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at risk - going, going, gone
in this section, we aim to highlight modernist treasures great and small, prominent or hardly noticed that are currently at risk to the vagaries of redevelopment.
ST CATHERINE OF SIENNA, LOWTON
Weightman & Bullen 1957
Lowton is near Golborne, Lancashire, in the old South Lancashire coalfield area, off the East Lancs Road a few miles west of Leigh. I guess that the local authority is Warrington Borough Council which is technically now in Cheshire. It seems to be in the RC Archdiocese of Liverpool. St. Catherines is due to close because of the 'poor state of electrical systems'.
The church is briefly described by Richard Pollard on page 516 of the Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-west Pevsner. He says that St Catherine’s is “the first centrally planned Roman Catholic church in SW Lancashire, its design contains elements that would reappear in modified form at subsequent churches such as St Ambrose, Speke [grade 2 listed but vulnerable}. Hexagon plus detached open-framed concrete belfrey tower over the baptistery, the two joined by a lobby”.
The parochial website is at: http://www.stcaths.co.uk/history . The home page has documents relating to the proposed closure on the grounds of electrical wiring maintenance costs.
C20 Roman Catholic churches in the former manufacturing districts are being closed at a startling rate as the Church seems to be undergoing an existential crisis of membership, costs and restructuring. I’ve suggested that EH undertakes an urgent review of C20 RC churches like St Catherine’s. Some of these churches (e g St Raphael’s, Stalybridge) contain splendid artworks. St Catherine’s, Lowton, sounds like another one.
Aidan Turner-Bishop
November 2011
APRIL SPECIAL FEATURE -
this month plans to move the cenotaph in st peters square to make way for more tram stops hit the news.
We are most grateful to Aidan Turner Bishop of the C20 NW group for the following eloquent and beautiful Paean to the Cenotaph and its complex cultural, symbolic and national significance…
paean to the manchester cenotaph
the C20 Society (and other groups) is concerned that the relocation of Lutyens' Cenotaph [a grade 2* listed structure] is unnecessary.
Its present location was carefully and cleverly considered by Lutyens, one of the century's greatest architects, which is visible along many streets since it is on the site of St Peter's church, which was demolished in 1907.
Lutyens knew exactly what he was designing. The design of the London Cenotaph has no straight lines in it; the vertical sides meet at a point 1000 yards above the Earth's surface creating an invisible arch of memory. This is subtle stuff.
The cenotaph is not just another plinth. It is an empty tomb, not just a memorial, to commemorate all those who died in the Great War but who had no known grave. These poor soldiers and sailors were lost at sea or their bodies were pulverised in the horrors of trench warfare. Their relatives (wives, children, families, sweethearts, fiancées) had no grave to go to to mourn their lost men. Many of them were too poor to visit the war cemeteries and monuments in Flanders and Picardy [we are talking about 1920s Manchester].
The Cenotaph was unveiled at a poignant ceremony in July 1924 by the Earl of Derby and Mrs Bingle, a working class lady from Ancoats, who had lost three sons in the Great War. This is why moving the Cenotaph is shocking and disrespectful because it's like moving a grave.
Moreover. the Metrolink tram platforms are being moved anyway from St Peter's Square to the site of the Peace Garden so there should be more room for parades and ceremonies when the clumsily intrusive tram platforms are demolished.
Moving the Cenotaph, but leaving the grade 2 listed Cross of St Peter, would split up the Cenotaph and Memorial area since the Cross (erected in 1907) has become a sort of supplementary memorial for the Fallen since the World Wars. The Cross is where it is because it was deliberately located directly above the site of the High Altar of St Peter's church. (By the way, the church's crypt, with its interred bodies, is still in place below the site, I understand).
After World War Two, city architect LC Howitt transformed the square, now complete with Harris’ magnificent Central Library and Town Hall Extension (1938), into the distinct twentieth century landscape we see today, incorporating a Garden Of Remembrance next to the cenotaph to provide a clearer sense of this public space.
the cenotaph - at risk - april 2011
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THOROUGHLY MODERNIST HEROINES – A CENTENARY SPECIAL!
the Modernist Heroines project sprang from an ongoing conversation here in the MMS office about the peculiar position of women in Modernism – you know, those ‘girls’ in the Bauhaus, forbidden to take architecture and relegated to more ‘suitable’ positions in the weaving room – and the ones who occasionally broke into the men’s room such as Charlotte Perriand and Eileen Gray.
in the new century Manchester was at the forefront of science, engineering and physics, leading the world in aeronautics, atomic science and computing – our universities combined have produced 25 Nobel Laureates – surely a sector ripe for bright young women eager to look under the test tube or take up the theodolite? Or were they hearing what Corbusier reputedly said to Perriand when he dismissed her initial application with a terse ‘we don’t embroider cushions here’...?
this month we are dedicating our feature of the month to all those modernist heroines past and present be they unsung or rightly celebrated!....enjoy! PS. to discover more heroines download a printable pdf at the Shrieking Violet blogspot.
Rachel Haugh, co-founder Ian Simpson Architects
Both Urbis with its curves and slope and the Beetham Tower, its height blending into the sky along its occasionally noisy blade, are iconic contemporary Manchester buildings: dramatic, unique impacts on the city’s skyline. Visitors to Manchester take home distinctive photographs. Manchester residents take a pride in these buildings, generally loving Urbis, and displaying divided opinions about the tower.
Rachel Haugh, native of Manchester, is one of the architects responsible for these edgy glass edifices striding the North-South axis of the city. Rachel and fellow architect Ian Simpson founded their Manchester-based practice, Ian SimpsonArchitects Ltd in 1987. Their work has changed our skyline and altered the way we live in andaround our city.
Public knowledge about how architects work is rather limited, so I start my interview with Rachel by asking about the role of teamwork and individualism within architectural practice. There is no standard architectural model; both are vital. The process from drawing to construction is long and complex and the work is “very much about a team”. While a large project such as the Beetham Tower would involve 12-15 architects at any one time, the individual is also essential, providing “the spark of creativity which drives the project”. “That driver, the concept, is the key thing.” ISA is very concept driven: “the idea is formed at an early stage in response to context and site, and is then constantly tested and interrogated; it’s a very iterative process.” The strength of the concept is what is vital. “Retaining the vision is part of the mantra.”
Early errands to the local library to collect architecture books for her mother, who was not an architect, introduced Rachel to the work of Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. Also Rachel drew for hours, though rather unusually for a girl drew machinery and sketches analysing what made machinery work. She drew the insides of washing machines. Architecture was an obvious career choice, and the lack of encouragement from careers advisers only increased her determination. Rachel became one of just three women on a Manchester university course of fifty students.
Nowadays, with the high profile generated by programmes such as Grand Designs and with different careers advice, university architecture courses run close to a 50:50 gender split. So why are there still so few women in the profession, and why has the recent wave of redundancies hit women particularly? The question has long exercised RIBA. Rachel is concerned and well-versed in the debate but, despite viewing architecture as “a fantastic profession for a woman to be in”, sees no easy solutions. Some practices, including her own, are willing and able to “work to make it work”, managing to offer flexibility in a profession where long hours and working into the evening are the norm. But it will not be a quick fix.
In 1987 the fledgling practice decided to use Ian Simpson’s name: he was more experienced and more widely known. It’s common for architectural practices to use a single name; one architect will thrive in the limelight while other partners prefer a quieter, more private role. This suited Rachel personally, but she does admit to some regret that an opportunity has been missed to advance the image of women architects as successful drivers in a high-profile practice. There are plans to change the business name, but a world credit-crunch is the wrong time to do it.
Visitors to Manchester often comment favourably on the proximity and scale of old and new buildings. Rather than allow the inheritance of the Victorian warehouses and civic buildings to influence the choice of materials, Rachel and her colleagues carry forward the earlier period’s sense of ambition into today’s structures. Detail is subordinate to the overall strength of form. Manchester’s size means that “an architect can make a difference here”, and the partnership of private and public sector working, supported by a consistency of leadership from Manchester City Council, makes a noticeable difference to Manchester’s success in drawing inward investment. Occasional use of open competition for the design of public buildings, notably the Victorian Manchester Town Hall and the contemporary Urbis, can also encourage a bold approach.
