IHBC (NW) & ASCHB Manchester City Centre walking tour, 20th May 2016 Map & Introductory notes

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1 1 IHBC (NW) & ASCHB Manchester City Centre walking tour, 20th May 2016 Map & Introductory notes Victoria Station NOMA Chetham s The Old Wellington & Sinclair s Oyster Bar Vapiano Corn Exchange (Lunch) Northern Quarter Jamie s Italian King Street (tea / coffee) John Rylands Library Town Hall Extension Cenotaph Central Public Library Piccadilly Station

2 2 NOMA (former Co-operative buildings, Grade II listed) A unique series of commercial buildings built between 1903 and 1962 to meet the expanding needs of the Co-Operative Group, providing an exemplar of the development of the 20 th century office and warehouse. The earlier buildings range from the Edwardian Baroque of the conjoined New Drapery Warehouse (1903) and Hanover Building (1907) to the Beaux- Arts classicism of the Old Bank (1928). The Redfern and Dantzic Buildings (both of 1937) introduced a streamlined Art Deco form whilst New Century Hall and House, and the CIS (Co-operative Insurance) Tower (all of 1962) are in the fully developed International Style of Burnet, Tait and Partners. The earlier buildings were typically designed in-house by the Co-Operative s own architects. The CIS Tower was partially re-clad in solar photovoltaic cells, replacing the failed original mosaic tiles, As of 2013, the wider site was largely vacated by the Co-operative who have moved to a new headquarters building nearby at 1 Angel Square. The former Cooperative buildings have been rebranded as NOMA, a regeneration scheme run as a joint venture by the Co-operative and Hermes Real Estate, ongoing at the time of the visit. Victoria Station (Grade II listed) Railway station. Original block to Hunt's Bank Approach, 1844, for the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company (also used by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company), altered and greatly enlarged 1909 by William Dawes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. Sandstone ashlar office blocks with slate roofs; cast-iron train sheds with slate and glazed roofs.

3 3 Major redevelopment of station buildings with new ETFE roof, BDP (2010). Peter Jenkins, Architect Director at BDP, has kindly agreed to join us and discuss the scheme. Chetham s School of Music (Grade I listed) Former College of the Collegiate Parish Church of Manchester, now music school. Established 1422 by Thomas de la Warre; converted after Dissolution in 1547 for use as a town house by Earl of Derby; sequestrated during Commonwealth, purchased in 1654 by Humphrey Chetham's executors for adaptation as charity school ("hospital") and library; restored and enlarged by Oliver Heywood and Charles James Heywood. Extension of school buildings, demolition of later Victorian additions and conservation of retained medieval structures, Stephenson Studio, The Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair s Oyster Bar (both Grade II listed) Old Wellington Inn (left): House, now public house. Probably mid C16; altered, restored and raised up some 30 feet to correspond with new street level of surrounding C20 redevelopment. Timber frame with stone slate roof. Three-bay linear plan. Three storeys and 3 structural bays, the 1st and 3rd gabled. Ground floor altered, with coupled C20 doorways to the centre flanked by C20 mullion and transom windows, a splayed doorway to the left corner, and a similar C20 window in the left return wall.

4 4 The 1st floor has close studded framing with angle braces in the 1st bay, a small restored 4- light slightly bowed wooden mullioned window to this bay, and a continuous 17-light mullioned window running across almost the whole of the 2nd and 3rd bays (in slightly bowed sections of 6, 3, 2, 2 and 4 lights). Square small-panelled framing, and one 4-light window immediately below the wallplate in each bay, all likewise slightly bowed. The gables are jettied and filled with decorated lattice framing. The left return wall has framing on each floor like that at the front, a restored 7-light window to each floor, and a jettied gable like those at the front. Interior has exposed beams. The only surviving example of timber framing typical of the town in the C16 and C17 centuries. Sinclair s Oyster Bar (right): House, now restaurant. Late C17 or early C18, altered, and raised up some 30 feet to correspond with new street level of surrounding C20 redevelopment. Stucco, painted black and white, slate roof. Rectangular plan on corner site, in 2 parts, with splayed corner. Main range 3 low storeys, with corner block 4 high storeys; 3:1 windows plus one window in the splayed corner; ground floor painted black, with coupled doorway in centre, window of 4 arched lights to right, another doorway in splayed corner; upper floors painted to resemble black-and-white "half-timbering", coupled windows on each floor to the left with altered small pane glazing, one 16-pane sash on each floor of the centre, and in the 4-storey portion a 12- pane sash at 1st floor, another at a much higher 2nd floor level, and a 9-pane sash to the top of an equally high 3rd floor; 16-pane sashes on each floor of the corner. Corner block has unusual reversed-slope roof with prominent bracketed cornice. Interior contains evidence of early origin, also various chop house fittings of early C19 date and style. One of the oldest oyster bars and chop houses in England. Both altered and relocated in 1974 during the construction of the Arndale Centre, and again following the 1996 bombing of the same to create the new Exchange Square.

