The Whitworth Building is a

grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

building on Oxford Road and Burlington Street in

Chorlton-on-Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock or Chorlton-upon-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. It ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It has been listed since 18 December 1963 and is part of the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. It lies at the south-east range of the old quadrangle of the University, with the

Manchester Museum Manchester Museum is a museum displaying works of archaeology, anthropology and natural history and is owned by the University of Manchester, in England. Sited on Oxford Road ( A34) at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, ...

adjoined to the north, and the former Christie Library connected to the west.

History

The building was constructed c. 1895–1902, in the style of the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, and was designed by

Paul Waterhouse Paul Waterhouse (29 October 1861 – 19 December 1924) was a British architect. Early life Paul Waterhouse was born on 29 October 1861 in Manchester, England. He was the son and business partner of Alfred Waterhouse, an architect who designed ...

. The official opening ceremony took place 12 March 1902, when the Prince and Princess of Wales (later

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

and Queen Mary) were present. The Whitworth Building is named after Mancunian industrialist,

Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scr ...

, who bequeathed much of his fortune to fund public developments in Manchester. The legatees, among whom was

Richard Copley Christie Richard Copley Christie (22 July 1830 – 9 January 1901) was an English lawyer, university teacher, philanthropist and bibliophile. He was born at Lenton in Nottinghamshire, the son of a mill owner. He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford ...

, funded the construction of the building and the adjoining Christie Library (the library was completed first and opened in 1898).

Exterior

The University Of Manchester Whitworth Hall

The building is constructed of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, with red tiled roofs in

fish scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as ...

bands, and is connected to the

to the north via a 2-storey entrance archway. The building has two unequal storeys, consisting of 8 bays separated by

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

es. It has a large

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

style stained glass window facing south. Two 3-stage corner towers flank the window, with octagonal belfries and short spires.

Interior and functions

The building's upper floor comprises the Whitworth Hall, which can hold up to 675 people for meetings, up to 300 people for banquets or up to 200 for dinner dances. The interior of the hall is also Gothic in construction and decoration, in keeping with the exterior. It has a

hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...

(unusually the lower timbers spring from freestanding columns), a dais and a large organ occupy the northernmost part of the hall, and raised wooden galleries project from both northern and southern walls. The organ was donated by

Enriqueta Rylands Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (31 May 1843 – 4 February 1908) was a British philanthropist who founded the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Early life Enriqueta Augustina was born in Havana, Cuba, and was one of five children including José ...

in 1902. The hall is licensed for

civil wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriag ...

s, and is used for all

graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...

ceremonies at the University. The lower floor of the building is of a much less lofty construction, and is separated into a number of meeting rooms, consisting of five boardrooms and a council chamber.

References

{{Authority control Buildings at the University of Manchester Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester Grade II* listed educational buildings Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester University and college buildings completed in 1902 1902 establishments in the United Kingdom