Commissions for public buildings allow scope for innovation: Rachel knows that ‘pushing the boundaries’ is easier when managing a single-client relationship, but believes that private sector building can still allow dramatic innovation. No 1 Deansgate, which took city centre living to the heart of the retail space, was groundbreaking in its time, particularly in its use of glass and a cantilever to increase residential space, yet still achieved the highest values outside London for residential space. It’s easy to agree with her view. The Beetham Tower, housing the Hilton Hotel below the highest residential property in Europe, is a statement piece, forcing visitors to stand and stare and providing a landmark for Mancunians journeying home. Rachel does not believe that Manchester will become a city of glass towers, as some have predicted, but the practice is strongly committed to its urban focus, believing that the cities needs to become more densely occupied, developing brownfield sites, and allowing the countryside to remain countryside.
Both personally and professionally Rachel is a strong supporter of the arts. She is a ‘MIF Pioneer’ supporting Manchester International Festival. She talks enthusiastically about Manchester Camerata’s ‘Urban Symphony’ where primary school children work with musicians on a project inspired by the city’s architecture — appropriately Ian Simpson Architects are among the sponsors, and is fascinated by the diversity of Manchester Art Gallery’s collection. Again she is aware of the heritage, the private-sector support for Manchester’s Art Treasures Exhibition over 150 years ago, and the crucial role the arts play in the wider and future life of the city.
During the interview Rachel has been generous with her time and her ideas. She exudes a quiet, articulate confidence as she explains her ideas about team work, partnership development, and using architecture to make statements about confidence in the future. There’s no hint of arrogance, and she’s surprisingly pleased when I tell her how much the many teenagers I know admire the Urbis building. Perhaps that’s something to do with being a woman in what is still a predominantly man’s world, or perhaps not. She’s clearly proud of her work, but it doesn’t strike me as the sort of pride which comes before a fall.
**part of the modernist heroine project 2011,
many thanks to Joan Davies for her interview & text.
Joan Davies is one of the city's Green Badge Guides, specialising in introductions to Manchester, Economic and Political History, Theatre and Arts in Manchester and City Centre Living. www.inandaroundmanchester.co.uk
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January features - hidden chapels
after december’s special investigations from Mr Rhead about the dastardly disappearance of notable public sculptures right under our very eyes, we decided to bring in the new year with the rediscovery of some hidden gems, right under our very noses!
these hot off the press reports come from our intrepid field explorer Richard Brook – thanks to him for the text, images and gorgeous architectural drawings.
plus, as a special one off treat, no RIP! this month it’s all about the Good News.....so settle down as Field Agent Brook reveals the story of two hidden chapels.
January features - hidden chapels
There are few buildings of the twentieth century that escape the curious eye of the MMS and their field agents, but occasionally from behind a wall or tucked away in some private realm a covert artefact reveals itself. One of the main stakeholders in land to the south of the city is the University and between the old institutions and the more recent pretenders there is a wealth of modern architecture to behold.
 
HULME HALL CHAPEL, HULME HALL,
JRG Seward, (of Cruickshank & Seward), 1968 – present
At Hulme Hall the alterations and additions to the existing buildings were designed by Bernard Taylor and Partners, but the chapel was in the hands of JRG Seward, founding partner of Cruickshank & Seward. The halls of residence assumed the form of courtyards and cloisters which engender a certain collegiate atmosphere, but also restrict the permeability of the site and although the blank, monolithic walls of the chapel do peep over the boundary wall of the plot, it retains an air of secrecy.
Completed in 1968, the chapel was dedicated on January 21st by the Bishop of Manchester. It was designed to seat 150 persons and to accommodate drama and music recitals as well as religious services. The simple volumes are formed from a series of offset arcs and curves in plan, extruded to ascending heights and finished in a dark engineering brick. This simplicity makes homage to the classical volute in plan but also affords a welcoming sequential experience to the visitor as the volumes increase as one moves from the narthex through to the sanctuary. The ecumenical nature of the space means that it is absent of any doctrinal symbolism although the natural world is permitted its glory; the east window, behind the altar, frames a view of a large copper beech tree at the bequest of the Bishop who was of the opinion that ‘a view of nature was infinitely preferable to the art of man.
The private and secluded nature of each of these chapels and their singular function has permitted these buildings to remain virtually unchanged since their construction and they are a pair of rare survivors in this regard. They are not alone as hidden religious spaces within the university. The chaplaincy itself, which flanks the Precinct Centre on Oxford Road, is also by Cruickshank & Seward (after Aalto) and as well as their main celebration space (sadly altered in the 1980s) there is a small top-lit chapel for contemplative prayer off the walkway which connects through to the Kilburn building. In an increasingly secular world and with one eye on preservation it seems that religion is one of the few devices that guarantees the continuity of space and material that is often otherwise lost.
hulme hall chapel - modernist icon - january 2011
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the perils of post war public sculpture - Mr Rhead investigates!
Here at the Manchester Modernist Society we do like a good bit of public art and we heartened therefore to see two stories recently about two separate pieces of public art that then got us thinking about other pieces around and about. The first story was concerning a piece called Man and Technic which was in the grounds of the former Brookway High School in Wythenshawe. Designed by Mitzi Cuncliffe it had been badly treated over the years and when it was announced the school was being rebuilt and 'rebranded' as The Manchester Health Academy our hearts sank. However the piece has been retained and given pride of place outside the front entrance. Go down and see it if you get the chance.
The other story was concerning a brand new work erected in memory of the late Andy Robson, a well respected Manchester architect, in Spinningfields. Whilst any new public art is to welcomed it stirred us into remembering a piece of public art that Spinningfields already had and which has mysteriously disappeared.
Vigilance, Keith Godwin
MEN forecourt, deansgate, 1971 - 2003
Vigilance was erected in 1971 and was designed by Keith Godwin. For those with short memories it stood between the Rylands Library and the old Manchester Evening News offices in a small pedestrian square. Its position next to the Manchester Evening News was not arbitrary, having been commissioned by The Scott Trust to mark the centenary of the newspaper.
Godwin was Head of Sculpture at Manchester regional College of Art at the time and his design was stainless steel fins and plates above a concrete pedestal. The base was made of a red aggregate to acknowledge the red sandstone of the Rylands Library and nearby benches were cast in the same aggregate. A small plaque set into the floor explained the reason for the commission. It was a powerful piece, very much at odds stylistically with the Rylands but at the same time very complimentary.
When redevelopment of the whole Spinningfields area commenced in 2003 the piece was removed on the understanding it would be re-sited. This has not happened and no satisfactory answer can be gained from the developer Allied London. The Manchester Evening News has now decamped to Chadderton – severing any historical link with the area and presumably having little or no interest for the fate of the art work commissioned in its honour.
File under – Missing In Action.
mms rant dec 2010
for images and background
information we are indebted to the following invaluable resource -
Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester (Public Sculpture of Britain) [Paperback]
Terry Wyke, Liverpool University Press
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manchester's beautiful beton brutes....
in september’s feature of the month, we raised the thorny issue of brutalism and its overwhelming association with the mass social housing project of the post war era – the two have almost become synonymous (at least to its detractors), calling to mind the fortress-like estates of robin hood gardens and thamesmead in London or nearer to home the hulme crescents and fort ardwick.
yet its tough, uncompromising truth to materials and lack of window dressing is what makes it uniquely indigenous – particularly british if you like, a fittingly home spun take on the European template in the tradition of our brochs, keeps and castles – all arrow slits and impregnability as befits our island mentality and unforgiving climate - overtaking the previous softer era of Scandinavian inspired humanistic modernism.
away from the domestic environment however these attributes have been rather more positively received, even dare we say it, admired? this month we take a peep at three classic manchester bunkers, buildings that even the most critical architectural tomes have heaped with praise for their practicality, elegance and truth to materials, each notable for their wealth of texture, attention to detail and geniality once past the tough carapace.
Architecture and Planning Building, Oxford Rd, Manchester University.
