Baroque style by Woodhouse, Willoughby and Langham inred brick and terracotta. The building, on the Buildings at Risk Register, is currently unoccupied. The eclecticJacobean and Baroque styledVictoria Baths in Chorlton on Medlock opened in September 1906 providing private baths, alaundry, threeswimming pools and aVictorian-style Turkish bath.[56][57]
In the 1930sVincent Harris won competitions to design two of the city's civic buildings.Manchester Town Hall Extension between St Peter's Square and Lloyd Street was built between 1934 and 1938 to provide accommodation for local government services.[58] Its eclectic style was designed to be a link between the ornate Gothic Revival Town Hall and theclassicalrotunda of theCentral Library built four years earlier.[59]
Education and culture became important in Georgian times leading to the construction of buildings that endure today. ThePortico Library designed byThomas Harrison was the firstGreek Revival building in Manchester and the only surviving building by Harrison in the city. Its interior was inspired byJohn Soane.[60][61] TheRoyal Manchester Institution alearned society was founded in 1823. Its home inMosley Street was designed byCharles Barry, his only public building in the Greekneo-classical style. The building and its collections becameManchester Art Gallery[62] which also incorporates theManchester Athenaeum, designed in thepalazzo style by Barry in 1836.[63]
As Manchester emerged as the world's first industrial city, aMechanics' Institute,[64] the forerunner of theUniversity of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, was established in 1824.Owens College, founded with a bequest fromJohn Owens in 1851, became the Victoria University of Manchester in 1880. Alfred Waterhouse was appointed architect for Owens College and the Victoria University where he designed several of its buildings from 1860 until his retirement.[65] An early commission for Owens College was theManchester Museum on a new site in Chorlton on Medlock.[66] The Whitworth Institute and its surrounding park was founded in 1889 in the name of SirJoseph Whitworth, one of the city's great industrialists. Designed by J.W.Beaumont in red brick with details in matching terracotta,[67] it was transferred to the university and changed its name to theWhitworth Art Gallery in 1958.[68] Alfred Waterhouse's son, Paul Waterhouse continued the Gothic tradition with the university's elaborateWhitworth Hall, its ceremonial venue built between 1895 and 1902.[69]
TheManchester School of Art was built in two stages, the main building is byG.T.Redmayne in the Neo-Gothic style in stone with gabled wings and pinnacles and an 1897 rear extension byJoseph Gibbon Sankey in red brick and terracotta withArt Nouveau decoration.[70]
TheJohn Rylands Library byBasil Champneys onDeansgate, designed like a church in the Decorated Gothic style withArts and Crafts details, opened in 1900.[71]
The commercial hub of Manchester orCottonopolis was the Exchange, of which there were four, the first was in the market place in 1727[72] and it was re-built three times. Thomas Harrison built the second in the Greek Revival style between 1806 and 1809[73] and it was enlarged between 1847 and 1849. Queen Victoria granted it the title theManchester Royal Exchange in 1851. The third exchange in the Classical style by Mills and Murgatroyd, opened in 1874 and was lavishly re-builtBradshaw Gass & Hope between 1914 and 1921. It had the largest trading room in the world but closed for cotton trading in 1968 and now is a theatre.[74]
EarlyVictorian warehouses were built of brick with stone dressings typically up to six storeys tall with basements and steps to the front door. Fireproof construction was used towards the end of the century. They had loading bays with hydraulic wall cranes at the side or rear. Some traders built their own warehouses but others shared speculative developments that were built for multiple users.[75]Watts Warehouse byTravis & Mangnall in the form of a Venetianpalazzo, was built in 1856, the largest single-occupancy textile warehouse in Manchester .[76]
Warehouses were built into the 20th century, many in the highly decoratedEdwardian Baroque style leaving the city with a legacy of some of the finest buildings of this type in the world. The continuing urbanisation and narrow roads in Manchester have impacted on views of these ornate buildings, many of which were often decorative at the top of the building. A flurry of ornate warehouses were built, many of which dominated the area around Whitworth Street and includedAsia House, Manchester,India House andLancaster House designed byHarry S. Fairhurst.
