The Victorian Society in ManchesterRegistered Charity No. 1081435 Registered Charity No.1081435 Winter Newsletter 2015

EDITORIAL January 18th 1966 marked the official launch of the Manchester Group of the Victorian Society, which was held in the Town Hall and attended by the Society's Chairman, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner. Since our next Newsletter will not appear until the Spring we have decided to invite Hilary Grainger and Ken Moth to put down their thoughts in anticipation of that date marking our 50th anniversary, and to whet the appetites of Victorian Society members for the forthcoming celebration of 2016.

David Harwood November 2015

MY EARLY DAYS WITH THE MANCHESTER GROUP A personal recollection by Ken Moth This personal recollection of my early years with the Manchester Group sets out to paint a picture of those exciting times. It is not intended to be a comprehensive history – at least that’s my story!

Back in 1973, as a nearly qualified architect, I was invited to join other architects in a campaign to save an important textile packing warehouse from demolition. York House on Major Street was designed by Harry Fairhurst in 1911. It had a classical Edwardian facade and a stunning, zigguratical glazed rear, a cascade of glass which seemed The rear of York House, Manchester shortly before demolition in 1974, to anticipate James Stirling’s photograph copyright of Neil Darlington. recent and acclaimed History Faculty at Cambridge University. inquiry, and our task was to show the Victorian Society. John gave a York House, together with J E how similar development objectives detailed and meticulous justification Gregan’s Mechanics Institute of could be achieved whilst retaining of the architectural significance of the 1855, were threatened by a typically the historic buildings. Architects from Mechanics Institute. The developers, megalomaniac project involving around the world including Walter in partnership with the City Council, wholesale clearance, with city streets Gropius and James Stirling pleaded had hired two QCs to present turned into highways lined by 28 for the retention of York House. The their case and cross-examine the storey office blocks. Widespread case for the Mechanics Institute was objectors. In the end the inspector opposition had resulted in a public made by John Archer on behalf of ruled that York House was of little

1 merit because its functional rear symbols of that worn-out past. theoretical waffle and statistics did not match its classical front and Motor cars and Modern Movement which had a very narrow focus. consent for its demolition was buildings were the symbols of the Frankly, empowered as they were confirmed. However, consent for the future and ‘Victorian’ had become in a very un-English way, they were demolition of the Mechanics Institute a derogatory term. That large scale simply unaware of their ignorance was refused. The developers re-investment in our towns and cities of the wider social, economic and abandoned the project, but not was required was not in doubt, but cultural impacts of their policies. without first spitefully and needlessly the methods and products adopted Apart from their ability to draw tables demolishing York House, the site by central and local government and diagrams they were simply not of which has remained empty ever and by commercial developers very good, and neither were most since. During the inquiry John Archer were seriously flawed. This was a of the architects they employed. suggested that I might like to join period of socialist central planning The concepts of context, continuity, the Victorian Society and so I did. when communities, industries and adaptation and repair alongside high quality new development were simply beyond them.

Those who argued for evolution rather than revolution, for the character of our towns and cities and the merits of historic buildings as essential parts of a successful future were ridiculed and branded as either nostalgic or Luddite. There was an ideological chasm. As a result this country suffered its greatest cultural losses in centuries. The Victorian Society was one of many groups around the country fighting for a different approach and was certainly in the forefront. Long and hard battles were fought to try to limit needless damage and demonstrate that conservation and re-use of historic places were a good thing. Unfortunately, many of the consequences of poor redevelopment were irreversible and blight our towns and cities today.

The Manchester Group which I joined in 1973 was full of energetic young men and women who were happy to join the fight. I soon found myself on the Manchester Group Conservation Committee (the Group undertook its own casework then) and the Group’s Main Committee. I also became the Group’s representative on the City’s Historic Buildings and Conservation Areas Advisory Panel. The former Mechanics Institute, Princess Street, Manchester, Meetings were robust and the J E Gregan (1854-55), photograph courtesy of Mark Watson 2015. ideological chasm often became all too apparent, but the Panel The York House case exemplifies historic places were shuffled around was a very worthwhile forum. what was happening at the time. The or removed like pieces in a board 1950s and 1960s had been years of game. Comprehensive Development At one of the first Manchester great optimism and forward planning. Areas and the powers which came Group AGMs I attended the guest After two world wars the country with them allowed local authorities speaker was the national society’s was worn out and people longed for to compulsorily purchase and clear chairman Sir Nikolaus Pevsner a bright new future. Soot-blackened whole areas. Planners, highway who gave a wonderful talk in Victorian buildings were seen as engineers and councillors spouted the Town Hall. Before the talk a

2 Manchester Group committee York Street and Spring Gardens was Westminster Bank, concerned by meeting was held in the Manchester listed Grade II* in 1972. Designed the extensive adverse publicity, Group chairman’s house with by Charles Heathcote in 1902, this handed back their listed building Sir Nikolaus in attendance. As a Edwardian baroque masterpiece was consent and the building survives. relatively new recruit to the field of described by Pevsner as ‘the most conservation I was awed to be in opulent banking hall ... surviving in For many years the Group worked to the presence of the great man. Manchester, and for that matter in save the world’s first railway station London’. Both design and material at Liverpool Road which lay empty The activities of the Group at that quality were superb – seventeen and threatened. It established the time fell into several types. First foot high grand antique Pyrenean Liverpool Road Station Society which was the job of raising awareness marble columns, bronze windows in turn helped to secure the transfer of Manchester’s architectural and solid mahogany fittings. In 1975 of the site to Greater Manchester riches through guided walks and demolition consent was sought County Council as the new home of lectures. Next came thematic to permit the construction of a the North West Museum of Science studies of building types, forgotten speculative office block and was and Industry. In 1979 we enjoyed the historic areas such as Ancoats granted by the City Council almost Rocket 150 celebration, held to mark and Castlefield and the works of immediately. What could be done? the 150th Anniversary of the Rainhill prominent Manchester architects. A petition was launched and at the Trials, whilst the following year the These studies were part of a end of an exhausting three week anniversary of the station opening long term campaign to have campaign over 11,000 signatures was celebrated on the secured site. Manchester’s woefully inadequate had been collected. These included listed building schedule remedied. In 1972 only 25 Victorian buildings in Manchester were listed. It took many years of campaigning and providing information to gradually achieve the necessary correction. As a result hundreds of Victorian buildings were recognised as being of national architectural significance and Manchester’s position as a great Victorian city was eventually celebrated.

The Group’s architectural excursions were a lot of fun. One involved a coach tour of Staffordshire to see wonderful churches such as Bodley’s Church of the Holy Angels at Hoar Cross and Pugin’s masterpiece, St Giles Cheadle. The tour was led by Professor Andor Gomme who I can still picture striding out in hunting jacket and knee-length leather boots. Another trip took us, in our own private railway carriage, to Llandudno. Here we toured the town, played games and picnicked while listening to the brass band. Then a walk to the end of the pier to board our steamer Former Parrs Bank, Spring Gardens, Manchester, Charles Heathcote (1902). for a cruise to Liverpool where our private carriage awaited to take us some of the most respected people In 1975, following a proposal by the back to Manchester. However, it and organisations in the city. The City Council to demolish the Albert was casework and the many battles petition sheets were stapled end Memorial the group launched a ‘Save fought to save individual buildings to end and, in the presence of TV Albert’ campaign. I remember that from mutilation or destruction which cameras and the press, I festooned Frank Williams played a prominent were the principal activity, and some it around the City Planning Officer. part in this, which raised both examples stand out in my memory. As I did so he questioned the awareness of and money to remedy legitimacy of my birth and I replied the plight of the memorial. It was Parrs Bank (later the National that it was all in a good cause. subsequently restored. One morning Westminster Bank) at the junction of Shortly afterwards the National in 1978 Frank gained even greater