Kantorovitch, Schonegevel & Skace,1970
often referred to as ‘the bunker’ due to its fortress-like appearance or the Kantarovitch after its architect, this was originally the planning and architecture complex, now home to the Humanities Department of the post merger super – University.
designed jointly by the heads of both departments, it perfectly reflects the specific requirements of the new academic school, complete with study rooms, lecture theatres, library and cafe, all built around an attractive inner courtyard with water pools which even housed the long term loan of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture (Head of Ra 1972, on loan from the Hepworth Estate, sadly now returned).
externally the kantorowich is the classic brutalist bunker, typically dividing opinion with as many detractors as admirers – long and low, the building hugs the landscape like a world war two military bunker. whilst detractors fixate on the rough grey concrete with its repetitive grooved ribs, a more open minded examination reveals a classical symmetry more akin to the Parthenon – qualities made even more manifest next to its nondescript new neighbour, now juxtaposed in a telling face-off – commercial multi-functional supplanting specialised and bespoke. between them lies a continent of architectural and ideological idiom - last survivor of an era when buildings were made to measure versus the one size fits all anonymity of the new campus, more retail park than temple to learning.
in contrast our bunker is rich in texture, detail and restrained glamour, those endless verticals, deep inset windows and basement portholes exuding an air of palladium order and elegant refinement, a place fit for the proper contemplation, philosophising and devotion to architecture and planning. and true to its brutalist ethic, inside is a revelation with its double height foyers, bush hammered concrete columns, lovely ceramic tiles and highly polished hardwoods.
an intriguing postscript for Manchester plan obsessives is the recess at the south end and answering projection at the north end which has removable panels to receive those upper level walkway links east and west that were never to materialize around the University campus.
mms rant - lone survivor in midst of bland new supercampus? nov 2010
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SIGNS OF THE TIMES - whats in a name?
this month we are investigate the stories behind three Manchester landmarks famous as much for their typefaces - evocative messages in font – as for their architectural significance, their individual trials and tribulations revealing much about changing attitudes and times.
a david and goliath tale in neon....
GRANADALAND - AT RISK ICON!
the beginning of the end for granada really began in 2003 when it became subsumed in to the itv brand but remained inscribed on our skyline in bold crimson font - the warm glow of its giant letters welcoming strangers and locals alike into the distinctly northern bosom of GranadaLand.
and we have taken it to our hearts. granada stood for independence and a certain counter cultural spirit. more than mere nostalgia it is a tangible, ocular reminder to guard against orthodoxy, centralisation and mediocrity and most importantly against falling for our own hype – a beacon to successive generations born or drawn here, to stay and strive for excellence in whatever we do, to be bold and innovative, to set the agenda, nurture new talent, right here in our home town.
as an illumination alone it is unusual and noteworthy. the city simply doesn’t have many such signs and certainly very few of that era and style. and besides the simple fact of its typographical importance, it’s a compelling visual signifier and cultural icon, every bit as emblematic as the welcome to hollywood sign is to tinseltown! no wonder then that for many its unceremonious removal one Saturday morning amounts to serious cultural vandalism.
from the north - this is Granadaland
it took itv several years to finally take the old logo down but a look at the reaction on the Manchester evening news, bbc and even its own website indicate that the city held this redundant old sign closer to its heart than it had perhaps realised.
so just what’s in a name? Granada might have started out as a fondly remembered holiday destination by a London media mogal but before long it had come to personify a smog drenched region of the north west of England. much as Ancoats is regarded as the heart and birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, so Granada marks the birthplace of the media revolution. most of what Manchester proudly proclaims itself to be today owes much to the existence of Granada, its pioneering spirit and unique place in the history of the media....
everything about Granada, from its festival of Britain era headquarters, its groundbreaking programming, to the neon sign boldly emblazoned Hollywood style in deep red on the skyline, was revolutionary and trail blazing. its contribution to television production internationally cannot be understated - the first television appearance by the Beatles, productions featuring such luminaries as Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, outstanding dramas such as Brideshead Revisited and Jewel in the Crown, the groundbreaking World in Action programme, and of course the world’s longest running soap opera, Coronation Street have all contributed to an illustrious output from this site. and as phil griffin has said its contribution to the history of television is unequalled – it shaped and defined what television could be.
Granada House, Atherton Street,
Ralph Tubbs 1960-62
Granada House was built by Ralph Tubbs, whose modernist credentials include the centrepiece for the 1951 Festival of Britain, for Sidney Bernstein, Granada’s chairman, for his new venture: Granada Television. And no expense was spared on the commission of this landmark office and studio complex, the UK’s first ever purpose built television studios, predating BBC’s television centre by four years, and the first significant commercial development of the post war period on bomb ravaged land. the entire enterprise was a massive boost to morale and was to prove pivotal to the city’s recovery over the next half century.
no surprises then, that given the prestigious occasion and famous architect, the building is of great architectural merit. Granada House was one of the first buildings in the city to be constructed using the curtain wall method. Constructed in phases, the low two-storey building on New Quay Street came first with the larger eight-storey Granada House added later. the usual suspects of the Manchester architectural press, Sharp, Pevsner and Parkinson Bailey all wax lyrical about its gravitas, dignity and impeccable materials.
for dennis sharp ‘the later stages are possibly the best essays in curtain walling design in the city, now considered passé as a method but still retaining a freshness in themselves, the most recent phase gains in its architectural treatment by greater articulation at ground level’,
while eddy rhead gives the low down on the meticulous finish in this illuminating essay way back in 2005 to the twentieth century society; ‘the outer skin of the building is of light grey granite walls with the main facades glass, with their highly polished black gabbro sills, separated by white marble and grey limestone supports. High building standards have meant little or no renovation has been needed to the façade of the building, leaving the original outside fabric unaltered.’
rhead also explains the Granada manifesto perfectly -
Granada was determined to develop a strong Northern identity for themselves—Northern voices, Northern programmes, Northern identities (Granada in the North, From The North—Granada and Granadaland). This was counter to the practice of the other franchisees, who adopted fairly non-descript names such as ABC, ATV. The Northern identity immediately set Granada apart, making them immovable and embedding the company into the psyche of its viewers—so much so that the term "Granada" to this day instantly means Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cheshire to many viewers...
It was to become the most enterprising and radical of the commercial tv companies and help cement the mancunian belief that popular culture, even cultural revolution, was capable of happening without reference or resort to the lure and facilities of the capital – a spirit captured in its music especially – a part prominently played by Granada with programmes such as revolver and so it goes, thanks mainly to the handy placing of local journalist tony wilson who presented Granada Reports….the rest for at least one generation is history, so often told that we needn’t bother you with it here.
as phil griffin, curator of the recent urbis exhibition dedicated to Granada, put it, "In the 1990s, what we came to recognise as 'Manchester attitude' was something, I would argue, began on that day in May 1956 when, for the first time, in voiceover a voice said: 'From the North, this is Granada.'
mms rant. granada - at risk. oct 2010
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the big experiment - the rise and fall of mass social housing
so, does the urban splash phenomenon demonstrate that it is time for a reappraisal? housing remains high on the social and political agenda – is there a place for rehabilitating or ‘mending’ modernism in this form? can buildings that once epitomised the idea of progressive social utopias ever again become sustainable modes of city living?
our last of this months trio perhaps offers a way forward...
BENTLEY HOUSE ESTATE, HULME, 1947-49
sitting quietly on the edge of the Mancunian way, the Bentley house estate, better known as the redbricks, is hulme’s great survivor – an architectural bridge between the old terraced Hulme and the regenerated Hulme of the 90’s. distinctive in their curvy, deco-ish design and sturdy red bricks, these early post-war flats have witnessed the original programme of slum clearance, the rise and fall of the concrete era with its ‘highways in the sky’, and the emergence of the present day ‘Bellway’ Hulme - a mix of street fronted maisonettes and larger ‘luxury apartment’ complexes. in short it is one of the few remaining parts of Hulme not to have undergone regeneration through demolition and new build.
