Architecture of Manchester
The architecture of Manchester showcases a rich variety of styles. The city, a product of the Industrial Revolution, is regarded as the first modern industrial city. Manchester is noted for its warehouses, railway viaducts, cotton mills, and canals—remnants of its past as a hub for production and trade. The city has minimal Georgian or medieval architecture and instead boasts an array of 19th and early 20th-century styles, including Palazzo, Neo-Gothic, Venetian Gothic, Edwardian baroque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Neo-Classical.
Manchester burgeoned as a result of the Industrial Revolution, with the Bridgewater Canal and Manchester Liverpool Road station becoming the first true canal and railway station used to transport goods. The Industrial Revolution made Manchester a wealthy city, but much of that wealth was spent on lavish projects, often at the expense of its population. Engineering developments such as the Manchester Ship Canal symbolised a prosperous and proud Manchester; likewise, Mancunian buildings of the Victorian era reflected this wealth, with the finest examples including the neo-Gothic town hall and the John Rylands Library. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the city had nearly 2,000 warehouses. Many of them have since been converted for other uses, but their external appearance remains largely unchanged, allowing the city to retain much of its industrial, brooding character.
The 1996 IRA bombing sparked a major regeneration project, with new buildings such as Urbis forming a centrepiece of the redevelopment. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in constructing skyscrapers in Manchester, with Manchester City Council signalling that it would be sympathetic towards 'iconic' skyscrapers that 'reflect the historic non-comformist attitude and uniqueness of the city'. The Beetham Tower was completed in autumn 2006 and, until 2018, was the tallest building in the UK outside London—at which point it was surpassed by the South Tower at Deansgate Square, also in Manchester. City-centre regeneration coincided with the property 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".
Manchester was granted city status in 1853 due to its rapid development, becoming the first city to receive such status since Bristol in 1542. Manchester was also placed on a provisional list for UNESCO World Heritage site status, highlighting the city's role in the Industrial Revolution and its extensive canal network. Castlefield, west of the city centre, is Britain's only Urban Heritage Park, created to preserve the character and history of the area.
History
The Roman fort, Mamucium, on the sandstone bluff at the junction of the Rivers Irwell and Medlock gave Castlefield its name. The fort's remains including a short, seven feet high section of wall are protected as a scheduled monument. The Romans left Mamucium in 410 AD and the settlement was subsequently occupied by Saxons who renamed it Manigcastre. It was taken by the Danes in 870 AD, the significance of which is seen in the street patterns and names. The gate suffix in Deansgate and Millgate derives from the Old Norse gata meaning road. In the 10th century, the cliff at the junction of the Irwell and the Irk 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 by King Canute.There has been a church on the site of the cathedral since 1215. Another medieval survival is the Hanging Bridge across the filled-in Hanging Ditch, a stream south of the cathedral. All that remains are two sandstone arches now incorporated into the cathedral's visitor centre. When Thomas De la Warre obtained a licence to refound the church as a collegiate parish church, a college of priests was built of red Collyhurst sandstone on the site of his manor house. The college had a large hall, warden's lodgings and rooms for the priests. Two ancient halls survive outside the city centre, Clayton Hall is a rare example of a medieval moated site and Baguley Hall is a timber-framed hall from the 14th century.
Shambles Square, created after the 1996 bombing with the timber-framed Old Wellington Inn, Sinclair's Oyster Bar and the Mitre Hotel 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 of Manchester Cottons to 22 yards. By 1641 Manchester was producing both cotton and linen cloth. A bequest from wealthy cloth merchant, Humphrey Chetham was responsible for the Chetham's School and Library in the mediaeval collegiate building. St Ann's Church, attributed to Wren or one of his pupils, 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 survive. St James Square was built by the Jacobites. Planned development occurred in the 1750s between Market Street, Cross Street, King Street and Mosley Street.
Relatively few houses in the city centre survive from the Georgian era, one is Richard Cobden's townhouse from the 1770s. Another survival is a row of three-storey town houses built in red brick with sandstone dressings, now used as shops and offices on Princess Street. Terraced houses were built on Byrom Street and Quay 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. Other city-centre dwellings had cellars and attics but none survive.
Post-Industrial Revolution
Transport and industry
The Industrial Revolution gathered momentum after the Bridgewater Canal was opened to Castlefield on 10 July 1761. The canal brought coal to the town from Worsley and when in 1776 it had been extended, cotton could be shipped into the town from the Port 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 the Rochdale Canal and beyond that to the Ashton Canal. On the Ashton Canal the Store Street Aqueduct designed by Benjamin Outram, is believed to be the first skewed aqueduct of its kind and the oldest still in use and a brick lock-keeper's cottage constructed about 1800 survives by Lock No.2.The canals shaped the layout of the city attracting wharves and warehouses, transporting coal and heavy materials and provided water to run steam-engines. Large cotton mill complexes survive on the fringes of the city centre, Murrays Mills, the McConnel & Kennedy Mills and Beehive Mill at Ancoats were built from the 1790s. The oldest surviving fireproof mill is at Chorlton New Mills in Chorlton on Medlock.
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 by Victoria Bridge which has a single arch span of about constructed from sandstone in 1839. Other Victorian bridges over the Irwell are the three-arched Blackfriars Bridge, the skew arched Albert Bridge and the wrought iron Palatine Bridge.
Modern bridges include the Hulme Arch Bridge completed in 1997 and the Trinity footbridge across the Irwell designed by Santiago Calatrava in 1994. It has a rotund pylon which rises to from which tension cables hang down to suspend the footbridge deck. Merchants Bridge at Castlefield Basin, built in 1996 by Whitby Bird, is a dramatic curving footbridge contrasting with seven older bridges.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first passenger railway was built in 1830 and Manchester Liverpool Road railway station opened. The classically designed station and adjoining Georgian station master's house are part of the Museum of Science and Industry. The railways required large viaducts and bridges to carry the track into Manchester's several stations. Four viaducts cross the canal basin at Castlefield, and from there an arched brick viaduct carries the railway to Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Deansgate stations. At Castlefield there are cast iron arch bridges crossing the Rochdale Canal, Castle Street and Chester Road. Liverpool Road was the first of the city's stations, of which four remain in the city centre. Piccadilly and Victoria which has a long Baroque frontage and glass canopy are the largest; Piccadilly retains is Victorian train shed and Victoria its Edwardian facade. Deansgate has a curved corner frontage with mock portcullis and embattled parapet. Oxford Road was rebuilt in 1960 in concrete and wood.
The Midland Railway's Manchester Central Station, one of the city's main railway terminals, was built between 1875 and 1880 and was closed in 1969. Its huge wrought-iron, single-span arched roof, spanning, long and in height, is a listed building. The station has been converted for use as a conference centre. The associated Midland Hotel designed by Charles Trubshaw was constructed between 1898 and 1903 from red brick and brown terracotta and clad in several varieties of polished granite and Burmantofts terracotta to withstand the polluted environment of Manchester. Mayfield Station, opened in 1910 next to Manchester Piccadilly by the London & North Western Railway, closed in 1960 and lies derelict. Manchester Exchange operated between 1884 and 1969 near Manchester 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.