3 notoriety when workmen, instructed The Society as a whole appreciates Vanishing for the Vote: suffrage by the City Council, began to cut just how much hard work, time and campaigners and the 1911 census down trees in St John’s Gardens dedication goes into the operating of across Lancashire’s cotton towns. without statutory consent. Frank a regional group – and all ‘for free’. A talk on 18 January 2016 (4.30 to quickly scaled one tree and tied We really do rely on you to provide a 6 pm) at the Portico Library himself on while I called the local TV solid understanding of what’s going On census night, Sunday 2 April and press. By mid-day Frank was on ‘on the ground’ and to spread our 1911, suffragettes were urged on the front page of the Manchester message through your events and to boycott the census - often by Evening News. Reporters sent activities. hiding in darkened rooms to evade round to Frank’s house in Chorlton the enumerator. Other suffrage told his wife Margaret what had So, on behalf of the Society and the campaigners disagreed with this happened and asked for her Trustees, I want to offer our heartfelt civil disobedience tactic, instead comment. ‘Good for him – I am with thanks to everyone who is, or has prioritizing health and welfare reforms him all the way’ she replied. The been, part of the Manchester Group. - and they handed over completely Council admitted it had not obtained Here’s to another successful 50 accurate census schedules. consent and in the glare of publicity years! agreed that the trees would stay. This talk tells the story of the census boycott plus health and welfare So the tide was gradually turned, NEWS campaigns across Lancashire’s as the public expressed its growing Manchester Group of the Victorian cotton towns. In particular, it looks appreciation of Manchester’s Society David Harwood has recently at those in Nelson, Preston, and Victorian heritage and its despair stepped down after over five years Rochdale - where a WSPU minute at the abysmal quality of much as Chair of the Group. In the interim book recording local suffragettes' new development. They were David Astbury will be Acting Chair activities has recently come to light. happy, exciting and memorable until the AGM on 30 January 2016. times. The fight goes on! Information about the AGM can be The speaker, Dr Jill Liddington, is found on page 25 of this newsletter. Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. A MESSAGE FROM HILARY Saving a Century The final showing GRAINGER, CHAIR OF THE of this photographic exhibition £5 standard, £4 Portico members, VICTORIAN SOCIETY celebrating Victorian architecture £3 students & unemployed. Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, I would like to congratulate the opens at the John Rylands Library on 8 January 2016. We would be Manchester M2 3HY. Victorian Society’s Manchester Enquiries: 0161 236 6785 Group on its 50th Anniversary and its grateful if you could help us publicise ongoing work in helping to save the the event by displaying the poster Victorian buildings of ‘Cottonopolis’. included with this newsletter in local HIGHLIGHTS OF THE libraries, community halls etc. VICTORIAN SOCIETY LONG The Manchester Group’s inaugural WEEKEND IN DORSET meeting in 1966 certainly sounds to Manchester Group Facebook have been a glamorous affair. Over The Manchester Group now has A Victorian Society Long Weekend 450 people met in the main assembly a facebook account set up and is eagerly anticipated by members hall of Alfred Waterhouse’s Town maintained by Fiona Moate. Go who rush to catch a place; they are Hall with ‘great interest shown by the to https://www.facebook.com/ always quickly filled. There was press, radio and television’. Even manvicsoc/timeline to take a look. a long wait at Dorchester South the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress Station for a delayed London train. of Manchester attended – the Lord Manchester Group Meetings Future As a result I was certainly ready for Mayor wearing diamond incrusted Manchester Group meetings will be, lunch and the first of a stellar cast insignia created for a 1850s visit by in the main, at the Friends' Meeting of buildings selected by Michael Queen Victoria. House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester Whittaker. After an hour we pulled M2 5NS . away with our driver Hazel ('Think of Since then Manchester, in common the nut,' she said: a real character) at with all our great cities, has suffered Please note that it is not necessary to the wheel of the coach as we weaved some sad losses. These include the be a member of the Society to attend down narrow Dorset lanes to the first General Post Office and York House our talks and events, so do bring building. - where even Walter Gropius’ support along friends and family. Some talks for our campaign couldn’t save this will be more than the usual £5 where Minterne Magna was one of the early modernist building. But of the speaker has travelled a long selling points of the trip for me. I course, the Manchester Group has distance and may require overnight was first aware of it from reading also been involved with many notable accommodation. As agreed at the Clive Aslet’s book The Last Country successes; with recent good news AGM last year, this will give access Houses, and although I had seen at Ancoats Dispensary and, fingers to speakers from across the country it from a distance on a misty cold crossed, London Road Fire Station. who would otherwise evade us. day fifteen years before, I had never 4 been inside. The weather this time the same intriguing mixture of the been on number of these weekends, could not have been more different. baroque and Arts & Crafts. There but this was the first time an owner Our party sauntered through the is an especially charming frieze of a house lunched with members of shadowy cover of rhododendrons. below the windows of local wildlife the society; it certainly added to the As the driveway took a gentle curve, - partridges, foxes, rabbits and experience. wildflowers, all beautifully carved in an Arts & Crafts style, the golden Saturday was another day of stone here and there deepened to an beautiful weather and focused almost magenta hue by weather and on four large houses with second lichens. lives as boarding schools - the fate and saviour of so many Victorian On entering the house there was country houses. First port of call, almost a sense of dusk after noon. with Hazel manoeuvring the large When our eyes became accustomed coach down narrow lanes, was Milton to the subdued light Stokes’s Abbey, where the house by William Edwardian baroque became visible. Chambers, now an elite public The interior has less of an Arts & school, again glowed in the morning Crafts feel; perhaps this is because sunshine. We were here to see Stokes was working with a number George Gilbert Scott’s restoration of fittings reused from the original of Milton Abbey church with its house. Minterne Magna replaced an great window in the south transept earlier house that was disliked by the designed by A W N Pugin and made young Lady Digby (it also developed by Hardman. Light cast patches of a series of unpleasant smells, which intense colour on the pale grey stone necessitated in one case, a change of the interior and on the faces of of bedroom in the middle of the members of the Victorian Society night!). No one seems sure why jostling to take photographs. Lord Digby chose Leonard Stokes Detail of the entrance to the to remodel his house. He is better Canford Manor, Canford School Ninevah Court, Canford, Dorset. * known as a designer of churches, for since 1927, is a sprawling place with example St Clare’s in Liverpool, and all its additional school buildings, also, rather curiously, of telephone almost village-like. It is on the site of exchanges. Stokes was married a medieval mansion, part of which to the daughter of the chairman of remains, now known as John of the National Telephone Company Gaunt’s Kitchen. The core of the and Manchester’s former telephone new house was built in the 1820-30s exchange is by him, for example. by Edward Blore. It has the austere look of much of his work, in this case Unfortunately, due to the length of increased by financial constraints time waiting for the London train, which led to his designs being built the visit to Minterne was cut short. in light brick with stone dressings I did not get to see all the rooms, rather than the Ham stone intended, the original drawings by Stokes, or giving the building a somewhat the gardens. My overall impression anaemic quality. Josiah Guest, a very is that the exterior worked better wealthy Merthyr Tydfil ironmaster, and was more interesting than the purchased Canford Manor, and in interior. However I have to say that 1848 he engaged Charles Barry, our guide, the present Lord Digby, at who by 1850 had completed £30,000 over ninety and remarkably eloquent, worth of additions. Central to these is committed to preserving Minterne is the Victoria Tower constructed at a Magna and taking it into the 21st similar time to the like-named tower century. The house is now split into at Barry’s Houses of Parliament. This seven apartments, and has a modern gives the building very much the air Detail of the, Canford, Dorset ecologically sound heating system. of an Oxbridge college and seems Lord Digby’s son lives in the main fitting for its current educational there shimmering in the July sun apartments and Lord Digby himself in use. Barry returned in 1851 to add stood Leonard Stokes’s masterwork, a relatively modest set of ground floor the Nineveh Porch. The mysterious substantial and golden. Those of us apartments. He proudly showed us Nineveh Porch was originally who knew Stokes’s Bristol University the kitchen he had designed himself designed to hold Assyrian reliefs building instantly recognised the on the computer at IKEA! Lunch was excavated at Nineveh by Austen similarity – the same stocky, massive enjoyable, taken in the dining room Layard, the cousin of John Guest’s tower concealing a water tank, with copious wine available. I have wife. Now stripped of its reliefs (the

5 the estate. He is remembered as an especially benevolent landlord and employer, supporting families through the trauma of the Great War. The War Memorial he paid for is by Giles Gilbert Scott, as is the charming village notice board (known locally as The War Office - Ismay posted newspapers on it for villagers to read during the conflict), with its relief of Mercury. Many of the picturesque estate buildings are from the office of Alfred Waterhouse, but the former Village Institute is by Baillie Scott. Extremely decorative, with half timbering, stone and knapped flint, it is an Arts and Crafts building dipping its toe into Dorset vernacular. It is now a private house.

A walk then took us to the stables of the main house, typically Waterhouse Iwerne Minster House, Dorset. of that date, less extravagant than those at Eaton, with a timber last relief was identified as being a monumental severity in spite of hung clock tower, tile hanging and original in 1997 and was sold for its red brick. The stone dressing, patterned brickwork. The horses are seven million pounds) it is the school the rusticated quoins and window long gone and the stables now house coffee bar. The 21st century nylon surrounds now shine in the sun, the school’s science laboratories. covered banquettes, servery and although apparently it was at one jukebox sit uneasily with Barry’s time blackened by pollution. Internally Iwerne Minster House is built of two decorative scheme of stained glass, it could never have been cosy. The different coloured stones which are iron grilles and painted surfaces fittings that remain are of the finest as banded and patterned as a garden in an Assyrian style: they haven’t quality and craftsmanship, but it feels spider. The entrance front is fiercely even tried to match the colours. Sad like a hotel or an ocean liner, filled asymmetrical with a circular tower. when you think the money from the with marble and gilded metalwork. The garden front is more restful, sale paid for a theatre and student Its metamorphosis to public school is bursaries. successful; a visitor might be forgiven for assuming it was purpose built. I Inside the main house little money was slightly disappointed - it looks was spared on decoration. It better from a distance. Close up it has heraldic glass by Pugin and looks a bit threatening, like a giant Hardman, a stunning brightly version of my Edwardian grammar painted timber roof in the Great school. Hall, Jacobean style carved screens and book shelves which, like the After a good lunch in Bryanston’s staircase, are dark and somewhat student canteen, much better than forbidding. High quality reliefs of anyone on the trip remembered dead game and marine life, so from their schooldays, we were lifelike that they must surely offend back on the road to Iwerne Minster. Detail of overmantel from Dawpool at Iwerne Minster. (above) the sensibilities of any vegetarian Iwerne Minster House, by Alfred scholars, are by Pegrassi and dated Waterhouse, is yet another of Detail of freize at Minterne Magna. 1860. the schools clustered in this part (below) of Dorset. Completed in 1882 I have always been intrigued by for George Glyn, second Lord Bryanston, the vast Wrenaissance Wolverton, it is roughly contemporary house Richard Norman Shaw built with Eaton Hall by the same for the fabulously rich Viscount architect. Members were dropped Portman. Shaw conjured up for many from the coach at the village, which clients a Home Counties vernacular, has buildings from the Wolverton tile hanging, half timbering and tall era, but more are from after 1908 brick chimneys. Bryanston is not like when James Ismay, son of Thomas this. First of all it is huge: Cragside Ismay and younger brother of Bruce is a big house, but this one has of the White Star Line, purchased 6 with tall chimneys and steep gables. WORTHINGTON FAMILY • the Worthingtons of Worthington (a Inside its most memorable feature township lying 17 miles north-west is the remains of Richard Norman HISTORY SOCIETY’S 2015 of Manchester) who, from the twelfth Shaw’s monumental chimney GATHERING IN MANCHESTER century or earlier, held the manor surround brought here on the Mid-May we were contacted by of Worthington of the barons of demolition of Dawpool, the Ismays' Philip Worthington, Secretary of the Manchester; country seat on the Wirral. This Worthington Family History Society, extravagantly carved inglenook with who informed us that the WFHS • the Worthingtons of Failsworth and images of mermen and grape vines was having its biennial gathering in Old Trafford who for four generations is in typical Cheshire sandstone; its Manchester in part to explore more were road carriers centred on other half can be seen at Portmerion. fully the architectural achievements Manchester and for three more of one of their forebears Thomas. He generations were canal carriers; We were then back on the coach wondered whether 'the Chairman or conveniently placed in the school car other member of your Society could Roger Worthington and his family park and on our way to Motcombe • join us for one or more events to give who, for three generations through House, when it was noticed one of us the benefit of their knowledge the seventeenth century, were the group was missing. This is the and involvement in old Worthington woollen drapers of Manchester; nightmare of anyone running any buildings'. As a result the Chairman large excursion. Much of the latter contacted several members to join part of the day was spent looking for • Thomas Worthington and his family, the WFHS on their Manchester this person which must have been the architects responsible for the voyage. Philip Worthington kindly a huge strain for Michael Whittaker, design and construction of many furnished the following report on their who had to wait at Iwerne Minster for public buildings in Manchester in the visit. the Dorset Police to arrive. Thankfully nineteenth and twentieth centuries. there was not a tragic ending: the The Worthington Family History member, who had been taking The Gathering of Worthingtons Society held their seventh Gathering photographs in the village, found in Manchester enjoyed a great in central Manchester from Thursday their way back to where we were privilege. They were joined for the 28 May to Saturday 30 May 2015. staying safe and sound. This incident whole of the Friday and Saturday The Society was formed in 2005 as did put something of a damper on the by members of the Manchester a ‘Worldwide Society to research remaining weekend though. Victorian Society. Four members and publish information on the lives of this Society took part, namely and genealogies of Worthingtons I have been on several of these David Harwood the chairman, David throughout history’. There are now weekends now and they are actually Astbury the vice-chairman, Beryl 47 members, of which 21 live in the very good value, though sometimes Patten the Newsletter editor and USA, 14 in the United Kingdom, 6 in the accommodation (as was the Neil Darlington an architect who Australia, 2 in New Zealand and one case this year) can be a little basic. conducting extensive research in each of Canada, France, Hong The food was always good and the on architects of the North-West Kong and Spain. Manchester was buildings visited varied and superb. of England. At every one of the chosen as the venue on this occasion First and foremost one gets to see Worthington Society’s events, this because four Worthington families buildings that are not accessible Manchester Group took part. Official have enjoyed a close association without a Victorian Society’s ‘golden guides recommended by the City with the city. In chronological order, key’. Council also took part in each of they are: the visits, so the interaction of the On the negative side, the schedule was, I think, too full and a small delay to the programme resulted in buildings being omitted. People I spoke with would have preferred more time at each place and a less crammed and rushed programme. Overall, though these are wonderful, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime, days out, and I would urge more members of our group to take the opportunity to go. Who knows, perhaps the train from Manchester would even be on time! *all photographs by Fiona Moate Members of the Worthington Family with David Harwood, Chair of the Fiona Moate...... September 2015 Manchester Group, at the Minshull Street Crown Courts in May 2015

7 the canal system, including Castle Wharf, where Worthington and Gilbert developed their national carrying service. On the Saturday afternoon the Worthington Society’s annual general meeting took place at the Friends’ Meeting House, Mount Street, opposite the Manchester Central Library. The Worthington Society’s annual dinner was held at Albert’s, Worsley, on Saturday evening.