Bentley house estate comprises six blocks of three storey high flats, with 248 homes in total. they were built around 1950 of red brick - hence the local name of 'Redbricks'. the estate is small and relatively low rise, grouped around Jackson Crescent, and made up of Humberstone Avenue, Hunmanby Avenue and Rockdove Avenue. it represents a sort of halfway house between the municipal-eras conflicting visions that advocated cottage style 3 bedroom homes for all, complete with garden and street access, yet had little option but to implement multi occupancy deck access blocks. perhaps that has been the secret to their endurance and sustained popularity even at their most neglected.
all but forgotten by the mid 90’s, the redbricks seemed doomed to be yet another victim of the general inertia towards council estates by local authorities until the combination of long time residents with ‘refugees’ moved on by the crescents demolition became the backbone of a new era, doubtless spurred on by the wider changes during the regeneration happening around them. with the most to gain or lose from regeneration or the continuing degeneration, their aim was simply to stop the erosion and have some say in their own future.
the redbricks have often been regarded as something of a haven for retired ecowarriors, ravers, vegans, mavericks and activists – the dying embers of the notorious / glorious Peoples Republic of Hulme. a little corner of resistance to the platitudes of current regeneration models. but for many it represents a grass roots, bottom up alternative to the pull it down and start again mantra – a model of sustainability and community spirit.
the redbricks have been in the vanguard of many neighbourhood initiatives and experiments – it developed redbricks online, the country’s first virtual online community; nurtured the strips of green landscaping between the blocks into the legendary Leaf St community garden; has an active residents association and community centre, is committed to recycling and has formed its own permaculture group and radio station. recently incorporated into south city homes, this self made, diy approach to neighbourhood management, inspired by the unique histories of Hulme, the anarchic spirit of the crescents and perhaps well known ‘hippy’ communes such as Christiania on the edge of copenhagen, doubtless faces new opportunities and challenges.
want to know more about the history and future of Bentley house estate then visit their website, and nip along to one of their events or activities.
ps. apologies to peter boyle for 'borrowing' his lovely image, more of which can be enjoyed on flickr
bentley house. innovator & survivor. sept 2010
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Here comes Summer - august bank holiday special!
rather than strain the overheated brain with actual reading or having to take those natty sun glasses off, we have dedicated the summer month with a photo album filled with the kinds of jolly afternoon off trips we might have been making back in the modernist day....
you would hardly guess it now but bowling was all the rage in the 60's and 70's and even the smallest local park had a smart bowling green with all the equipment for hire at silly prices, affordable to most. failing that - or if the greens were just all booked out, which was almost always the case - there was always pitch and put.
sadly most of these have bitten the dust and our heartfelt wish to set up an mms bowling team seems sadly doomed. even the green at fletcher moss has become a rather underwhelming rose garden.
here's what you're missing.....
plymouth grove, ardwick, late sixties
sandal street green, ancoats, 1965
kincardine rd bowling green, brunswick, 1970
mms rant. at risk. aug 2010
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this july is dedicated to maligned manchester monuments of the post war era, a period declared by the twentieth century society as particularly fragile and vunerable, a situation not helped by the regular antipathy meted out to it both in the popular press and specialist publications.
here we highlight three local monuments that have suffered the indignity of the press...
EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE OFFICE, AYTOUN ST
E.H. Montague Ebbs/David Thompson 1936-1951
The old UBO office skulks forlornly behind the Malmaison Hotel (once similarly derelict and unkempt) behind Piccadilly Station. Described in the Manchester Pevsner Guide as ‘brick, thin and cheap’, this austere beauty has been left to rot since its closure in 1993. Unloved, even reviled by the public (mainly it seems for its usage more than its actual design) it’s been gutted, partly demolished, squatted and long earmarked for demolition. Plans for yet another Simpson 40 floor glass tower by the now defunct Albany Crown have fallen to the recession, so surely this is the perfect time to reassess the pitiful state of post war architecture in this city and rehabilitate rather than demolish this quietly elegant beast.
The UBO was designed in 1936 but not built until after the war and completed in 1951. It had been intended to be much more of a grand edifice, traces of which can be spied in some of its typically thirties flourishes, especially the curves on the side elevation and the porthole windows reminiscent of a glamorous ocean liner, but the war and subsequent austerity measures put paid to any lavish materials or luxury finish.
Despite all this, perhaps even because of it, it is effectively the only building of its size and scale in the city –try the Bentley estate in Hulme (the much loved Redbricks) or the University Dental Hospital for similar austerity period survivors - and it deserves to take its place with such Modernist landmarks as the Baltic and the Tate Modern, two other distinctly monumental beasties re-envisioned to truly iconic effect.
The loss of this building would seriously impoverish the architectural legacy of our cityscape. Manchester needs to think big and find a use for the UBO before it’s too late. Its key position in the gateway to the city behind Piccadilly Station and the Metrolink should guarantee its successful conversion rather than demolition, its austere grandeur adding to the rich architectural history of the area, fitting neatly next to the gorgeously fin de siècle decadence of the Malmaison and the sexily sinuous Gateway House.
but I guess then someone would have to insist that the long slow decay of the Fire Station across the road was a similar disgrace!
mms rant. at risk. july 2010
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mappa modernista june 2010
the Manchester Modernist Society, in partnership with Taylor Young Architects, introduce an interactive online map of 20th century Manchester’s architectural landmarks, presented as part of MADF2010.
recent campaigns and listings controversies seem to indicate there has never been a more fitting time to appraise the state of the 20th century urban landscape. So here at mms we have embarked on our very own archive of the city, an attempt to create a database and living map of the buildings we lived in, loathed, loved and lost over the past century. An opportunity to reflect on the changes social, economic and cultural carved onto the very fabric of the city and reappraise some of the misunderstandings, failings and controversies surrounding the last 90 years from civic planning aspiration, post war reconstruction, post industrial decline to regeneration via commercially led property development and the resulting impact on our public realm, our skylines and our sense of place.
our mappa modernista has more in common with the tradition of hand drawn unconventional map than with the standard street map with its proper rules and conventions. and like them our intention is to direct or inspire peregrinations, to stir the imagination and kick start a love affair with the everyday city, a city quickly fading into the past. Forgotten, neglected, demolished or overwhelmed by glitzy newcomers, we almost need x-ray specs to de-clutter the skyline and revisit the modernist city.
peel away the accumulated grime and clutter obscuring your vision & pop on those metaphorical 3 d glasses as we whisk you away on a rollercoaster ride through the 20th century.....
BRUTAL - a dozen brutalist beauties, totemic monuments and landmarks of the Manchester skyline, love ‘em or loath ‘em, they embody the uncompromising spirit of their age. so consider anew our own shortlist – re-imagined as everybody’s favourite antiheroes, the city becomes alive with a veritable league of brooding Mr Darcys or moody but magnificent Heathcliffes!
make a dangerous liaison with Aldine House/Riverside, Fairburn House/Renaissance Ramada Deansgate, the Arndale Centre, Bank of England Charlotte St, Lowry House & Post office Tower Spring Gardens, Piccadilly Plaza, Holloway Wall UMIST, RNCM Oxford Rd, the Kantoravitch University Campus. be careful you might fall dangerously in love!
mms rant. at risk june 2010
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modernist month of may - tales from the red phone box....
our saga of the Red phone booth coincides with the commissioning of our K6 sound installation running at MOSI throughout FutureEverything festival may 2010, continues with the spectacular roll out of the K6 across the nation in 1935...
the K6 was lighter & smaller than the prototype K2
K6, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott,
one on every corner, everywhere, 1935 – 1965
THE CLASSIC
designed once again by Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott in 1935 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, this was the first truly national or nationwide kiosk, often referred to as the "London" or "English" phone box. it’s the one tourists the world over have their photos taken inside and still evokes the UK landscape whether bustling city or windswept countryside.
that essential tweaking of the K2 can also be spied throughout - the windows give greater visibility with the central panel of each horizontal band being wider that the others, whilst for night use there was an interior light (on a timer). the K6 also featured a writing shelf and, according to the GPO, "combined a smaller exterior with a roomier interior."
about 70, 000 k6’s were installed across the length and breadth of the country from 1936-1965 including four major design changes. boxes from the original 1936 Jubilee Kiosk programme of 8000 boxes have the entry and exit holes for the cable runs on opposite sides of the rear base of the box. from 1939, improved security measures called for a redesign that saw window frames rivetted rather than screwed, improved coin box fixings and the cable runs now brought together on one side of the box. also until 1952 all kiosks bore the Tudor Crown, until the present Queen introduced the St Edward’s crown, the one used for all coronations. this change happened in 1955 affecting all public telephones across the Empire, a useful dating clue for those obsessed by typological ordering.
although we think of the K6 as the red phone booth, there are some notable exceptions - kiosks installed in Hull were not fitted with a crown at all as they were installed by the Hull Corporation & were painted cream. they are also distinguishable by the complete absence of the crown, tudor or otherwise!
meanwhile there were battles fought across the land about the strident red colour, which wasn’t immediately well received and exceptions were made to appease their roll out - boxes for use in areas of outstanding natural beauty, could be painted Dark Battleship Grey with PO red window bars.
these teething problems ironed out the K6 was to dominate the landscape for the next 30 years until the break-up of the gpo and the introduction of the new generation telecom boxes. in reality people increasingly had a phone in their own home, then came the mobile phone, the home computer and wifi, changing the way we communicate yet again, and making the need for these miniature buildings almost entirely obsolete. decommission was inevitable by the late 1980’s. yet the redundant k6 had an army of devotees, and a series of public campaigns led to some protection for some of the stragglers, with around 3000 becoming listed.
nowadays any surviving K6 can be designated a Grade II listed structure. the 4 survivors in city centre Manchester (two in st peters square, one on the corner of deansgate and Liverpool rd, and one on the top of st johns street) fall into this lucky category. they are in a pitiful state despite residing in prominent conservqtion areas of our 'original, modern city'.
pity that marketerrs tag doesnt extend to the truly original & modernistic K6.....
mms rant. at risk. may 2010
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Aldine House, now Riverside, New Bailey Street,
Leach Rhodes Walker, 1966.