From the early 19th century residentialKing Street andSpring Gardens developed into the city's financial quarter. Banks were designed by local architects Edward Walters, J.E. Gregan andCharles Henry Heathcote and byCharles Cockerell andEdwin Lutyens.[77] Benjamin Heywood'spalazzo style bank in St Ann's Square, (the Royal Bank of Scotland), was built in 1848 to the designs of J.E. Gregan.[78] Charles Cockerell designed the Bank of England's Manchester branch on King Street in 1845-6 but the street is dominated by the former Midland Bank designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1928 his major work in the city.[79] The Royal Bank of Scotland onMosley Street was designed for the Manchester and Salford Bank by Edward Walters in 1862.[80] On the corner of Spring Gardens and York Street is the formerParrs Bank in red sandstone with a corner entrance designed in 1902 by Heathcote in the Edwardian Baroque with Art Nouveau motifs in its ironwork.[81] Heathcote also designed the BaroqueLloyds Bank in 1915 on King Street in the heart of the city's banking district.[82]
Ship Canal House was completed in 1927 for theManchester Ship Canal Company by Harry S Fairhurst in a transitional Edwardian Baroque/Art Deco style.[83][84]Owen Williams designed theDaily Express Building with a futuristic dark glass façade.Nikolaus Pevsner described it as "all-glass front, absolutely flush, with rounded corners and translucent glass and black glass".[85]Sunlight House which opened in 1932 onQuay Street was designed in the art deco style byJoseph Sunlight. The brown-brickRedfern Building on the Co-operative Estate is an individualistic interpretation of the Art Deco, although Pevsner believed it shared more in common with 'Dutch Brick modernism'.[86]
The medievalparish church was altered and rebuilt between 1814 and 1815. It became a cathedral in 1847 and was extensively restored and rebuilt by J.P. Holden between 1862 and 1868, byJ. S. Crowther in the 1880s and in 1898 byBasil Champneys who added annexes in 1903.[8]
In 1828 the Quakers built their Meeting House in Mount Street. Designed byRichard Lane it has anashlar facade and a three-baypedimentedIonicportico with afrieze.[87]
Victorian churches, particularly those of the Roman Catholics, espoused the Gothic principles ofA. W. N. Pugin who designed the red brick St Wilfrid's Roman Catholic Church in the early English style inHulme of 1842.[88] St Mary's Roman Catholic Church,The Hidden Gem, on Mulberry Street, the first Roman Catholic church in the city centre, was designed by Weightman &Hadfield in 1848.[89] On the outskirts of the city centre,J. A. Hansom designed the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Name of Jesus inChorlton-on-Medlock which was completed 1928 byAdrian Gilbert Scott[90] andE.W. Pugin's Grade II* Church and Friary of St Francis,Gorton Monastery are "of more than local interest".[91]
In the late 19th century the large Jewish community aroundCheetham Hill built theSephardic Synagogue of 1874–75 to the designs ofEdward Salomons in theMoorish style and survives asManchester Jewish Museum.[92]
TheChurch of Christ, Scientist inFallowfield, designed byEdgar Wood opened in 1907.Nikolaus Pevsner considered it "the only religious building in Lancashire that would be indispensable in a survey of twentieth century church design in all England."[93] and "one of the most original buildings of that time in England, or indeed anywhere."[94]
After World War II, work to rebuildwar-damaged Manchester began and the transition from warehouse to office blocks accelerated as the city's industrial prowess waned. Few aesthetically memorable buildings were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s,[95] but some grew into landmarks for the city.
The first major building constructed after the war was theGranada Studios complex designed byRalph Tubbs in 1954.[96] The studios' notable features were a lattice tower and red,neon sign.
When the 118-metre tallCIS Tower was built in 1962,[97] it was the tallest building in the United Kingdom. The tower by, Sir John Bumet,Gordon Tait and Partners with G.S. Hay, is recognised as one of the best 1960s modernist buildings. As home tothe Co-operative Group, it was designed to showcase Manchester and the Co-operative movement. It was clad inphotovoltaic cells in 2005 and is the tallestlisted building in the United Kingdom. Along withNew Century House which also opened in 1962, its "design of discipline and consistency which forms part of a group with the Co-operative Insurance Society".[98] Gateway House, amodernist office block designed byRichard Seifert & Partners in 1969 on the approach toManchester Piccadilly station, is considered to be one of Seifert's most loveable buildings.[99]Hollins College, known as theToast rack, is representative of work produced by Manchester's City Council's city architectL. C. Howitt while implementing the city's post-war rebuilding plans.[100]
After the destruction caused by the1996 bombing, the city had a chance to reinvent itself. Tall buildings, many in a post-modernist style incorporating glass façades were constructed, the most prominent is a skyscraper built in 2006 – the 168-metre tallBeetham Tower by architecture firm,SimpsonHaugh and Partners. Other buildings with glass incorporated into their design includeUrbis,No. 1 Deansgate, theManchester Civil Justice Centre and theGreat Northern Tower, byAssael Architecture. Manchester City Council has been more sympathetic to tall buildings since 1990 and its Manchester Core Strategy 2012–2027 considered 'iconic' developments which reflect the non-conformity and uniqueness of the city would be viewed more sympathetically.[101]
TheManchester Civil Justice Centre was built in 2007 inSpinningfields - Manchester's new business district. It has been well received by architecture critics who praised its aesthetics, environmental credentials and structural quality.The Guardian architecture criticOwen Hatherley described it as a "genuinely striking building".[102]
In Manchester are monuments to people and events that have shaped the city and influenced the wider community. Two squares holding many public monuments areAlbert Square in front of the town hall which has monuments toPrince Albert,Bishop James Fraser,Oliver Heywood,William Ewart Gladstone andJohn Bright, andPiccadilly Gardens with monuments toQueen Victoria,Robert Peel,James Watt andThe Duke of Wellington.