The Worthingtons of Worthington held their manor of Worthington of the barons of Manchester for half a knight’s fee by ancient feoffment. This was recorded in the Great Inquest of Service commissioned by King John in 1212 as a sequel to the Doomsday Book. The Worthingtons owed the baron periodic castleward, suite of the baron’s court every three weeks and active service in times of war. These services were commuted to money payments early in the thirteenth century, but the relationship continued nominally until the eighteenth century. The Worthington gathering hoped to find information about the location and construction of the castle, but learned that no trace of it has yet been found. Perhaps it was a motte and bailey castle using timber for its defences and buildings, without any use of stone. This is known to have been the case with many of the 40 castles hurriedly built by order of William I following the conquest. It is thought by many Manchester historians and archaeologists to have been near the The interior of Manchester Cathedral drawn by Thomas Worthington as a young man circa 1843, image copyright of Sidney Worthington. manor house and therefore not far from Chethams and the Cathedral. three different sources of knowledge World War II. The Byrom Chapel and perspectives led to excellent also attracted interest, the Byrom The Worthington carriers of discussion and understanding. and Worthington families having Manchester – the second family been linked by marriage in the being considered - descended from On the Friday morning the Town seventeenth century. So did the the Worthingtons of Failsworth, who Hall and Albert Memorial were extensions at the south-east of the were tenant farmers there by 1575. visited, followed by a walk through Cathedral designed by Sir Percy Wishing to increase the family’s central Manchester, led by the Neil Worthington. The gathering then income and already having wagons Darlington and Victorian Society saw the Wellington Inn, formerly the and horses, they also became members, to see selected buildings home of the Byrom family, followed carriers and the new business was designed by Thomas Worthington by a visit to Chethams Library which successful. The family continued to and Sons. On the Friday afternoon has provided much valuable archive be carriers for seven generations the gathering visited the Cathedral. information for the Worthington – four as carriers by road followed Special interest was taken in the Society. Finally, a visit was made to by three more as canal carriers. Regimental Chapel and Lady Chapel the Crown Courts in Minshull Street. In the fourth generation, Jonathan for which Sir Hubert Worthington On the Saturday morning, after a Worthington moved from Failsworth was the architect for reconstruction brief visit to the Roman remains of to Old Trafford, leasing the 220-acre following the bomb damage of Mamecester, there was a tour of home farm of the Trafford family

8 power for the cotton mills and other His wife, Elizabeth, is well known industries. He may have done so, for founding and running the Leek but it cannot be proved because Embroidery Society. no invoices or other appropriate documents have been found. Roger Worthington, who heads However, it is known that when the the third family being considered, third duke built his canals linking was probably a younger son of the Worsley to Manchester and Runcorn, Worthington family of Bowden in the fifth generation of Worthingtons Cheshire who, as a young man, (another Jonathan) converted quickly came to Manchester seeking to carrying by canal. The canal employment. In 1606 he was passed close to Jonathan’s land. He engaged by the manor of Manchester soon entered into partnership with as one of the two ‘misegatherers’ John Gilbert, the duke’s agent, to of the market, a mise being the fee develop a national canal carrying paid by a stallholder for the rights network centred at Castle Wharf. to have a stall and to trade there in At first the business was known as certain products. A few years later Gilbert and Worthington and later as he was made ‘manager at the smithy Worthington and Gilbert. After John door’ and later still ‘skefinger’ of Gilbert’s death, the business became the markets at Hanging Ditch and Sir Hubert Worthington (1886-1963), known as Worthington. John, of Meale Gate. ‘Skeffinger’ is probably image copyright of Sidney Worthington. course, had continued as the duke’s synonymous with “scavenger”. In agent but also provided financial medieval times, a scavage was a toll support and ran the partnerships levied on merchants from outside the accounts from the duke’s accounting township for the right to sell goods office at Preston Quay near Runcorn. within it. The scavenger was often The partnership proved to be of also responsible for keeping the great benefit to the business, as streets and market clean. So the job illustrated by an old record. The title tended to transfer to the men firm of H. Henshall was the first to actually doing the cleaning! run a carrying service on the new canal to Stourport in Worcestershire Roger continued to serve the manor where goods could be transhipped for a total of 33 years, and during for exports and imports near the that time, he was twice elected one mouth of the River Severn. Gilbert of the two constables of Manchester and Worthington soon entered the for the ensuing year. Most of these competition. Hugh Henshall admitted supervisory jobs were part time, that: which left Roger free to pursue his own business. He was a woollen ‘His Grace’s people are very partial to draper at least as early as 1622 Worthington; his boats can discharge when he was described as ‘Roger in two hours, while ours must lie a Worthington, drap’ in a church record. day or more under cargo for want of The business was successful and proper assistance to discharge them.’ continued in the family for two more generations. Whether he founded As the canals declined because it, acquired it or inherited it remains of the coming of the railways, the unknown. Worthingtons sold their business to the Steam Navigation Company. Two of Roger’s sons – John The elder son of Jonathan and Samuel – were educated at Worthington used the proceeds Manchester Grammar School and to buy coal bearing land in Wales, Cambridge University. John, DD, and proceeded to sell coal to the became famous as an Anglican Detail of a print of the Albert Memorial railways! The younger son, Andrew, thinker and writer. In 1650 he was presented to the Worthington family used his proceeds to buy a silk master of Jesus College, Cambridge archives by the Manchester Group. manufacturing company in Leek, for ten years and vice-chancellor of Staffordshire, where his son Philip the university for one year. Another to keep his horses. From there he married the youngest daughter of son, Francis, became the woollen would be well placed to provide Sir Thomas and Lady Wardle. Sir draper of the second generation. He road transport from the Duke of Thomas is well known for his work married Sarah, daughter of Edward Bridgewater’s mines near Worsley with William Morris in England and Byrom of Manchester and they to Manchester, mainly to provide for improving silk production in India. produced a family of four surviving

9 Thomas had excelled particularly in his study of, and proposals for, the movements of the main parties in the court building – court officers, complainants, defendants and public – and how they should be handled separately except when required to communicate. The Gathering was shown all the old courts and were led up the tower to see the original clock mechanism.

Thomas was responsible for many other public buildings in Manchester such as the public baths in Collier Street, now in a state of disrepair and waiting to be rescued. Another example is the Prestwich Union Infirmary, now part of the North Manchester General Hospital.

In due course Thomas was joined in the practice by two of his sons – Percy, born 1864 of Thomas’s first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Scott, MP, and Hubert, born 1886 of Thomas’s second wife, Edith, daughter of John Swanwick. They continued with the design and supervision of public buildings and private houses, but they are best known for their work on the Cathedral. Percy was responsible for extensions and Hubert for the rebuilding of the Lady Chapel and Manchester Regiment Chapel which were destroyed in the Manchester Blitz of Christmas 1940. Both of these sons of Thomas were knighted; both became, in turn, presidents of the Manchester Society of Architects and Sir Hubert became a professor of the Royal College of Art.

Thomas Worthington (1826-1909), image copyright of Sidney Worthington. Thomas’s sons were also noted for their service in the Manchester children, including another John who worked as assistant to Sir William Regiment of the Territorial Army. achieved fame as an early settler in Tite, who was twice elected president His third son, Claude Swanwick the new colony of Maryland. He was of the Royal Institute of British Worthington, DSO, TD, rose to be a captain in the militia there, a justice Architects. Much of Tite’s work in lieutenant-colonel commanding and a member of the Maryland the 1840s was building the railway the 6th battalion (and later the 8th) Legislature. His business was network, and Thomas was given the on active service in Egypt and at growing tobacco, and he became a work of detailed design of railway Gallipoli. He was wounded for large landowner. His descendants stations. Later, Thomas started his the third time in October 1918 and include many present-day own architectural practice. In 1867 died of his wounds 11 days later. Worthingtons in North America, one he entered the competition to be the Thomas’s fourth son, Thomas Ryland of which, William C. Worthington, is a architect for the Manchester Town Worthington, MC, was a captain in councillor of the Worthington Society Hall, preparing outline drawings, but the 22nd Battalion and was severely who was present at the gathering. he lost to Alfred Waterhouse. Later wounded in the attack on Mametz in Thomas entered the competition for July 1916. After the war he became Turning now to the fourth family the Police Courts (now called the managing director of Ashton Hoare being considered, Thomas Crown Courts) in Minshull Street, this & Co of Manchester. Then Thomas’s Worthington as a young architect time winning against Waterhouse. 10 fifth and youngest son, Hubert the FORMER PLYMOUTH GROVE square block of buildings with a central architect, was a captain in the 16th entrance facing Plymouth Grove. To battalion. He was wounded in July HOTEL its right was a triangular plot of land 1916 at the Battle of Montauban. On 6 January 1888, Eliza Jane facing Shakspere Street, which was With a damaged lung, hand and thigh Cummings appeared before used as a garden. This first scheme he had to spend nearly a year in 1 magistrates charged with selling made no provision for a vault. Not until hospital after which he was posted to intoxicating drink on unlicensed September 1872 was the first alehouse instruct officer cadets at Crookham premises, contrary to Section 3 of licence granted to Michael Cummins. Camp, near Aldershot. the Licensing Act, information having been given to the magistrates in In 1882 plans were prepared for a One of the main topics at this year’s this regard by James Bailey of 48 three storey extension covering the annual general meeting was planning Plymouth Grove. The defendant entire garden area. These included the publication of the Worthington was the landlady of the Plymouth the provision of a 'bar parlour' on Society’s first book – seventeenth- Grove Hotel and the alleged offence the ground floor. Despite vehement century Worthington families of took place in supposedly unlicensed denials, local residents were convinced Lancashire. At the end of the premises adjoining the hotel, with an this room was to function as a 'vault', meeting, David Harwood, on behalf entrance on Shakspere Street (now and made vociferous objection. As of the Manchester Victorian Society, Legh Street). a result, the licensing magistrates presented the Worthington Society with a complete set of four prints of the drawings of Albert Memorial, produced by Thomas Worthington in 1864. The gift was received by Janet Worthington of Australia, the president. Janet, to the applause of all members present, gave the thanks of the Society. At the annual dinner, where David Harwood and Beryl Patten were the Society’s guests, Janet repeated her thanks and passed the drawings to Dr Sidney Worthington of Wonersh in Surrey for safekeeping – he being a direct descendent of Thomas Worthington’s uncle, Charles Worthington, a surgeon of Liverpool. Sidney is also a councillor of the Society and the Society’s archivist of images.