Hot on the heels of their quirkily elegant Highland House, LRW’s dominance on the 60’s skyline continued in dramatic style with an entire modernist landscape created for the land commission - 5 interlocking blocks, each 5 storeys in height, comprising aldine, baskerville, cloister and delphine house (reputedly named after modernist typefaces), grouped around a shared courtyard to foster a sense of cohesion and community for the governmental departments moving onto the banks of the Irwell.
inventive as ever, LRW didn’t simply impose as much bulky real estate on the strip of land available to them, but responded to the brief with what cube poetically describes as ‘restraint with expressionism’, incorporating some nifty technical innovations to counter the weathering inherent in the nature of modern buildings along the way. lack of cornices and sills meant water was no longer thrown off the surfaces of walls crafted in this new idiom, whilst joints between cladding allowed water to run down facades and create staining. the challenge for any reputable architectural practice was to reduce the harsh effects of the british climate on these vast expenses of concrete - decorative panels were one recurring solution for many around this time, (seen to brilliant effect in bush hammered brown concrete with abstract reliefs by William Mitchell at the humanities building (bdp) behind the academy on oxford rd) but here ribbing was tried instead to striking visual effect. it’s hard to imagine conventional windows here – they would be lost in this bold yet playful vertical stripe - so those commodore-pet computer screen funnel holes on Victoria bridge resurface, but revved to the max to hold their own in this new context.
this is 60’s modernism at its best, a glimpse of utopia articulated through the collaboration of new materials, technical innovation, excellent design and artistic expression. we’re not the only ones in awe of this fabulous yet often overlooked Salford gem - cube’s city walking tour enthuses suitably with this description;
‘counterbalancing pre cast sculptural concrete panels and articulated round cornered stair towers with a miesian black marble pavilion, it neatly counterpoints restraint with expressionism in a scheme that was envisaged would range from 5 storeys to 16’,
whilst over on archisnaps griffin wagers that LRW lavished the development with meticulous care because it was earmarked as their new home – the black marble pavilion has been LRW’s headquarters ever since.
even today, glimpsed behind glass and officious security, who won’t let you pause to peer in let alone whip out a camera, their attention to detail and typically generous landscaping can be appreciated, a haven of peaceful nooks next to the soothing lullaby of water features, artwork and vibrant sculptures, an oasis in the city and the demands of the workplace.
ignored for decades, partially by living on the salford side of the river which escaped the full brunt of post bomb demolition / regeneration fever, dark days glowered recently over the complex when bruntwood bought it with the intention of demolishing elements including the pavilion itself, to make way for a five-star hotel and a 30 storey residential tower next to the Lowry Hotel, as well as 100,000 sq feet of office space, split between two buildings. and in a bizarre twist of fate, LRW were the firm commissioned to overhaul or eradicate their own baby.
manchester confidential took up the sorry tale, whilst Architects' Journal, May 24, 2007, predicted widespread uproar at the loss of this ‘iconic’ masterpiece.
the economic ‘downturn’ seems to have seen bruntwoods plans temporarily shelved, with the site given a lick of paint and rebranded riverside west, complete with some hi spec glossy images to drool over.
however watch this space as this side of the river is on the up and the safety of this little piece of 60’s lunar-vision can’t fully be taken for granted....
mms rant. at risk. april 2010
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Now is a good time to Save the Odeon!
The planning permission for the demolition of the Odeon, Oxford Street, Manchester is about to run out.
The developer needs to reapply. We can all put pressure on the planners to reject this. We now have a second chance to stop the demolition.
You still have time to comment on the application. We all need to comment on the application - online or in writing.
Click here to go to the application:
If you click on Submit Comments and tick the 'I live outside the area' button you can leave comments. (You don’t have to live outside the area to use this box, but it’s a simpler way to the comments form.)
We need to make comments that are relevant to the planning process and the main arguments should be along the lines of: (put them into your own words!)
a) The original application was fundamentally flawed:
It was too big. It overwhelms all the buildings around it. The mass and elevations create a large white box - totally at odds with the materials and form of its neighbours.
The original application was made when the Manchester property market was over heated. There was little evidence of the demand for this large amount of office space at the time and, as the economy is hardly out of recession, the argument for increased office space is questionable. There is an over supply of office space in Manchester.
b) The original building makes a positive contribution to the Conservation Area.
The new office development and the demolition of the Odeon does nothing to contribute to the Conservation Area in which it sits, new developments should preserveor enhance the historic character of the area, this proposal does neither. This proposal should therefore not receive Conservation Area consent.
Little or no attempt was made to find an alternative use for the building. In the mean time the Royal Opera have sought a home in Manchester and the Library Theatre is temporarily homeless, both these could have been ‘potential’ new occupants.
c) The building should not be left to decay into an eyesore – if planning permission is granted, the council should enforce the developer to act on it - and not merely allow the developer to use planning permission as a temporary holding position, in order for them to wait until they chose to maximize their own profitability from their asset.
Click here to go to the application. please help to persuade the planners that the time has come for a different approach and a rethink on this iconic Manchester building.
mms rant. at risk. march 2010
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Preston Bus Station, Preston,
Ingham & Wilson of BDP, 1969 – present...
40 miles north of Manchester is recently citified Preston. The former milltown has ambitions to be the ‘third city of the North West’ (sorry about that, Salford) and, for over 10 years, it has planned to build Tithebarn, a new retail ‘quarter’. To clear the site for redevelopment the Council and the developers want to demolish Preston Bus Station. This is an iconic modernist masterwork. It was designed by Keith Ingham and Charles Wilson of Building Design Partnership, which was then based in Preston, and it opened in 1969. The building houses an 80 bay bus station and accommodation for 1,100 cars. It was designed so that extra storeys could be added above the 4-5 parking levels. Preston is a regional public transport hub. Until the 1980s it was the centre of Ribble Motor Services whose bus empire stretched from Carlisle to Trumpet Street garage in Manchester.
The building is made of reinforced and precast concrete but it seems to hover above a glazed ground level which is especially exciting when lit at dusk. The curved form of the parking lot floor edges helps to reduce loadings; they prevent cars from hitting the vertical wall. The curve creates a dramatic organic, almost sculptural, structure. The cover balustrade protects passengers from the weather by allowing double desk buses to penetrate beneath the lower parking level. Originally the station was carefully detailed and signed, in Ingham’s characteristic attention to materials, design and graphics. Preston Council’s poor management, especially since bus deregulation, has led to a sad decline in the condition of this fine structure. A recent attempt to have the bus station listed, which was warmly supported by English Heritage, was turned down by the minister Margaret Hodge because she claimed the building was not ‘fit for purpose’.
