Looking at Buildings

PorticoGlossary Term [1] Library in Mosley Street [2] is the only surviving work in Manchester by Thomas Harrison. Promoters of a scheme for a combined newsroom, circulating library and reading room visited the Athenaeum in Liverpool in 1799 or 1800. This may have been how they came into contact with Harrison whose Lyceum was built there 1800-04. The PorticoGlossary Term [3] is Manchester's earliest Greek Revival [4] building and in incorporates a partially intact Soane -inspired interior. To Mosley Street a pedimented central loggiaGlossary Term [5] has four unfluted IonicGlossary Term [6] columns, based on Stuart and Revett's drawings of the Little Temple on the Illisus. On the side to Charlotte Street a rank of attached columns and ground floor windows with alternating flat and pedimented heads, all done in the finely finished Runcorn stone. The steps up to the IonicGlossary Term [7] PorticoGlossary Term [8] and the recessed entrance emphasise the exclusive nature of the club, but today they lead to a disappointing pub conversion.