The dinner concluded with three speeches. Firstly David Harwood spoke of the work of the Victorian Society and gave his philosophy on current movements in public thought and the need to balance The summons was dismissed as was refused to sanction the extension. progress and preservation of carefully the subsequent refusal of the city selected buildings and monuments. magistrates to renew the licence. The Five years later, in what was Janet Worthington thanked the four various hearings were extensively undoubtedly an attempt to circumvent members of the Manchester Victorian reported in the local press, particularly the licensing legislation, application Society for their cooperation and the Manchester Guardian, and provide was made to Manchester Corporation friendship and for giving the Gathering a detailed insight into the sequence for a single storey extension to the such real roots in Manchester. Sidney of construction for this Grade II listed hotel to be built over the garden area. Worthington spoke on the continuing building. Plans were submitted and approved links between Worthingtons and in August 1887 as a building control Manchester. In 1871 the then landlord, Michael matter, rather than as a licensing Cummins, had been refused a matter. Building work commenced Philip Worthington November 2015 licence as a result of the enactment in September and by December of The Intoxicating Liquors (Licensing the new building was in use. It was for further details and publications by Suspension) Act, although the hotel subsequently argued that the extension members of the Worthington Society was noted as substantially complete was built solely to accommodate the go to http://www.worthingtonfhs.com by the date of this application. At 1 In Manchester and surrounding districts the that time the premises consisted of a public bar was commonly known as the 'vault'. 11 extensive 'jug and bottle trade' or off noted that the area had undergone CORNERLOT, NORTHERN licence sales, without interfering with the considerable change in the previous ordinary business of the hotel. However twenty years. He estimated that as a FRANCE it was also noted that although women result of the large number of houses Seldom did a Manchester architect might take beer away with them, they that had been erected, there was now obtain work outside north-west were not permitted to consume alcohol a population of ten to twelve thousand England. Equally rare was a in this room – a 'vault' or public bar for within a radius of 500 yards of the hotel. commission from a senior member of working men had thus been created in the British aristocracy. Remarkably, all but name. Notwithstanding those appearing in both feats were achieved in 1909 by support of the appeal, the name of the James Herbert Somerset (of Royle It has been generally accepted that architect responsible for the extension and Bennett), a virtually unknown the Plymouth Grove Hotel was built has still to be found. However it is architect, still in his teens when as a piece in 1873, the date given perhaps worthy of note that William Queen Victoria died. erroneously in the listing text. Any Raby was agent for McFarlane of mention of the later extension and Glasgow, iron founders who had The dawn of the Edwardian era alteration has not yet been found, already supplied cast-iron components had brought significant changes save in the pages of the Manchester for the Barton Arcade in Deansgate Guardian. These reports make it clear and who it has been suggested also to the architectural profession in that the original three storey hotel was provided the cast-iron for the Plymouth Manchester. The death of Robert opened in September 1871. Having a Grove Hotel. Isaac Bennett in 1901 was followed somewhat plain elevation, it probably by that of his partner, William Alfred included the canted bay windows at The hotel closed in the early years Royle in 1904. Continued by his son ground floor level but not the first floor of the present century since when (also named William Alfred Royle), balcony or projecting central porch various schemes for its possible later joined by Percy Dean Lodge, the carried on coupled cast iron columns, re-use have been floated but without practice limped on until 31 January matching those of the new bar entrance success. Meanwhile the building, 1907 when the partnership between on Shakspere Street. once described as the best pub in the two men was formally dissolved. Manchester, has been boarded up By 1909 the partners in Royle and There can be little doubt that the and left to decay. In August 2011, Bennett were given as John H more ornate single storey extension Greater Manchester Police raided the Crabtree and J H Somerset, two and clock tower were added between property and discovered a cannabis inexperienced architects in their early August and December 1887. Matching factory housing 1,000 plants. Two twenties. Again the partnership was details and components used in the men were arrested but the case was short-lived, being formally dissolved projecting first floor balcony and central eventually discontinued. However, in September 1909. Commissions porch on the Plymouth Grove elevation the drug irrigation systems employed obtained during this latter period in strongly suggest that these elements created a warm, damp atmosphere the Manchester area have still to be were added at the same time. The which ravaged the building’s interiors. found. extensive use of prefabricated cast-iron Further application has since been components and timber construction made for conversion of the building In 1895 The Right Hon John George with relatively little facing brickwork into a restaurant. Commenting Douglas Sutherland Campbell, gave a rapid erection time, thereby on these proposals in a piece of Marquis of Lorne, was elected providing the authorities and local masterly understatement, Manchester Member of Parliament for the residents with a fait accompli. Conservation Areas and Historic Southern Division of Manchester. It Buildings Panel expressed concerned has been suggested that his return Suitably disgruntled, in August 1888 over the level of deterioration, noting to politics did not amuse his mother- the city magistrates refused to renew that a great deal of the interior seemed in-law (in the first person plural). For the licence. Appeal was made to the to have been lost as a result of its the Marquis enjoyed a rare distinction. Salford Hundred Quarter Sessions and previous unsympathetic use. In 1871 he had become the first among those who appeared in support 'commoner' to marry the daughter of the appeal were William Raby, It is perhaps sobering to remember of a reigning monarch for over three surveyor (formerly Corbett and Raby), that, had the usual step of obtaining hundred years, his bride being HRH Alfred Darbyshire and David (Edward?) the consent of the Licensing Justices Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (18 Salomons, architects, and T S Wilson, been followed, in all probability their March 1848 – 3 December 1939), surveyor. Morris Schlessinger, a banker, permission would have been refused the fourth and perhaps the prettiest who resided in the district, considered for the ornate extension and clock daughter of Queen Victoria 2. With the the extension a great improvement to tower. Only by a wilful disregard of the neighbourhood, especially when the 'rules' of 1887 have Mancunians 2 Princess Louise’s unconventional royal the clock tower was lighted at night. been given the opportunity to enjoy this lifestyle has proved a source of endless Refuting claims that as a result of its landmark building. fascination. Unsubstantiated rumours, generally extension the hotel was now attracting of sexual impropriety, continue to swirl round her. “The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen a 'lower class of person' and 'loose Neil Darlington August 2015 Victoria’s Rebellious Daughter” by Lucinda women' to the district, William Raby Hawksley (2013) continues the tradition.

12 death of his father on 24 April 1900, soon appeared in the nearby woods remains unexplained. 4 the Marquis of Lorne relinquished his and hills. Among these was what is seat as MP and assumed the title of best described as a country house James Herbert Somerset was born ninth Duke of Argyll, his connections built in 1909 for the Duke of Argyll in Manchester in 1883, the son of the with Manchester seemingly at an and conveniently close to the golf manager of a packing warehouse, end.3 course. This was enigmatically and educated at Sandbach named 'Cornerlot' (spelt as one word School. When he was awarded the About 1905 the Duke became as if it were a French connection commission for Cornerlot in 1909, he involved in a scheme by John R of Hardelot, but which could also was living at Kersal House, Radford Whitley to develop Hardelot, an area be taken in English as two words Street, Higher Broughton, with offices of sand-hills and pine woods, situated rhyming with Camelot). Designs for in Cooper Street, Manchester. In some nine miles along the coast the villa were first shown at the Royal 1912 he was recorded as living in from Boulogne in northern France. Academy Summer Exhibition of 1910 Bloomsbury before serving in the Whitley, the founder and first manager under the name of J H Somerset and British Army throughout the First of Le Touquet had purchased the later illustrated in Building News with World War. Little is yet known of his nearby Hardelot Château in 1897 and the following description: subsequent architectural career. He was seeking to create an exclusive appears to have lived in London and/ Seaside and Country Pleasure Resort 'This house has been built recently or on the South Coast until his death on some 900 acres of the surrounding at Hardelot in France as a summer at Worthing in 1967. land. retreat for His Grace the Duke of Argyll KT. The studio wing and the Details of the subsequent history of On his Board of Directors he brought lodge are yet to be completed. The the house also remain elusive.5 The together industrialists and Parisian walls of the house are built of local Duke of Argyll was a regular summer and foreign dignitaries, including stone and covered with cement, visitor until his death from pneumonia Prince Tata from Bombay and the rough cast and finished white. The in 1914, although Princess Louise, Duke of Argyll. A year later the Duke roof is covered with red hand-made who did not share his passion for golf, of Argyll became the first president of tiles. The most simple treatment went less frequently. During the First the newly-formed Hardelot Golf Club possible has been carried out World War the house was given up (Times 20 June 1906 page 13) set up internally. All the woodwork is painted to the British Authorities, serving as the Princess Louise Convalescent Home for Nursing Sisters. There the story currently ends, although there is a suggestion that it was taken over by the German army and destroyed by Allied bombing at the end of the Second World War.