The terrier-like Twentieth Century Society is seeking a review of this decision because they argue fitness isn’t a sufficient ground for not listing. But there’s a £700 million development at stake so you can guess what may be the station’s fate. It’s just about hanging on now but you may need to see it now before it’s reduced to a pile of rubble. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Many thanks to Aidan Turner-Bishop,Chair of the North West Group of the Twentieth Century Society, for this months
AT RISK RANT, FEBRUARY 2010
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The Odeon Cinema, formerly The Paramount, Oxford St,
F. Verity and S. Beverley, 1930 - closed September 2004.
The Odeon, now lying hollow and stripped bare, opened with suitable pomp and ceremony, all faux art deco complete with flattened pilasters and stylized capitals, on Monday 16 October 1930 as The Paramount Theatre, a flashy American import to Oxford St. The architects Verity & Beverley were Paramount's regular architects for their UK enterprise, also responsible for the Paramount Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingam and Tottenham Court Road, London, and this was completed in record time, accommodating 1400 in the stalls, 650 in the mezzanine and 950 in the grand circle and balcony. Sumptuous and colossal with this seating capacity of 3000, the local press described it as the ‘last word in sound cinematograph entertainment’, but it nevertheless had to turn away over a thousand people on its famous opening night, which pulled out all the stops with a big US release The Love Parade, as well as presenting variety acts, a ‘parade of beauty’ (starlets from the American studio), and the Paramount organ, which dramatically rose up through the stage on the left of the screen.
More lavish and luxurious than other Manchester venues, the Paramount soon became a Mecca for picturegoers, regularly scooping up all the biggest and best new releases, especially those from the Paramount studios, and being the first to offer innovations such as techicolour and wide screen.
By 1940 however Paramount had sold off some of its UK cinemas to the Odeon circuit and so it suddenly became the Odeon, remaining one of the most popular city centre cinemas well into the 1960’s, successfully complementing its screenings with occasional live concerts, such as the Beach Boys, until its long, slow demise started in earnest in the seventies. Like many other picture houses, this was the era that saw successive attempts to lure an audience, seduced into home entertainment with the introduction of television, back into the cinema. It was twinned in 1973, triplexed in 1979, with a further four screens created in 1992. With each adaptation there was a commensurate loss in the original grandeur and architectural integrity of the design. By the end of its life the resulting seven screens were no bigger than many suburban sitting rooms and the introduction of the mega complexes in the nineties were the last straw for the old guard. The cinema was closed in September 2004 due to competition from the AMC Great Northern 16, which had opened nearby in December 2001. Long boarded up, nominally its not yet deceased, but in reality it’s a dead man walking…
The story doesn’t end there. Earmarked for demolition and redevelopment into the inevitable office block with ground floor retail or more likely bar/restaurant use, a campaign to save the Odeon led by the Cinema Theatre Association ensued. Finally in a hotly contested decision, English Heritage dismissed any last minute attempts to list the building, standing by their earlier decision that the building had been too badly mutilated in the course of its life to merit it.
For the long and tragic saga of the attempt to save the Odeon from demolition, read over the emotional and informative trail of comments below the main posting, taking us from 2004 up to the present sorry state of affairs; or try any of Aidan O’Rourke’s popular Manchester forums for the general mood of Manchester’s citizens, many of whom acknowledge the difficulties and inherent tensions in marrying nostalgia and cultural heritage concerns with the contemporary needs of an ever changing urban environment.
***Once again MMS is indebted to voices and narrators far more learned on this topic than ourselves. We have shamelessly adapted the following illuminating sources –
Derek J Southall, Magic in the Dark, Cinema Treasures informative website, and David Slack’s reminiscences on 70mm.com.
Over on flickr the words and gorgeous photos of woody1969 are highly recommended.
mms rant. at risk. january 2010
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As you might have noticed, gentle reader, we have declared an amnesty for the festive season, temporarily relenting on our monthly rants and tirades to bring you three of Mr Eddy Rheads favourite modernist houses of worship.....enjoy this gesture whilst ye may, to prepare yourselves for the challenges of 2010! Ho, ho, ho.....
 
William Temple Memorial Church,Wythenshawe,
George Gaze Pace, 1963-5 - present day
The same could perhaps be said of George Gaze Pace, one of Britain’s finest post war church architects, in that Manchester not has not one but two Pace churches. St Marks in Chadderton is a magnificent building but for originality of design Wythenshawe‘s William Temple Memorial Church, from 1963-65, edges it.
According to Pace’s son, Peter, the design resulted from two years of collaboration between the vicar, the parochial church council and the architect. They worked out from first principles the liturgical arrangement of the new church. Because of budgetary restraints it was necessary to use a simple and economic structural system. At the time of its building some were disturbed by its ‘unnecessarily brutal’ exterior design. Perhaps the location of the church, in Manchester’s largest overspill estate made this necessary, but never the less it is difficult to find other churches with such a distinctive design language.
Internally, the steel girders were used when it was discovered that, because of the swampy site, the planned wooden beams of the original design had to be changed for cheaper steel ones. An extra £2000 was needed for the foundations, hence the substitution of steel girders. Pace stipulated that there should be no plaques attached to the walls for he built his churches only for the Glory of God. The only lettered stone is on the back wall of the church. It has the date of consecration and a symbol, which is Pace’s original sign for the William Temple Memorial Church.
Pace often used furniture from other churches – ‘recycled’ we would say now – to encourage some sacred continuity and to save money. William Temple Church used redundant church benches from old Manchester churches. Deakin quotes a former churchwarden who recalled that, “Whenever we heard of a church being demolished we borrowed Mr Owen’s coal cart and went off to see if we could buy any of the pews. Many times I’ve sat on the back of the waggon, in the pouring rain, with pews, bringing them back to Wythenshawe to be stored until our church building was completed!”
Sometime after the church was opened a fire damaged some of the old pews. With the insurance money all the pews were stripped and limed. Using the old pews from closed inner-city churches was also appreciated by Wythenshavians who felt that, although they had been ‘slum-cleared’, they might be using the same pews in which their ancestors once sat.
*****thanks to Eddy Rhead for text and images - december 2009
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Gateway house,Station Approach, Piccadilly Rail Station,
Richart Seifert & Partners,1967-9
Entering the most difficult period of British architecture, with much of its output loathed by critics and public alike, we daringly present an undisputed icon of the 60’s for this month’s At Risk section….an elegant if slightly faded sinuous sliver of glass, complete with large panels of specially commissioned artworks along the back elevation, much loved by the local and visiting population.
Dominating the entire length of Piccadilly Station approach, Gateway House is probably the visitor's first view of Manchester. Replacing a row of nineteenth century railway warehouses, it was built as part of the 1960’s refurbishment of Piccadilly Station, by Richard Seifert & Partners, and completed in 1969. Nicknamed the lazy ‘S’ and reputedly designed by Seifert from a doodle on a menu, this is undoubtedly one of this controversial architect’s most loveable buildings, one that commands grudging respect even from the hard to please Hartwell, who refers to it in the Manchester Architectural Guide as ‘a very impressive long, sweeping, undulating façade, the horizontals stressed throughout. One of the best office blocks in Manchester, its glittering serpentine shape well suited to the sloping site.’
R. Seifert & Partners, established by Richard Seifert in 1947, became known for several prominent high-rise buildings in London, notably Centre Point and Tower 42 (originally the Nat West Tower) as well as about 500 office blocks throughout Europe. Locally he also designed Hexagon House in Blackley.
In his time, Seifert was widely regarded as having done more to change the skyline of London than any other architect since Sir Christopher Wren and was also Britain's first architect millionaire, but much of his long and prolific career was dogged by controversy and various conservationists battles opposed to his projects. His new Euston Station, completed in 1968 after the unpopular demolition of the Victorian edifice and Euston Arch, was declared by Richard Morrison quite recently in the Times to be
"even by the bleak standards of Sixties architecture, Euston is one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London: devoid of any decorative merit; seemingly concocted to induce maximum angst among passengers; and a blight on surrounding streets. The design should never have left the drawing-board - if, indeed, it was ever on a drawing-board. It gives the impression of having been scribbled on the back of a soiled paper bag by a thuggish android with a grudge against humanity and a vampiric loathing of sunlight".