Notable monuments elsewhere in the city include theAlan Turing Memorial inSackville Park commemorating the father of modern computing. A monument toAbraham Lincoln byGeorge Gray Barnard in the eponymous Lincoln Square was presented to the city by Mr & Mrs Charles Phelps Taft and marks the part Lancashire played in theAmerican Civil War and its consequence thecotton famine of 1861–1865. In the entrance to Watts Warehouse is a bronze statue, "The Sentry", byCharles Sargeant Jagger, a memorial to the staff of S & J Watts & Co who died inWorld War I. The city's principal war memorial isthe Cenotaph in St Peter's Square, designed byEdwin Lutyens afterhis original in London.
Thomas Heatherwick'sB of the Bang was a 56-metre-high (184 ft) metal sculpture commissioned for the2002 Commonwealth Games. Erected near theCity of Manchester Stadium inEastlands, the sculpture was beset by structural problems and dismantled in 2009.[103]
Manchester has a number of squares, plazas and shopping streets many of which are pedestrianised and other streets haveMetrolink orbus priority.
One of the oldest thoroughfares isMarket Street, originallyMarket Stede Lane. Much of themedieval street pattern around the original market place was cleared in 1970s developments. Ancient streets such as Smithy Door were lost. One ancient survivor is Long Millgate, a winding lane, leading north from the old market place across Fennel Street to Todd Street (formerly Toad Lane – thought to be a corruption of T'owd Lane, or The Old Lane), an attractive and peaceful thoroughfare bounded by gardens.
Whitworth Street is a broad 19th-century road from London Road toDeansgate, running parallel to theRochdale Canal for much of its length, intersecting Princess Street, Chepstow Street and Albion Street (the western section is called Whitworth Street West). It is lined with impressive former warehouses now converted to residential use.Mosley Street runs roughly parallel to Portland Street, Whitworth Street and Deansgate, from Piccadilly Gardens toSt Peter's Square. It is closed to traffic as Metrolink trams run along its length. Another Victorian addition to the city's street pattern was Corporation Street, which cut through slums to the north of Market Street providing a direct route from Cross Street andAlbert Square to the routes north of the city. South-east of the city centreWilmslow Road runs fromOxford Road, the hub of student life and home to Manchester'scurry mile in Rusholme.
Other notable places in Manchester include:Great Northern Square,Lincoln Square,Spring Gardens,Cathedral Gardens,Whitworth Gardens,New Cathedral Street, theGay Village andChinatown.
TheManchester School of Architecture is jointly administered by theUniversity of Manchester andManchester Metropolitan University. Contemporary architects born or educated in Manchester includeRoger Stephenson,Stephen Hodder,Norman Foster.
Manchester has historically had a large architecture practice presence in comparison to other British cities however this presence burgeoned during the redevelopment of the city since the1996 bombing. Architecture practices with head offices in the city includeBDP,[104]SimpsonHaugh and Partners,Urban Splash, Stephen Hodder Architects, Stephenson Architects, Leach Rhodes Walker and 5plus Architects.[105] Practices with regional offices include Arup, Aedas, AHR, Aecom,Broadway Malyan,Capita Symonds andChapman Taylor.[106]
More recently, practices such asDenton Corker Marshall,Mecanoo,Hawkins\Brown,Feilden Clegg Bradley andDonald Insall Associates have opened offices in Manchester since theGreat Recession recovery.