Neil Darlington August 2015

Until his retirement, Neil Darlington was an architect in private practice for almost forty years. He is a contributor to Historic Scotland’s on-line database, the ‘Dictionary of Scottish Architects,’ and for the past fifteen years has been researching the lives of architects working in Greater Manchester between 1820 and 1940. close to the Château. In the town of white. Mr J Herbert Somerset of 4 Lucinda Hawksley suggests that Princess Hardelot the Boulevard d’Argyll and Manchester is the architect'. (Building Louise and the Marquis of Lorne shared a love of art and of young men. At the time of the the Avenue Princess Louise still serve News 12 August 1910 p239) commission J H Somerset certainly fell into the as reminders of his early association. latter category. Some half dozen substantial villas Given that he could have had the pick of the architectural profession, why 5 Complete privacy was maintained throughout 3 In 1902 Princess Louise sculpted and the existence of the house. There are few presented a life size statue of Queen Victoria the Duke of Argyll chose to award the references in the contemporary press and no to Manchester Cathedral. This now fills the commission to a young and untried images have been found other than the designs principal niche above the west doorway. [Wyke: architect from Manchester with published in Building News in 1910. Even its Public Sculpture in Manchester page 60-61] precise location is unclear. whom he had no obvious connection 13 MANCHESTER GROUP - leaves, flowers etc. The columns, cinema and other entertainments. It which often incorporated drainpipes, accelerated during the war with the EVENT REVIEWS would have foliated reliefs with call for scrap iron, and later with the Building their own platform: Corinthian capitals and the brackets growing feeling that Victorian parks Victorian bandstands and the would be ornate with motifs such were out of date. Some cities such as harmony of mass production, as foliage or scrolls. Byzantine or Leeds lost all their bandstands and Kathy Clark Persian forms could be used for only the richer spa towns retained AGM 31 January 2015 YHA the roofs, which were finished in substantial numbers. Now only about Those with the fortitude to last out slate, zinc or lead. A variety of finials 100 (of which 69 are listed) survive, the AGM had their patience rewarded was used such as weather vanes, but there is no comprehensive list with this fascinating talk. The degree orbs or spikes; they were fairly and new ones keep coming to light. of interest aroused by the unusual resistant to vandalism. Typically the The condition of survivors is often topic was reflected in the lively ceilings, which acted as sounding poor but some local authorities have discussion afterwards. boards, were made of radial timber restored their bandstands or even boards with a central boss. Bright, recreated them from scratch. There Bandstands were a product of sometimes clashing colours would be are now specialist firms which can the industrial revolution. The first used for the paintwork. replicate the ironwork from existing event that gave rise to them was bandstands. Bandstands may have the 1833 report of the Select Kathy showed us many superb suffered more than most Victorian Committee on Public Works, which specimens illustrating the variety on structures but we should be able to recommended the setting up of offer. One interesting example was continue enjoying those that are left. parks. In Manchester three (Peel, the first bandstand she encountered, Philips and Queen’s) opened in 1846, in Weston Park in Sheffield which Roger Barton February 2015 and the number was eventually to she visited as a child. It had sash reach 17. The second development windows dropping into the plinth Liberty & Co 1875–1915 was the foundation of brass bands, so that it could be transformed Daryl Bennett dependent on industry for the into an enclosed room. The most 24 February 2015 FMH players (and sometimes the bands ornate bandstands were in seaside Arthur Liberty, the son of a themselves) and on mass production resorts. Designs tended to become Nottinghamshire draper, opened for the instruments. Both movements plainer with time and a radical new premises in Regent Street, London in were seen by the authorities as development was the shell-type 1875. The shop was soon enlarged promoting public good taste and bandstand as built in Heaton Park. and sold antiques, furniture, carpets, sobriety. Bandstands were often placed in fabrics and clothing. There was picturesque settings, but space had an Eastern emphasis throughout Early bands played in temporary to be allowed for the crowds. (the basement was called the structures or in the open. The Oriental Bazaar) and even newly first purpose-built bandstand was Bandstands became the norm in manufactured items were made designed in 1861 by Francis Fowke public parks and were the focus for to look old as though they had an for the Royal Horticultural Society’s concerts, often twice weekly, and aristocratic lineage. There was gardens in South Kensington. brass-band competitions. The decline fascination with Japanese goods However, it was not long before mass started after 1920 with the rise of (newly opened up to the West) and production started. The predominant material was cast iron, although a few bandstands were made of other materials such as timber or brick. Most of the manufacturers were based around Glasgow, such as the Saracen, Sun, Lion and Milton Foundries. They produced catalogues of huge varieties of architectural elements and of complete bandstands, so customers could buy one off the shelf, create their own design from components or customise a standard design. There were training schools for designers, but some draughtsmen simply learned their skills on the shop floor.

Bandstands fully exploited the potential of cast iron. A typical one would be octagonal, with panels of

14 the period coincided with both the on Leicestershire churches, which led favoured plainer designs than the Arts & Crafts and the Aesthetic him to appreciate how gifted Temple High Victorians, with the emphasis movements. Pugin’s Mediaeval Moore was. This opinion was shared on line and proportion rather than Court at the 1851 Great Exhibition by Moore’s near-contemporaries ornaments such as capitals. We had influenced William Morris – a Beresford Pite and Giles Gilbert Scott were shown copious illustrations patron of Liberty along with Burne- and, more recently, by Gavin Stamp. of his work, which varied from Jones and Rossetti. The 1862 simple country churches to his Kensington International Exhibition most famous church, the massive as well as covering China and India St Wilfrid Harrogate (1904-14), had included a Japanese themed with a rounded south transept display. Gilbert and Sullivan were in modelled on Noyon Cathedral in touch with the zeitgeist satirizing the Picardy. A cloister was added later aesthetic movement in Patience and by Leslie Moore. Two churches setting The Mikado in Japan. were notable for being on awkward diamond-shaped sites: St Columba Some Liberty furniture such as Welsh Middlesbrough (1900-02) was a Dressers and Smoking Cabinets plain brick building based on a incorporated text mottoes. Normally, church in Wismar on the Baltic, Liberty did not credit individual while St Columba Scarborough furniture designers in the period (designed in 1911 but built under covered by this lecture. Arthur was the charge of Leslie Moore in 1922), obviously conscious of what we also brick, had a soaring chancel would now call the corporate image. giving a massive appearance. Archive research has revealed Two of Moore’s churches had that Leonard Francis Wyburd (an split naves, a feature of some of architect and painter) designed Bodley’s churches whose purpose many items. He worked for Liberty Geoff found hard to discern. from the firm’s inception until 1903 Temple Moore (1856-1920) and one of his contributions was an Geoff mentioned two local churches Arabian themed complete room set Moore was a leading light of the third by Moore. St Anne Royton (1908- of furniture. This style of furniture was phase of the Gothic revival, which 10) has an impressive exterior, called Moorish. Shapland & Petter had started with the exuberance aided by a tower added in 1927 of Devon also designed furniture for of Pugin and progressed to High by Leslie Moore. The interior is Liberty in this period. Victorian styles. He was born in inventive, with a vaulted roof, aisle County Offaly in 1856, but the family passages in the buttresses and wall From the start, Arthur Liberty soon moved to Glasgow. He met passages in the window reveals; understood in a quite modern way George Gilbert Scott junior in 1872 there are no capitals or mouldings. the importance of advertising and and was articled to him in 1875. St Aidan Rochdale (1913-15), marketing, particularly with regard Roles were reversed in 1899 when although more conventional, also to the firm’s mail order business. Scott’s son Giles became articled to has unusual features and is notable Liberty’s Christmas Catalogue of Yule Moore. Moore’s son Richard followed for its light interior. It is to be hoped Tide Gifts was very important. One of in 1913 but succumbed to war in that Heritage Open Days – or the cover images used has become 1918; his son-in-law Leslie became perhaps an organised trip – will quite famous – it showed a galleon his partner in 1919 and continued the provide an opportunity to visit these sailing into the sunset and was by practice after Moore’s death in 1922. churches, and we are very grateful C.R. Ashbee. The Tudor-bethan style to Geoff for drawing our attention to Liberty store we know today near to Temple Moore’s first work was on this interesting architect. the London Palladium was not built church restoration in conjunction until the 1920s. with Scott junior. His independent Roger Barton June 2015 work started in 1878 with schools David Astbury March 2015 and houses in East Yorkshire, but he Making Money out of Mortality at became best known for his churches, Highgate Cemetery Temple Moore which came to number about 40, Dr Ian Dungavell Dr Geoff Brandwood. many in Yorkshire and predominantly 24 March 2015 FMH 28 April 2015 FMH Anglo-Catholic. The first was All Highgate Cemetery: the Victorian As author of a biography of Temple Saints Peterborough (1886-87), Valhalla. When I was younger and Moore (Temple Moore: an Architect which won a competition, although living in London in the late 1970s of the Late Gothic Revival; Paul the church that was actually built was a Sunday expedition could be Watkins, Stamford, 1997), Geoff much simpler than his design. to Highgate Cemetery. Although Brandwood was well qualified to talk gothically overgrown, it was about this architect. His interest in Like Scott junior with his St Agnes possible to visit Karl Marx’s tomb the subject arose from his PhD thesis Kennington (1874-77), Moore and memorial in the East Cemetery

15 while the wilder reaches of the West the new model cemeteries abroad Two of the acres were for Dissenters Cemetery looked impenetrable such as Père Lachaise in Paris (non-Anglicans). behind locked gates and rambling, which had opened in 1804. Here rampant greenery. Recently, I the Parisian authorities had faced Unique architecture was created to revisited these old haunts and was the same problems as in London. attract the wealthy to purchase burial delighted to tour around the beautiful The solution was an elevated chambers and plots. An archway and fascinating West Cemetery, cemetery in an English style garden with a bell-tower made an imposing open to visitors again thanks to overlooking the city, with celebrities entrance. The layout was serpentine, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery. such as Molière being reburied there. unlike the rigid grid pattern of Père Lachaise. Spectacular features included the Egyptian Avenue: a tunnel-like walk lined with burial vaults that created a self-contained community of the dead. This led to the Circle of Lebanon where more vaults with massive iron doors were built in classical style, excavated into the hillside and surrounding an existing ancient Cedar of Lebanon. Above and behind this were the Terrace Catacombs, more than eighty yards long.

Highgate was immediately successful as a fashionable cemetery. Customers were also attracted by adverts and transport links. Guidebooks first appeared in 1844. Tickets were sold to allow people to visit on Sundays as the owners wanted to encourage the middle classes and above to purchase plots while wanting to prevent a ‘lack of decorous behaviour’ by the lower classes. By 1857 it was filled with over 10,000 graves so an extension, the East Cemetery, was created although the West site remained the more desirable location. Profits still needed to be made and by the end of the nineteenth century diversification Thus to listen to Dr. Ian Dungavell’s Thus in London Acts of Parliament was evident as plants were grown talk on Highgate Cemetery with permitted commercial companies to in glasshouses for purchase by the the theme of money or ‘filthy lucre’, start business and open seven new grave owners. Chrysanthemums rather than just death, was to be of private cemeteries in the countryside were especially popular! great interest. around London, among them Kensal Green (1833), Highgate (1839) and Dr. Dungavell then brought us up In the 1830s the London Cemetery Brompton (1840). to date, discussing the financial Company was created to fulfil an pressures that developed. increasingly urgent demand for The London Cemetery Company’s Throughout the first half of the decent burial spaces for London’s founder was architect Stephen Geary twentieth century the Cemetery dead. Why? A rapidly growing who appointed James Bunstone as gradually declined and in 1960 the population led to the traditional surveyor and David Ramsey as the London Cemetery Company was graveyards becoming full, landscape architect. Seventeen acres declared bankrupt. By the early overcrowded and often neglected of steep hillside were purchased 1970s ‘non-cemetery’ activities were and insanitary, causing various below Highgate village. The ground burgeoning, with apocryphal tales public health scares. A commercial was consecrated and dedicated on of skulls being sold in local pubs. opportunity was also spotted May 20 1839. Although not a legal In 1975 the Friends of Highgate alongside the parallel investments requirement this safeguarded the Cemetery was formed to promote the for profit in the new transport cemetery ‘in perpetuity’ under the conservation of the cemetery. companies such as the railways. dual jurisdiction of the Church of Other sources of inspiration were England and the secular authorities. The future rests with tourists’ entry