In fact, the demolition of the old Euston Station building in 1962 is regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain and attempts to save the building led to the formation of The Victorian Society and heralded in the modern conservation movement. His Guardian obituary in 2001 can be read as a concise history of the postwar building/reconstruction era, despised, maligned, opposed and finally/belatedly celebrated for his contribution to modern architecture. After a lifelong antipathy to his projects, the RFAC (Royal Fine Art Commission) called for the listing of Centre Point in 1993 for its "elegance worthy of a Wren steeple". The Londonist is a concise and highly critical overview of his mark or, as they dub it, stain on their skyline. Well worth a read…
So it’s hard to miss the irony in a recent report in Building Design magazineof plans by current owners Realty Estates for speculative redevelopment of Gateway House by open competition, declaringthe current building “tired”, requiring a major revamp to accommodate modern offices, with the brief to architects a “blank canvas”. Realty is reputedly open-minded on whether to retain or replace the current building, saying “the city council has been very open and did not say we must keep the building. But if the proposal is to demolish it we need a very good reason to do that.” For the full story read the article here:
For more information about the building and its possible redevelopment, visit Save Gateway House on our facebook page, and if like us you love the Lazy ‘S’ please send an email expressing your dismay to those in charge of planning the city!
This is one Seifert that deserves to stay….
mms rant. at risk. november 2009
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This month we are celebrating our 6 month birthday with the launch of our first mini publication, a set of 4 classic modernist Manchester postcards, so it seemed only right to dedicate our features of the month sections to these truly iconic beauties….
The Toast Rack, Manchester University Hollings Campus, Wilmslow Rd,
LC Howitt, 1958 – 60, Grade II listed.
The Toast Rack has to rank as Manchester’s most unusual and audacious building, far more in fact than the much touted Iconic gestures of the 90’s building boom such as London’s famous Gherkin et al. And in 1960 when the "toast rack" opened, the local press and a vocal minority of the general public had plenty to say about it - much of it critical - but even the hard to please renowned architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner proclaimed it as "a perfect piece of pop architecture". Ironic indeed then that this much loved, beautiful and irreplaceable building faces an uncertain future now that MMU have fallen prey to the rampant supercampus epidemic currently sweeping our institutions, abandoning the Hollings campus altogether to move to new doubtless anodyne ‘ikea sheds’ somewhere in Hulme…
The buildings, making up the MMU’s Hollings Campus in the otherwise decidedly leafy Victorian Rusholme, were designed in 1958 by the City Architect L. C. Howitt who was also responsible for re-modelling the interior of Manchester Free Trade Hall after the original was destroyed in WWII, and designing the majestic Crown Courts in Crown Square. Its distinctive shape - a giant toblerone triangle with parabolic concrete arches on top that gives it the look of a great big toastrack - gives the building its ‘pop’ appeal, and that well known nickname indicates the enormous affection that not only former students but the city at large has come to have for this little piece of space age design in the suburbs. As would be expected from an architect of Howitt's calibre, it comes as no surprise to discover that there is also much practicality behind the cute loveable shape. The tapering shape provides different sized teaching spaces for small or large classes, the tailoring workshops were kept separate to minimise noise from the sewing machines, and “The Fried Egg” - a low round building with a circular hall intended for catwalk shows - houses the library and two refectories.
Deservedly this gem of a building received English Heritage listing status in 1998, in keeping with its status as one of the best designs of its era and one of the city’s most cherished buildings; a testimony to a great architect and reflecting the optimism and ingenuity of the late 50’s. For an enthusiastic description plus a short history of the building do read Nothing to See Here, and the affectionate tribute A taste for toast.
mms at risk rant october 2009
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The Alchemist’s Elements,
Hans Tisdall, FaradayBuilding, UMIST campus
Just a 5 minute walk from a fast disappearing Moberly Frieze is another unsung gem, The Elements by Hans Tisdall, adorning the entrance to Harry Fairhurst’s 1967 ChemistryBuilding along Brunswick St, part of the 1960’s university expansion and one of a cluster forming the new Science Quadrangle. Firmly embedded in the streetscape and an integral part of the building, its huge circular reliefs and eye level location make it paradoxically highly visible and taken for granted.
The twentieth century society campaign to highlight, document and preserve what’s left of the post war mural era, points out many instances of neglect and ill-treatment meted out to these public treasures and the Chemistry building’s frieze is a perfect example of such habitual carelessness. Eddy Rhead takes up the story,
‘Unfortunately The Elements has suffered a crude and clumsy intervention. The relief was originally sited on a wall along a small terraced area. Recently, to create a café space at the entrance to the Chemistry building, an extension has been built with the front glass wall dissecting the terrace, and Tisdall's work. Half of The Elements is now inside the café, the other exposed outside. Whilst an effort has been made to save the sculpture and work around it, the piece can no longer be viewed in its full entirety, thus diminishing its impact.
This begs the question that if this work was, for example, a painting, would a wall be placed right down the centre of it, cutting it in half?’
But this isn’t the end of our story – Tisdall created a second mural, a non identical twin just down the road on the UMIST campus, nestled in the entrance of the Faraday Building, also built by Fairhurst and Sons, also a chemistry department and similarly titled. So far so similar until you take a look at the artworks themselves, for where one is robust and muted tones, like a giant raku from Lucie Rie or Hans Coper, the other is a riot of technicolour, a modernist roman mosaic.
It is this shimmering, intricate beauty, the other Alchemist’s Elements, that is the subject of our attention this month, a series of mosaic panels taking up the first two bays of the entrance opposite the Pariser Building, completely transforming its otherwise understated, almost monastic arcade. Like its nearly name sake, The Elements over on Brunswick St, the mural has a direct association to the building’s function as a chemistry department, a depiction of the four classical elements, fire, earth, air and water, long considered the four components of the universe, depicted here in quadrants of vibrantly coloured tesserae, and in the centre of each a golden lozenge, an allusion presumably to the alchemists quest to transform base elements into gold. The alchemist was of course not only the forerunner of the modern day chemist but a sorcerer, a wizard, and whilst alchemy has been overtaken in the sciences it has continued to fascinate and inspire philosophers, artists and writers for its allegorical and magical symbolism, the quest to find the philosophers stone, a metaphor for the search for wisdom, immortality, an enterprise always tinged with a hint of hubris or folly, a reading surely not inappropriate set against the backdrop of a heightened cold war era.
Hans Tisdall (1910 – 1997) was a polymath, a prolific and versatile artist and designer, a common trait it seems of many working in this new field in the public realm. Born Hans John Knox Aufseeser in Munich, he studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Art in 1928 and was then apprenticed to the sculptor Moisey Keegan. He moved to London in 1930 and had a studio next door to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Here he produced a body of distinctive 50’s textiles and fabrics and is known as much for his book jackets, font work and illustrations as his sculptural output and lecturing at the Central School of Art and Crafts in London from 1947 to 1975.
The Alchemists Elements is just one mosaic within an exemplary landscape of bold modernism including a magnificent Pasmore, the Hollaway wall and a brace of superb buildings by Manchester architects Cruickshank and Seward and Fairhurst and Sons. Following the amalgamation of Umist and the University of Manchester, and the creation of the unspectacular super campus on Oxford Rd, the fate of this exceptional educational landscape is distinctly uncertain.
The Faraday building ceased to be the home of the university chemistry department in 2007, when students and staff relocated to Brunswick street and the new Biocentre.
mms at risk rant september 2009
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MoberleyTower,Oxford Road,
Beaumont, J. S. & J. W 1960-65 to the present…??
This month the mms is up in arms about the demise of the 60’s tower block – our RIP feature for August is an ode to the beautiful and disgracefully demolished Mathematics Tower, now replaced by an unremarkable squat round house, the absurdly named University Place, that has little to say for itself or the city’s dignity.
Phil Griffins beautifully written defence of the Maths tower ends with this powerful plea and indictment to campus and city planners and we add it here, as it rings true even today as they carry on regardless, demolishing rather than rethinking, with scant regard for either changing attitudes to modernist architecture or a future that incorporates integration and sensitivity to its overall planning.
The all-new University of Manchester is a highly ambitious international teaching establishment, a seat of learning and a cultural paragon. A pity, therefore, that the Estates Department’s first act is to destroy one of its finest inherited buildings, a building that is so clearly a candidate for recycling, intelligent reprogramming and skilful refurbishment. Should not a university founded in 1824, re-invented and reborn in 2004, be the first to demonstrate its commitment to best sustainable practice? Should not the new University of Manchester be the first to challenge notions that a building of quality, barely forty years old, should not be condemned as “unfit for purpose” without other and original purposes first being rigorously tested? Should not an architect with John McAslan’s skill and reputation be the first to fight for the retention, in some appropriately modified form, of a building so relatively young and so architecturally distinctive? God knows, if McAslan doesn’t, who will? If a retired maths lecturer can see grace and beauty in this fine building, surely somebody, somewhere in the office of Alan Gilbert, the President and Vice Chancellor, must recognise that the all new University of Manchester is about to set out on entirely the wrong foot and might easily find itself condemned as unfit for purpose.