5 5 John Rylands Library (Grade I listed) , by Basil Champneys, for Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband; with rear extension 1912, also by Champneys. Red sandstone with pitched slate roof coverings. Rectangular plan at right angles to street, plus back extensions. Decorated Gothic style with Arts and Crafts accent. Very fine vaulted entrance hall and winding vaulted staircase; church-like reading hall with much elaborate decoration, including traceried arcades, rib vaulted ceiling, panelled reading alcoves with oriel windows, statues of John Rylands and Mrs Rylands, and others. Built by Mrs Rylands to house the theological library of John Rylands (leading textile manufacturer and philanthropist) after his death, subsequently augmented by purchase of other collections, and now part of the University of Manchester Library. New entrance wing and visitor facilities, Austin Smith Lord, Central Public Library and Town Hall Extension (both Grade II* listed) Central Public Library: , by Vincent Harris. Portland stone, slate roof with concealed glazed lantern light. Circular plan with rectangular portico on east side. Classical style. Four storeys with basement and attic (surrounding a large central reading room); with a chamfered plinth, rusticated masonry to ground and 1st floors with a Greek-key frieze, a continuous Tuscan colonnaded screen to setback 2nd and 3rd floors, with a plain frieze, cornice and parapet concealing a low set-back attic storey. The east side (to the square) has a rectangular 2-storey projection with a central 5-bay portico of giant Corinthian columns tetrastyle in antis, with round-headed arches in the returned ends, and entablature with dentilled cornice. Otherwise, the ground floor has tall roundheaded windows with keystones, the 1st floor has tall square-headed windows, and the 2nd and 3rd floors have smaller rectangular windows; all these windows with metal-framed small-paned glazing. Interior: domed circular reading room surrounded by giant Tuscan colonnade.

6 6 Town Hall Extension: 1938, by Vincent Harris. Steel frame with cladding of sandstone ashlar and steeply-pitched slate roof. Large irregular plan with long concave south side. Eclectic style with Gothic accent. Eight storeys and attic, the 7th and 8th storeys set back behind a parapet, with 29- window facade to Lloyd Street (linked to Town Hall by bridge), 17-window facade to St Peter's Square, and contrasting 5-bay facade to Mount Street (see below). In all these facades the ground floor is treated as a plinth with a continuous arcade of simple roundheaded openings and a chamfered coping; the upper floors of those to Lloyd Street and St Peter's Square are divided horizontally by a band over the 1st floor and a parapet over the 5th floor, have small rectangular windows up to that level and 2-light mullioned windows to the set-back 6th and 7th floors, and attic dormers with wooden cross-windows and hipped roofs; and the last 5 bays of the Lloyd Street facade are set back.

7 7 The Mount Street facade, by contrast, has 5 giant oriels from the 2nd to the 5th floors (inclusive), all rising from a straight band carried on large brackets at 1st floor, but the 2nd and 4th slightly set back, and all filled with a continuous grid of mullion-andtransom windows divided by a king mullion and 2 transoms into pairs of 8, 6 and 4 lights on successive levels. The gable ends of the Mount Street and St Peter's Square wings have tall stair-turrets with giant roundheaded arches containing elaborate geometrically traceried windows, over the head of each arch a square-headed niche with a statue, and stepped back top stages with bands. At the rear (towards the circular Library building) the wings are linked by a curved 4-storey range which has widely spaced round-headed arches and small windows. Construction of link building and major refurbishment of both structures, Simpson Haugh & Partners (Town Hall Extension and Link) and Ryder Architecture (Central Public Library) Dave Green, Practice Partner at Simpson Haugh & Partners, has kindly agreed to join us and discuss the scheme for the Town Hall Extension. Cenotaph (Grade II* listed) First World War memorial, 1924, by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The memorial, of Portland stone, comprises a cenotaph, two flanking obelisks, and a War Stone all on a slightly raised, coved, platform. The cenotaph, like that in Whitehall, London, is a pylon in diminishing stages supporting a catafalque on which lies the figure of an Unknown Soldier partly covered in a greatcoat. Beneath, to either side, is a wreath containing the city s coat of arms; to the front and rear are a sword pendant and Imperial crown. The northwest side of the cenotaph bears the inscription: TO THE/ HONOURED MEMORY/ OF THOSE WHO/ GAVE THEIR LIVES/ FOR THEIR COUNTRY. On the south-east side is inscribed: O LORD GOD OF OUR/ FATHERS KEEP THIS/ FOREVER IN THE/ IMAGINATION OF THE/ THOUGHTS OF THE/ HEART OF THY PEOPLE. Two obelisks, shorter than the cenotaph, stand to either side. These have swagged garlands to the front. Centrally between them, behind the cenotaph, is a War Stone. Relocated to facilitate expansion of the St Peter s Square Metrolink station, Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture 2014.

8 8 About Stephen Levrant Stephen has spent his entire professional career in conservation and historic buildings, in both the public and private sectors of the profession. He was an architect at the Ministry of Works prior to joining the Frizzell Partnership, which he took over in the 90s and transformed into Heritage Architecture, establishing an office in Manchester in Known as a pragmatic and tenacious problem solver, he has dealt with many complex and sensitive issues in conservation from delicate and highly specialised repairs, through new build additions on sensitive sites, conservation area appraisals, legislation and planning matters, to major regeneration and development.