16 fees (while burials still continue to to save it, unfortunately unsuccessful. scheme was also for large houses, bring in some revenue). Karl Marx’s On Derby Street stands the Head with grounds of up to five acres. It grave is probably the most visited Office and Warehouse built for Marks was based on the tontine principle, in London. Gravesites can be seen and Spencer in 1900, architect the idea being that subscribers would for more modern notables from the currently unresolved. It is still an nominate their children as eventual writer Beryl Bainbridge to the punk imposing three-storey plus basement owners. The freehold would only be musician Malcolm McLaren, from the building fronting the street with a two- vested in the survivors once all but Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds storey multi-bay warehouse section 50 of the intended 5000 nominees to the recently murdered Russian spy behind which looks of a piece. It had died; in the meantime rents Alexander Litvinenko. For visitors is unlisted but the M&S archive would be distributed between the and those who love the place it in Leeds, mindful of the building’s subscribers or their descendants. remains a fine line to restore the significance, does have some We were given a copy of the damaged graves and gardens, while ambitions to have a plaque placed prospectus. The scheme foundered keeping the romantic decay for which on it. Further down Derby Street because a slump in the cotton Highgate cemetery is so renowned. stands E.W. Leeson’s Ice Palace with industry led to too few subscribers, Many thanks go to the work of Dr. its brick and terracotta frontage still and the running of the estate Dungavell and so many others who largely intact. The interior is now sub- passed to the self-styled Victoria do this. divided into small manufacturing and Park Trust. We were shown a 1902 warehouse units. letter by lawyer Robert Derbishire Anne Hodgson August 2015 complaining that there was no proper Our walk then progressed through trust but only an informal committee Up the Hill from Victoria: a Walk Cheetham Park which still has a of self-interested landowners. The around Cheetham bandstand, albeit fenced off and arrangement nevertheless lasted Graham Roundhill, David Astbury in poor condition. Coming into the until 1954. 31 May 2015 High Town area, we passed St John Cheetham was incorporated into the Evangelist (Paley and Austin, Victoria Park has been recognised the Manchester township in 1838 Grade II*) on Waterloo Road. Over as one of the earliest gated and the population grew rapidly. By 10 years ago a very substantial grant communities. There were four 1900, the Red Bank area, comprising aided renovation and a roof repair. entrances, each equipped with mainly high density housing and The Diocese has now declared the lodges and gates, none of which workshops, was said to be 50% church redundant and, as that time remain. The gatekeepers could Jewish. That heritage has been well period has now passed, there is no refuse entry and charged those researched but there were other requirement to repay that money. whom they did admit. Legend has heritages. The area had a substantial (see conservation report p.14) it that a circus elephant caused Roman Catholic population relating Returning to Cheetham Hill Road, we problems because it did not to the currently under renovation viewed the tower of T.W. Atkinson’s feature on the scale of charges. St Chad’s church (Weightman & St Luke’s church surviving in the All the houses were surrounded Hadfield 1846). There was also a care of Heritage Trust for the North by substantial walls. Victoria Park substantial Anglican community West. Nearby. St Luke’s Terrace, now was within Rusholme Township and with several churches including St demolished, was the childhood home was allowed to retain its private John’s, Waterloo Road, St Alban’s of Frances Hodgson Burnett, author status when this was absorbed into Cheetwood and St Luke’s, said to be of The Secret Garden. Manchester in 1885. It won a dispute in the 1870s the wealthiest church in with the city authorities when they the Manchester area. David Astbury June 2015 wanted to run trams along Anson Road. Our group met in less than ideal An Insight into Victoria Park weather outside the Derby Arms Bruce Anderson Richard Lane was a promoter of pub. The Holt’s brewery office with 6 June 2015 Victoria Park and architect of its first its engraved glass windows, next The leader of this walk, on a fine but nine houses as well as later ones. to the arched yard entrance, was windy day, is an expert on Victoria Houses were also designed by Alfred originally Joseph Holt’s home. As Park, having lived in the area since Waterhouse, Edward Walters and well as beer, the family eventually 1968 and at one time represented it Henry Bowman, but the architects gave Manchester a Lord Mayor and as a councillor for Longsight Ward. of most of the others are unknown. founded the Holt Radium Institute. The emphasis was on the history As a high-class living area with good On the other side of Cheetham and residents of the area rather than access to the city centre the estate Hill Road stood Thomas Bird’s the architecture of the individual was soon out-competed by the likes Great Synagogue – demolished buildings. of Bowdon and Alderley Edge thanks in 1986 after becoming redundant to the railways; even Lane moved in the 1970s owing to population Development of Victoria Park on a out in 1842. The building of houses movement. In his book Lost Victorian site of 180 acres started in 1837. slowed in the 1860s and came to Britain, Gavin Stamp credits the At that time there were mansions halt in around 1900. Around half the Manchester Group’s campaign efforts along Wilmslow Road, and the new houses have been demolished and

17 many of the survivors have long – small scale artisan workshops, case by Bentley. Sheffield also has been occupied by institutions such many concentrating on cutlery, rather an Anglican Cathedral, medieval as the universities and the Roman than the large scale factories and in origin but greatly enlarged in Catholic Church. Several are in warehouses of Manchester. Sheffield Victorian times by T.J. Flockton very poor condition, with private lacked a significant commercial advised by Gilbert Scott. Some owners sometimes to blame. Most sector and consequently lacks large- members of the group whispered houses have lost their outbuildings scale Victorian bank buildings typical (suitably reverentially) about the such as stables and many have had of Leeds and Manchester but it does resultant lack of architectural development in their grounds. have a Prudential Assurance building coherence...... unmistakably by Waterhouse. It Despite all this Victoria Park has had many notable residents, including several MPs. We were shown houses once occupied by Thomas Sharp of Sharp Stewart, whose Atlas Works built many early railway locomotives; an industrial chemist called Adolphe Saafeld, who survived the Titanic disaster only to find himself ostracised as a result; a calico printer called Potter who was a relative of Beatrix and passed his house on to his son-in-law, the chemist Henry Roscoe; the wealthy cotton manufacturer E R Langworthy, who endowed a prestigious chair in physics at Manchester University and gave generously to Manchester Grammar School and Peel Park Museum; and Rawdon Briggs, leader of the Hallé Orchestra, member of the Brodsky Quartet and tutor at the Northern College of Music.

The tour finished with tea and cakes at St Chrysostom’s Church, which the vicar, Father Ian Gomersall, told us was built in 1877 by G T Redmayne with funding from wealthy residents such as Sir William Anson, although ministering also to poorer Detail of the gateposts at Sheffield Cathedral reinstated to their original communities nearby. It was rebuilt by position as part of the 2014 Gateway Project, winner of three RIBA awards John Ely to the same design after a by Thomas Ford & Partners, photograph courtesy of Paula Moorhouse. disastrous fire in 1904. There is still more of Victoria Park to be seen and has a fine Town Hall by London Sheffield was very progressive in we hope that Bruce will share his architects E.W.Mountford which Education matters following the 1870 encyclopaedic knowledge of it with Queen Victoria was persuaded to Act which created School Boards. On us at a later date. In the meantime officially open in 1897. Without our Leopold Street we viewed a complex members can find much fascinating excellent guide, Valerie Bayliss of the of buildings by E.R. Robson and T.J. information on his web site http:// South Yorkshire Group, I’m not sure Flockton built between 1876 and rusholmearchive.org. I would have noticed the telegraph 1900, including the School Board poles and wires depicted amongst offices, Central, Science & Technical Roger Barton June 2015 imagery of Sheffield trades in the schools and Firth College which spandrels above the main entrance became Sheffield University. An Excursion by Train to Sheffield to the Town Hall. In the entrance Valerie Bayliss foyer stands Onslow Ford’s statue Near to the famous Crucible Theatre, 18 July 2015 of the Duke of Norfolk whose estate stands a building that was originally Sheffield’s population, like still holds substantial land in the city Hay’s Wine Store. It is now the Manchester’s, grew rapidly in the centre and endowed the magnificent Ruskin Gallery housing the art nineteenth century. However, the St Marie’s Roman Catholic Cathedral collection created for the working City of Steel has a very different (Weightman & Hadfield 1846-1850) people of Sheffield by John Ruskin. industrial history from Manchester with decoration by Pugin and organ In the afternoon we viewed some

18 of the city’s still extant Georgian many important buildings. Further Victorian pews which the church architecture, Paradise Square, the demolition is planned in an effort to wishes to remove to provide a scene of mass Chartist meetings make Hull more presentable as City flexible space for the community. Our in the 1830s, and one house with a of Culture in 2017. third visit was to the RC church of St Blue Plaque to Sir Francis Chantrey, Charles Borromeo (John Earle jun the Regency sculptor. The district Our walk started at the fine Italian 1828-9 with much Victorian work), has a number of nonconformist renaissance Paragon station (G which has an ornate interior that associations and a redundant T Andrews 1846-8, extended by would look more at home in Central synagogue. William Bell 1903-4) and continued Europe than in Hull. Unfortunately, east to the line of the old docks, now the site most characteristic of Hull, Valerie Bayliss is involved in a mostly filled in but not built upon. Trinity House (a seamen’s guild), campaign to rescue from dereliction Crossing the line of the mediaeval consists of buildings off a courtyard Sheffield’s old town hall (Grade walls, which were demolished penetrable only by the most II), unused for over twenty years. when the docks were built in the determined visitors. It is owned by a London property 1820s, we entered the Old Town company seemingly uninterested in and walked through to the River The impressive public buildings that its decay. The building, in the Castle Hull. We returned to the station we passed en route dated almost Green area, dates originally from through the Northern Suburb, the all from the turn of the century. The 1808 but was enlarged and adapted first development outside the walls. largest of them were all in Edwardian later for use as law courts. As it The buildings and streetscapes baroque style. The City Hall and stands now, complete with distinctive we encountered reflected the long (former) Art Gallery (1903-10) were clock-tower, it is essentially within history of the city. designed in-house by Joseph Hirst, our period and has appeared on the city architect. The City Hall was for Victorian Society’s Top Ten Buildings entertainment and contained a large at Risk Register. concert hall. In contrast, the Guildhall (1903-16), even larger and consisting David Astbury August 2015 of council offices and law courts, was the subject of a competition won by An Excursion by Train to Hull Edwin Cooper; its building entailed David Neave demolition of a town hall (1862-5) 22 August 2015 by Cuthbert Broderick, architect It is a pity that only ten people of Leeds Town Hall. The massive attended this event; certainly the General Post Office (1908-9) was weather was not to blame, for it was designed by W Potts of the Office superb. The select few were treated of Works. Three smaller buildings to a fascinating walk round a city that also had baroque features, although was quite unknown to some of us. in a freer style; all were attractive David Neave is co-author of the new compositions in brick and stone. Hull Pevsner, and his encyclopaedic These were the Central Library (J knowledge of the city was evident S Gibson 1900-1), the Market Hall throughout. (Hirst 1902-4) and the former College of Art (E A Rickards 1904). Hull David explained that Hull was also still has many good Victorian a mediaeval town that became Pew End, Holy Trinity Church, Hull, commercial buildings, mostly by image courtesy Paula Moorhouse. important in the eighteenth century local architects; William Botterill, R with the development of the docks G Smith & F S Broderick (nephew of and expanded greatly in the mid- We were only able to enter three Cuthbert) and W A (later Sir Alfred) nineteenth when many trawlermen of the buildings. The first, the Dock Gelder seemed to be particularly moved up from Devon. Although Offices (Christopher Wray 1868-71; prolific. it became prosperous, it never now the Maritime Museum), on a acquired affluent suburbs and triangular site, is in Venetian classical Those who missed the trip would remained largely working-class. style and covered with exquisite find a visit to Hull very rewarding. Associated industries such as food- sculptures on a nautical theme. Not only is much fine architecture processing plants remained after the We later visited the mediaeval Holy still left, but David assured us that collapse of the trawling fleet some Trinity Church, which is not only Hull has better museums than many forty years ago, but the city is still impressively large but represents much larger cities. We are very something of a backwater. Although the first use of brick (in the choir grateful to him for such an interesting its relative poverty has restrained and transepts) in an English church. introduction to what the city has to widespread redevelopment, Hull It has many Victorian features, offer. suffered more bombing than including two windows by Walter anywhere else outside London Crane (1896 and 1907) and, more Roger Barton September 2015 in World War II, leading to loss of contentiously, large numbers of fine

