Looking at Buildings

, printed from the Looking at Buildings website on Saturday 15th March 2025

Styles of the 19th Century

Manchester, Greek Revival

The public buildings, clubs and institutions of the early 19th century town illustrate the ambitions of the town's middle classes.

Two important examples of the Greek revivalGlossary Term [1] style survive on Mosely Street. The PorticoGlossary Term [2] Newsroom and Library (1802 -6) and the Royal Manchester Institution of 1824-35 (now the City Art GalleryGlossary Term [3]). The legacy of the Greek RevivalGlossary Term [4] is represented by the Branch Bank of England in King Street of 1845, and the Theatre Royal in Peter Street.

GothicGlossary Term [5] and ItalianateGlossary Term [6] styles. The palazzoGlossary Term [7] style, seen first at the Athenaeum on Princess Street (1836-7), was adopted enthusiastically for commercial buildings, and for one of the city's chief monuments, the Free Trade Hall (1853-6) on Peter Street.

GothicGlossary Term [8], the other main strand in the architecture of Victorian Manchester, was adopted for some of the city's most prominent buildings including the Reform Club, King Street 1870-1, Memorial Hall, Albert Square, 1863-6, Minshull Street Courts, 1867-73), as well as many lesser buildings. The crowning achievementGlossary Term [9] was the Town Hall (1867-77), a monument to the civic pride and confidence of a city at the height of its powers.

ItalianateGlossary Term [10] and GothicGlossary Term [11] styles continued, seen in the architecture of some of the better local firms such as Clegg & Knowles. The Queen AnneGlossary Term [12] style is seen in the former School Board Offices, by Royle & Bennett 1878, now Elliot House, Deansgate.

ArcadeGlossary Term [13] (Corbett Raby & Sawyer 1871) is one of the loveliest Victorian shopping arcades in the country, built using ironwork from Macfarlane's Saracen Foundry in Glasgow.

RenaissanceGlossary Term [14] styles became more popular from the end of the 1880s, for example the Municipal School of Technology (now the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology on Sackville Street by Spalding & Cross, 1895-1902, while in contrast the superb John Rylands Library, (1890-99)on Deansgate by Basil Champneys is Art-for-Art's-sake GothicGlossary Term [15], an example of historic style used freely as a medium for individual expression.

Manchester, John Rylands Library, Exterior
Manchester, Barton Arcade, Deansgate,

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Last updated: Monday, 26th January 2009