The architecture of Manchester

The architecture of Manchester demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles, including Victorian architecture, neogothic, art deco, baroque, neoclassical and deconstructivist. Manchester burgeoned as a result of the industrial revolution with the Bridgewater Canal and Manchester Liverpool Road station becoming the first of their type. Today, Manchester is on a provisional list for UNESCO World Heritage site status, with emphasis placed on the city's role in the industrial revolution and extensive canal network.

Engineering developments such as the Manchester Ship Canal symbolised a wealthy and proud Manchester, so too did Mancunian buildings of the Victorian era, the finest examples of which include the neogothic Manchester Town Hall and the John Rylands Library. Many warehouses such as The Great Northern and Watts Warehouse, which were used in the industrial revolution, have now been converted for other uses but the external appearance remains mostly unchanged so to does the city keeps much of its industrial, brooding character.

The 1996 IRA bombing sparked a large regeneration project with new buildings such as Urbis forming a centrepiece of this redevelopment. However, in the last few years there has been a renewed interest in building skyscrapers in Manchester. Beetham Tower was completed in the Autumn of 2006 and houses a Hilton hotel along with a restaurant and residential properties. It is currently the tallest building in the UK outside of London.

17th and 18th Century

In the 16th century the weaving of cloth became important to Manchester, and an Act of Parliament regulated the length of Manchester Cottons (which were actually woollens)to 22 yards. By 1641 Manchester was producing both cotton and linen cloth. Wealthy cloth merchant Humphrey Chetham postumously was responsible for the Chetham's School and Library in the mediaeval collegiate building. When Queen Anne came to the throne, after the English Civil War, St Ann's Church(1712) in St Ann's Square was built as the collegiate church was seen as a pro Jacobite institution. This became the fashionable area of town, while St James Square (1735) was built by the Jacobites. This led to planned development in the 1750s between Market Street, Cross Street, King Street and Mosley Street.

The Industrial revolution started on the 10th July 1761 when the Bridgewater Canal was opened to Castlefield. This brought coal to the city from Worsley and when in 1776 the Bridgewater had been extended cotton could be sipped into the city. At the Castlefield Basin are a series of early warehouses, such as the Dukes Warehouse and the Grocers Warehouse. By 1800 Castlefield was connected to the Rochdale Canal and thus the Ashton Canal These canals significantly affected the layout of the city. They attracted wharves and warehouses, and they provided the coal and water needed to run steam-engines making cotton mills viable. Manchester was built on clay and coal, the coal could fire the clay to create the red brick needed to build a mill.

Victorian

Manchester became the trading centre for cotton, a centre for railways, warehouses and banking . As Manchester prospered, new buildings representing Manchester's standing and growing wealth went hand in hand. A prominent architectural style of the Victorian era was neogothic design. Some of the finest neogothic buildings are in Manchester, including Manchester Town Hall, Gorton Monastery, Manchester Assize Courts (demolished in the 1950s because of unrepairable damage resulting from the Manchester Blitz) and John Rylands Library.

Manchester Town Hall, designed in a Gothic Revival architecture style was the most notable Victorian era building. Completed in 1877, the interior of the building has various statues as well as The Manchester Murals which were painted by Ford Madox Brown.

nter-war period

Although the inter-war period covered a short 20-year period, the era saw a number of new buildings which were unique and representative of the prevailing new, architectural movement of the time, art deco. Examples include the Daily Express Building with its dark glass façade and the Midland Bank Building with a tall, castle like structure.

Post-war period

Following World War II, the slow work of rebuilding Manchester began and the transition from warehouse to office blocks became ever more apparent as Manchester's industrial prowess waned. The widely admired Manchester Assize Courts became one of Britain's 'lost buildings' had to be demolished in 1957 following unrepairable damage which was suffered during the Manchester Blitz. It has been said that few aesthetically memorable buildings were constructed in Manchester in the fifties and sixties, but there were some which were grew into important landmarks for the city.

The first major building to be constructed following the war was the unpretentious Granada Studios complex in 1954. Commissioned by Sidney Bernstein and designed by Ralph Tubbs, it would become home to Granada Television with the site centring around the Granada House. The studios notable feature was the lattice tower and the red, neon Granada TV signage in period font.

The CIS Tower was opened in 1962, a 118m office block which became the tallest building in the United Kingdom. The tower would become home to The Co-operative Group and was designed to showcase Manchester and the Co-operative movement. The skyscraper was clad in photovoltaic cells in 2005

New millennium architecture

Following the decline of the cultural Madchester movement in music in the early 1990s and then the 1996 bombing, the city had a chance to reinvent itself. Following the cities music fame, sport and architecture was at the heart of the new Manchester. Manchester has seen new, often tall buildings being built, many in a post-modernist style incorporating a glass façade into their design. Arguably, the most well known building of this type came in the form of a skyscraper in 2006 - the 168m Beetham Tower which was designed by architect, Ian Simpson. Other buildings to have incorporated glass into their design include Urbis, No. 1 Deansgate, Manchester Civil Justice Centre.