19 2014 AGM CONSERVATION an effort to provide a development of Shopping Centre into a cinema up to 1700 new homes, shops and complex. The shopping centre REPORT public and green spaces. The scheme incorporates both the former Bolton Ken Moth, Chairman of the envisaged clearing the vast majority Evening News building and 12 Northern Buildings Committee of the site and buildings within the Mealhouse Lane, both handsome turn- (NBC), gave the Greater Manchester conservation area. of-the-century buildings which make Casework Report for 2014 positive contributions to the Deansgate There are two persistent problems VicSoc comments We asked what Conservation Area. The two buildings we have to deal with on casework. would happen to the conservation area were threatened by a combination The first is the failure of organisations, designation should the development of demolition and aluminium both secular and religious, to obtain occur. The conservation area appraisal overcladding. appropriate professional advice when clearly highlighted the linear and seeking to effect changes to historic spatial characteristics of the Loco VicSoc comments The characterful buildings. There are clear published Works site. The development failed to building would effectively be entirely guidelines explaining how to go respond to this fundamental aspect lost, in turn causing harm to the about the process and registers of of its character, something which conservation area. The application architects accredited in work to historic would be relatively easy to achieve. took no account of the building’s buildings. Many clients commission The historic buildings should provide significance, or that of the CA, architects with little skill in this area of a basis for the form and scale of the and provided no appraisal of the work. Many others don’t even bother new, and the former workers’ impact of the scheme on the historic to appoint an architect, choosing housing just off the north of the site environment. This was felt to be a instead somebody that somebody might provide a good model for the backward and hugely damaging else knows who can 'do plans', little new housing. A failure to foster a proposal and we objected strongly. matter what goes on to those plans. sense of place in this dramatic and This scheme was subsequently This wastes everybody’s time and impressive historic site would be a amended, omitting the damaging money as inappropriate proposals missed opportunity. aluminium cladding. are batted backwards and forwards. It often results in serious, irreversible Crumpsall Jewish Cemetery Ohel Eccles, St Andrew Grade II*, and completely unnecessary damage (Jewish cemetery structure) Herbert Edward Tijou, 1877-79, to historic buildings as consent-giving George Oswald Smith, 1888 interior completed 1883, tower bodies who themselves often don’t Sharman Kadesh highlighted this completed to a modified design by understand the issues at stake simply building, the oldest remaining of its J. S. Crowther, 1889 cave in. type in Manchester. It is unlisted and Proposal It was proposed to remove is not within a conservation area, but it half of the nave pews and subdivide In addition, when VicSoc submits is an attractive and charming structure the space to create a clear area for comment on applications we often all the same. The Ohel is currently community activities. don’t learn what the final outcome threatened with demolition. James is as there is no requirement on Hughes wrote a letter indicating our VicSoc comments We advised the authorities to provide feedback. On desire for it to be retained. parish to seek proper professional the most important cases we monitor advice on the best way to meet applications closely but this takes up Oldham, Leesfield, St Thomas their needs: the proposals as they extra valuable resource. At the end of Grade II*, E. H. Shellard, 1848 stood were weak, uninformed and the day we are there for the benefit of Proposal It was proposed to subdivide unacceptable. The Statement of Need the public as it is their environment and the space under the gallery at the west was thin and did not establish the case heritage which suffers as a result of end of this church to install lavatories, for a screen. The diagram provided ignorance. a kitchen, and a hall and café space. was crude and schematic and showed no sensitivity for the architecture of These are the major Greater VicSoc comments We had no the building. The aisle pews were of Manchester cases we commented on objection in principle; however, the considerable quality and historical during the year. difference in treatment between significance and we advised that they the two elements of the screen must be retained. Externally it was Bolton, Horwich, Former Horwich (glass and timber cladding) was proposed to remove a link building Loco Works Conservation Area, unconvincing, and we encouraged between the church and the 1880s and later them to look at it again. next-door Methodist church and Proposal A hybrid application was to provide railings to close off the submitted for the comprehensive Bolton, former Bolton Evening alleyway: this was unobjectionable but redevelopment of the former News Building Unlisted, the railings must be of a high quality Loco Works site in Horwich. The Conservation Area, and designed by a properly qualified development proposed the Bradshaw & Gass, c.1900 architect. demolition of a number of the site’s Proposal An application was historic buildings, along with the submitted proposing the conversion Cheetham, St John the Evangelist restoration and reuse of others, in of part of Bolton’s Crompton Place The Society was invited to attend a

20 hearing into the closure for worship of to make way for extended school Mark Watson’s report this church, a Grade II*-listed playgrounds, car parking and a garden Mark Watson gave an additional masterpiece by Paley and Austin, to of remembrance report highlighting the current state of which we have previously objected. some local buildings We agreed that the churches VicSoc comments It may well Crumpsall Library MCC served caseworker Tom Ashley should be that a convincing case could notice on the owner to effect repairs attend the hearing of the Church be made for the demolition of this which seems to have prompted them Commissioners to articulate our building. However, on the basis of the to put it up for auction. position. We should voice our very information submitted – without a full Charles Barry’s Unitarian Chapel, strong objection to the Diocese: this structural survey and geologist’s Upper Brook Street, has been is a very important building, on which report, as well as relevant quotes granted planning permission for large amounts of public money had – we could not concede to it. The conversion into posh student been spent in the very recent past, and church is an important building, with a accommodation, along with the it was felt to be unacceptable for the particularly notable series of Pilkington adjoining school. The graveyard is to Diocese simply to walk away from it, tiles. The possibility of salvaging be built on. A poor piece of planning having a moral obligation to safeguard important fixtures and fittings, such as to allow building over the graves the future of this church. After the the tiles, should also be addressed. of some of the founders of modern hearing the Church Commissioners Furthermore, the presbytery is Manchester. approved the closure of this church. charming, and enhances the setting of Crossley's Lads' Club, a very We therefore wrote to the diocese and the listed building. Without additional early Hennebeque concrete framed Closed Churches Division to ask for information, we objected to the building, is worthy of listing and assurance that the building would be application. steps are taking place to see if this is properly managed and that running possible. repairs would be undertaken. Manchester, Victoria Park, Upper Thomas Worthington’s Collier Park Lane, site of Gartness (which Street Baths in Salford, one of Bury, Prestwich, St Hilda Grade II, was a large detached house) 2014's top ten VicSoc Buildings at F. P. Oakley, 1903-04 Conservation Area Risk, Grade II* and the grand daddy Proposal It was proposed to build a Proposal Victoria Park was laid out as of all later baths, has a new owner large new extension to the west end of a new residential district of Manchester and the local authority are showing the church to create a community hall. from 1836. From the outset it was interest in finding a new use in the intended as an estate of substantial Greengate Regeneration Area. VicSoc comments The architectural houses set in spacious grounds intended The Ancoats Dispensary Trust quality of the proposal was not for successful and wealthy professionals. is crowdfunding to raise the match good enough. Gestures were made Despite the loss of some of its houses, funding for the grant offered by HLF. towards the existing church, but better the present-day Victoria Park retains Steve Roman of the Manchester architects were required. Furthermore, much of the character created by this Group of the Victorian Society will be it was not clear that an extension was early approach and it was designated leading his Peace and Social Justice necessary to what is a large church a Conservation Area in 1972. The walk with all proceeds going to the with moveable seating. This scheme Manchester Central Mosque stands on cause. exemplified why churches should get the site formerly occupied by a house Refuge Assurance Insurance faculty approval before applying for called West View. To its north stood Building, now the Palace Hotel, planning permission: with a Statement Gartness, another large house, which has a new American owner, who is of Need, and the benefit of DAC was demolished in 2007. The Central proposing to spend £22 million on a advice, this application would be a Mosque has now applied for permission refurbishment. Let’s hope the money great deal better. to erect a new Madrasa on the former is spent wisely! Gartness site, and the Committee’s view London Road Fire Station Bolton, Farnworth, Presto Street, was sought on its potential impact on the Planning permission has lapsed. Church of St Gregory the Great Conservation Area. MCC may attempt to CPO again with Grade II, Edmund Kirby, 1873-5 encouragement of the Friends' group. Application reference: 93174/14 VicSoc comments The proposed The Friends' group seems to have a (Bolton Council) design was not sufficiently responsive knack of antagonising both MCC and Proposal We were notified of an to the unique and important setting the owner. Not a satisfactory way of application by the Roman Catholic that Victoria Park provides. The poor proceeding. It remains to be seen Diocese of Salford for the complete quality pastiche design adopted for the what will happen. demolition of this church, which closed proposed building, its angular siting, Britannia Hotel A comment was in 2007 and had been unused since. and the loss of mature trees, which are made from the floor that plans to The Diocese argued that it could a feature of the Conservation Area, redo the interior of the had been put find no buyer and that the building's would be damaging. The opportunity forward. structural issues made its viable reuse should also be taken to fully reinstate The National Trust has appointed improbable. The church, as well as the characterful boundary wall. a City Curator for Manchester. Mark the adjoining presbytery of 1896, was commented that he wasn't aware of proposed to be demolished in order Ken Moth January 2015 any NT properties in the city.