Though he is referring to a particular building here, it seemed pertinent if not urgent to draw your attention to the imminent demise of another less celebrated tower block along the road, the unloved Moberly Halls, dowdy sister to the spectacular Maths Tower and easy to overlook or underestimate. In fact as the trail of school boy excitement over on skyscrapercity.com amply demonstrates, demolition is probably happening as I write. No fans there then, as usual….
Moberly Tower is actually 3 buildings, the tower itself a hall of residence, then to the front sits the university refectory pavilion and to the rear, the rather lovely Staff House, perched modestly on its podium, joining forces with the adjacent deco-esque Faculty of Arts to form the quadrangle, whose steps and classical pillars mirror each other, both opening to respective spacious atriums and together sheltering a small but welcome lawn for summer reading.
Quiet and plain in its pale red brick facing, no-one has ever had a good word to say for it – the Manchester Pevsner dismisses it as ‘characterless and deplorably unsubstantial next to Waterhouse’ - yet its gentle charms are there aplenty, the geometric planes of the island design lending elegant views to several directions, not least the large and distinctive relief panel adorning the north face. It’s certainly overpowered by the undeniable glamour of the Waterhouse right next door and perhaps this has been its downfall, a pointless comparison to the aesthetic of a totally different era, as well as the inevitable financial restraints on late 50's architecture. As a result, unlisted and deemed unremarkable by the city council and English heritage, it now sits empty & earmarked for the bulldozer, the tell tale orange curtains and scaffolding erected by the demolition company (Connell bros, experts at felling post war classics – the Maths Tower and Loxford Tower amongst their previous conquests) rapidly swallowing up any hope that it might survive the disastrous ‘unity masterplan’ that has carved up so much of the peculiarly unique cohesion of the two major building phases of the whole campus, a typical blend of Victorian pomp and post war optimism which gave the university a distinct Mancunian quality.
Now it seems only the pomp of the Victorian will survive, the modernism all but gone and its quirky vision, inventive and playful, with plentiful green space and flourishes of abstract art, giant friezes and glittering murals or mosaics draping walls and adding grandeur to concrete’s otherwise hard lines, thrown carelessly away. MMS aren’t alone in expressing urgent alarm at the perilous fate of the lovely mural long considered to be by Mitzi Cunliffe of Heaton Park Pumping Station fame (attributed to her in all the available literature, including Hartwell’s Pevsner and Brumhead & Wyke, but now it transpires uncertain) crucially unlisted and consequently unprotected and outside the purview of the city’s conservation officer, the university’s estate department, or even the Whitworth Gallery, partners with the 20th Century Society in ongoing attempts to save and re-house it.
So we end with a short tribute found on Aidan O’Rouke’s EOM website from 2007, and urge anyone with a moment to spare to email the university estates department, Manchester’s conservation officer or the Whitworth art gallery with a quick message in support of the at risk relief mural, whoever its creator...
Moberly Hall is a student residence on the Manchester University campus, next to Oxford Rd. Its tower is one of the highest buildings in Manchester.
It has 15 floors and was completed in 1963. The tower is 160 feet high and one of the tallest buildings in this part of Manchester. Moberly Hall was to have been demolished under the original development plans. In my opinion it is a very attractive building that is just as much a part of the character of the university as the OwensBuilding.
mms at risk rant - aug 2009
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this month we kick off with a forgotten, overgrown, lichen covered wall, a former Twentieth Century Society Building of the Month and described in some detail by our own Miss Niblock on her Diary of a Bluestocking. We asked her to recap the story here.....
Hollaway Sculptural Wall,
London Rd, UMIST Campus, 1968 - present
Anthony Hollaway’s curious concrete 'castle' wall on London Rd next to the Mancunian Way was installed in 1968, designed as a 'sound-buffer’ for the Engineering Pilot Plant building by Harry S Fairhurst in the UMIST campus, just one of a series of collaborations with the architect – they worked together on concrete panelling on the nearby chemistry building and again later on stained glass at Manchester Cathedral. 30 years on it is practically invisible, hidden away and quite neglected. Chances are you've passed it on the way from Piccadilly station to the UMIST campus or Stockport Road and barely noticed this overlooked treasure. Or perhaps you have noticed it and dismissed it as merely a graffitied eyesore.
But this is no ordinary wall, as anyone who looks at it more closely and gives it a second chance will discover. Even moss covered, lichen ridden, strewn with discarded takeaways, assorted rubbish and bird droppings, the Hollaway wall is a delight, its sturdy exuberance a testimony to the hardy optimism of a small band of utopian modernists of post-war Britain, a lovely and elegant length of concrete sculpture.
The wall is a relic and a rare beast. Hollaway was amongst a small band of pioneer artists to work with the London County Council Housing and Architects' Departments and to lead research at the Cement and Concrete Association at Wexham Springs. Other ‘consultants’ in this experimental period included Victor Pasmore and Kenneth and Diane Rowntree, and the list of names Hollaway got together with on projects in these heady days reads like a who’s who of modernism - Basil Spence, Sylvia Crowe, Eric Lyons and Ove Arup, amongst others. It was an exciting time and our little wall was a part of it all….
It is therefore arguably more architecturally significant than Piccadilly pavilion, the city’s more famous acquisition, centrepiece to the renovated Piccadilly gardens by signatect Tadao Ando, commissioned at enormous expense for the 2002 Commonwealth games. A simple curved concrete wall with a covered space on its concave side providing yet more coffee chains and a modicum of shelter, the pavilion has hardly faired much better than the Hollaway wall and is already looking a little shabby, sandwiched awkwardly between rows of plastic urinals and tram machinery. Nonetheless this concrete structure, part buffer, part artwork, is a significant coup for the city - Ando's first ever UK project.
In sharp contrast to this high profile commission, the Hollaway wall which has been sitting unobtrusively in a quiet corner of the city bothering no-one finds itself suddenly in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. In short, it seems that not satisfied with wreaking havoc on the Owens campus, the powers that be have turned their pitiless gaze towards the splendid UMIST, with plans apparently afoot to sell off much of the site which includes some of the city's finest and increasingly rare 1960s buildings and structures. The 20th century society featured the wall in its building of the month section earlier this year, and is supporting a well deserved submission for listing status. In his essay on the website (click above for full text) Richard Brook, senior lecturer at the Manchester school of architecture, waxes lyrical about the wall, its significance and context within UMIST as part of a broader 60's utopian vision, emphasising its unique status and importance -
‘Many of the structures similar to this, by artists, were retaining walls. This was designed as a sound buffer. As such, this particular wall has more ‘object’ status as it stands upon its field rather than embedded within. The work was designed to ‘enhance weathering and texture’ by the use of ‘rough sawn formwork’.
Hollaway at the time explained, “the main endeavour was the decorative exploration in new ways of materials in common use and the inventive use of new materials emerging for purposes usually other than their expected application to the building industry”.
As much of this type of work was actually contained within the material fabric of buildings, its value has never been truly appreciated and a significant amount, particularly works to foyers and other internal areas, has been lost without comment. The catalogue of works by the LCC is unknown and all archive material lost after the dissolution of the GLC.
ManchesterCity Council and the University of Manchester currently propose the site as a development area. As such, the wall is under threat of demolition and does not register as a concern in the preliminary development briefing documents.’
A wall that’s at once an artwork, a sculpture and a technical experiment is considered by many to be of national importance, an example of a brief pioneering and co-operative spirit that led to numerous important innovations. The fact that is stands alone rather than incorporated into a building means it is vulnerable as well as rare. Let’s not assume it will survive the tail end of the noughties building boom or the current recession. Visit the wall, get close up and take in its battered beauty, love and cherish it. Then show your support and demand its listing and appreciation.
And do it now, before it’s too late...
mms at risk rant - july 2009
"Photograph by Richard Brook from Holloway's' thesis on his own work held at The National Archive, Bretton Hall". Special thanks to him for this.
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