21 Carole Hardie, on behalf of the Christmas lunch, talk and return the Victorian Turkish bath than is Liverpool Group whose 50th coach travel from Manchester: generally known. After a brief history Jubilee occurs this year, has invited £35.00 per person of this hot, dry air bath, we will look at Manchester group members to the (excluding drinks: a bottle bar will be the contribution Manchester made to celebratory dinner in Norman Shaw’s available at Barrowford). its development. The first such bath White Star Line building on 10th in England open to the public was November 2015. To book a place contact built here in 1857, and what became Mark Watson Tel: 07831267642 the ‘industry standard’ furnace was Mark commented that we would Email: [email protected] invented here a few years later. be making more use of digital communication. Those without access to a computer were requested THURSDAY 7 JANUARY 2016 to supply a number of stamped An illustrated talk addressed envelopes so that paper The Holiness of Beauty: George copies of events can be posted the Frederick Bodley and the old fashioned way. Aesthetic Movement

Mark gave particular thanks to With Michael Hall, author and current Beryl for formatting the events in Editor of the ‘The Victorian’ our newsletter and the Blue Sheet in addition to the producing the William Potter's second Turkish For most people the Aesthetic baths opened in Manchester circa wonderful Newsletter, so admired by Movement was entirely secular, 1859. other VicSoc groups. as embodied by Oscar Wilde, sunflowers and Patience. Michael Before reading Victorian history as a (very) mature (ie, old) student MANCHESTER GROUP Hall argues that the later Gothic Revival was deeply intertwined at Royal Holloway, University of 2015-2016 Events with Aestheticism, which cannot London, Malcolm was a librarian. After ten years as a school librarian, saturday 12 December 2015 be understood fully without taking ecclesiastical architecture and design and a brief spell as a children’s Christmas Coach Excursion to into account. librarian at Cheam (yes, really!), Accrington and Barrowford he joined the late, much lamented, Michael Hall is the former Inner London Education Authority, Annual talk and lunch at the architectural editor of Country Life becoming head of its Central Library Pendle Heritage Centre followed and editor of Apollo. He is the author Resources Service, before taking by a visit to the Haworth Art of books on Victorian country houses early retirement as his answer to Gallery to view the magnificent as well as churches, including Mrs Thatcher’s abolition of the Tiffany Collection George Frederick Bodley and the ILEA, not wishing to destroy what Later Gothic Revival in Britain and he had spent fifteen years helping With Douglas Jackson, author of the America (2015). As well as editing to create. Though now somewhat recently published book on Tiffany, The Victorian, he is chair the hard of hearing, his main interest in and Mark Watson Victorian Society’s events committee. life is listening to classical music and playing with his grandchildren. His We will assemble at Store Street, 7 pm for 7.15 pm much respected website on Victorian Manchester Piccadilly Train Station Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Turkish baths has recently celebrated for departure by coach to Pendle Manchester M2 5NS its fifteenth birthday. Heritage Centre, Barrowford where cost £8 we will have Christmas lunch 7 pm for 7.15 pm followed by a talk from Douglas Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Jackson, author of MOSAIC – The TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2016 Manchester M2 5NS Story of Joseph Briggs, the English cost £8 An illustrated talk: a joint event with Tiffany (2015). From Barrowford the Victoria Baths we travel by coach to the Haworth Art Gallery to view the Tiffany Glass SATURDAY 30 JANUARY 2016 Manchester: English home of the collection. Irish-Roman (or ‘Turkish’) bath Annual General Meeting followed by a talk, demonstration and Join the coach at Store Street With Malcolm Shifrin: retired librarian discussion under Manchester Piccadilly Station and researcher at 9.15am for a 9.30 am prompt Social media for the New departure. We aim to be back in Proud winner of the first BBC2 Victorians Manchester by 5.30 pm. Restoration programme for its Victoria Baths, Manchester has with Joe O’Donnell: the Victorian Cost: including three course a much wider connection with Society’s Media Officer 22 Joe O’Donnell will give a talk on the This talk considers Heywood's role TUESDAY 5 APRIL 2016 basics of social media followed by a as a bookseller and wholesaler of demonstration and discussion. Joe print in the early Victorian period and An illustrated talk will aim to answer any questions his continuing struggle to ensure that you may have, look at social media’s the printed word should be widely ‘Home Sweet Home’: Reflections benefits, how it can enhance your available to all classes of society. on Turn-of-the-Century Interiors own personal interests and how it can improve the Manchester Group’s Two key documents will be discussed with Stuart Evans: design historian visibility and influence within the city. - the account of his business that and researcher Heywood made to the Morning Joe joined the Society in 2014 Chronicle reporter A.B.Reach and the Architecture has a certain after working for nearly seven evidence he gave to a Government permanence but interiors are more years at Thomson Reuters where commission on the newspaper press. transient, particularly domestic he established a corporate Twitter Heywood emerges as a wily and furnishings which may be modified account and blog. subversive proponent of the freedom on a regular basis and changed by of the press, and his responses each new generation. How does the 1.45 pm to 4.30 pm provide a unique insight into early historian approach them? YHA Potato Wharf, Manchester M3 Victorian reading practices. 4NB This presentation considers some Cost of talk £5 of the constraints around studying interiors, spatial and architectural, social and cultural, and what of the TUESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2016 clients’ identity? It takes examples An illustrated talk and exhibition visit from the region, the Manchester practice of J H Sellers and Edgar ‘We Built this City’: the work of Wood, The Century Guild of Artists Manchester Architects over 150 and its work at Pownall Hall, years Wilmslow, and the design of model rooms for artisan families - the With Simon Green: architect and earliest of these seems to have been past president Manchester Society of those designed by Morris for the Architects Manchester Art Museum - through to the Great War ‘Homes fit for 6.45 for 7 pm Heroes’ a century ago. Sir Kenneth Green Library, MMU, All Saints, Manchester, M15 Stuart Evans was born and raised 6BH in Manchester and educated Cost £5 at Warehousemen and Clerks, Manchester School of Art and Brian Maidment is Professor of Manchester University; he taught at THURSDAY 17 MARCH 2016 the History of Print at Liverpool the Polytechnic and for two years in John Moores University and Vice the 1970s served as the Victorian An illustrated talk President of the Research Society Society’s Caseworker for the north of for Victorian Periodicals. He spent England. Abel Heywood and the Manchester much of his teaching career at Reading Public Manchester Polytechnic and Salford Latterly he taught at Central University and worked extensively Saint Martins for thirty years. His with Brian Maidment: Professor of on local material for his anthology research has focused on domestic the History of Print at Liverpool JMU of writing by labouring class authors architecture, interiors and furniture 'The Poorhouse Fugitives' (1987) and design. He has published on J Abel Heywood is celebrated as one other related publications. His most H Sellers, artisan housing and of the outstanding civic figures of recent book is 'Comedy, Caricature furnishings, and has recently Victorian Manchester, yet his early and the Social Order 1820-1850' completed a book on The Century career was distinguished by civil (Manchester University Press 2013). Guild of Artists. He is now retired and disobedience and imprisonment for lives in rural Suffolk. his role in distributing 'unstamped' 7 pm for 7.15 pm radical literature. His career Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, 7 pm for 7.15 pm was often featured in books of Manchester M2 5NS: Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, exemplary biographies that listed the cost £8 Manchester M2 5NS achievements of men from humble Cost £8 origins.

23 THURSDAY 21 APRIL 2016 An illustrated talk

Thomas Witlam Atkinson (1799-1861): A Forgotten Victorian Architect and Artist with John Massey Stewart: writer, freelance lecturer and photographer

Born in Cawthorne near Barnsley in 1799, Atkinson became successively stone mason, sculptor, architect, artist, traveller and author. Most of his buildings, mainly villas and churches, were in the Greater Manchester area and there are exciting plans to renovate St. Luke's, Cheetham Hill, reputedly his best work but now a Sultan Souk and family, illustration from Thomas Witlam Atkinson's skeleton. book on Oriental and Western Siberia published in 1885.

He gave up architecture to travel is a Registered Charity No 1081435 in remote parts of Russia, Siberia NEWSLETTERS BY EMAIL and a Company Limited by Guarantee and Kazakhstan with his wife and Thank you to those members who Registered in England No 3940996 infant son, with the Tsar's express have agreed to receive the Manchester permission, painting 560 watercolour Newsletter by email. This has allowed us Please note that buildings we visit may sketches, mainly topographical. On his to reduce postage and copying costs. present a variety of hazards including return to England where he published uneven surfaces, stairs, low head heights, two books he was known as 'the If you lose your email copy or it low lighting, building and demolition Siberian traveller' and was forgotten disappears from your computer a pdf works. We would like all our events to be until the recent plaque in Cawthorne of the Newsletter can now be found accessible to everyone, but there may be and the lecturer’s forthcoming book. on the Manchester page of Victorian stairs or uneven surfaces which cannot Society’s main site at victoriansociety. be avoided, and long periods of walking or John Massey Stewart has been a org.uk/manchester/ as can the current standing. member of the Victorian Society for talks and visits. If you would like many years. He is a writer, lecturer to receive an email version of the Should you have any questions about and photographer and has been an Newsletter please email beryl.patten@ your ability to participate in an event, environmental archivist. His subject is virgin.net. please contact us. Some of our events are primarily Russia which he has visited unsuitable for children. If you have any 30 times since 1961. Remember to let us know if you special needs or ideas about how we can improve our events, please let us know. 7 pm for 7.15 pm change your email address Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, The Manchester Victorian Society Manchester M2 5NS MANCHESTER GROUP c/o Portico Library Cost £8 57 Mosley Street The next Manchester Group Manchester M2 3HY Newsletter will be published mid 2016 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016 as will the next Events Card (June - The Victorian Society is the champion for December 2016). An illustrated talk: a joint event with Victorian and Edwardian buildings in England If you wish to make a contribution to the Manchester Modernist Society and Wales the Newsletter, such as an article, news item or event review, please The Northern Roots of Unwin and email [email protected]. compiler Parker of this Newsletter. with Dr Mervyn Miller: leading expert Disclaimer: You participate in events at on the early Garden City movement. your own risk and neither the Society nor its officers or servants accept any liability 7 pm for 7.15 pm of any kind whatsoever howsoever arising. Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, The Victorian Society reserves the right Manchester M2 5NS to cancel, alter or postpone events if Cost £10 necessary. The Victorian Society 24 Manchester Group of the Victorian Society

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND TALK Saturday 30 January 2016

1.45 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. YHA Potato Wharf, Castlefield, Manchester. M3 4NB

AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of last meeting 3. Matters arising 4. Membership Secretary’s report 5. Conservation report. 6. Treasurer’s report. 7. Chairman’s report. 8. Election of Officers and Committee. 9. AOB

All members are entitled to attend the AGM free of charge Cost of refreshments and illustrated talk £5.

NOMINATION FORM FOR A COMMITTEE MEMBER

NOMINEE Name of nominee: ......

Address: ......

......

Tel...... Email......

Nominee’s signature of acceptance...... date......

Please give reasons for nominating this person to the Manchester Group Committee

......

......

Your contact details:

Name......

Address ......

......

Tel...... Email......

Return to: The Secretary, Manchester Victorian Society, c/o The Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3HY or bring along to the AGM.

25 SAVING A CENTURY A free photographic exhibition celebrating Victorian architecture

Manchester Assize Courts, Alfred Waterhouse 1864, destroyed 1957 FINAL SHOWING: 8 JANUARY – 24 MARCH Sunday and Monday (12.00 – 5.00) Tuesday – Saturday (10.00 – 5.00) Free admission

JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY, DEANSGATE MANCHESTER, M3 3EH

Using archive photographs and material from over fifty years of the Victorian Society’s fight to save historic buildings, the exhibition charts the successes and defeats of the organisation that has done so much to change public attitudes towards 19th century architecture.

Tel. 020 8994 1019 or go to www.victoriansociety.org.uk The exhibition is supported by Listed Property Services and J & J W Longbottom Ltd The Victorian Society is the national charity (no.1081435) campaigning for the Victorian and Edwardian historic environment. 26