The Sackville Street Building is a building on Sackville Street,

Manchester, England 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 ...

. 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 Univ ...

occupies the building which, before the merger with

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

in 2004, was UMIST's "Main Building". Construction of the building for the Manchester School of Technology began in 1895 on a site formerly occupied by Sir

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 scre ...

's engineering works; it was opened in 1902 by the then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...

. The School of Technology became the Manchester Municipal College of Technology in 1918. Built using

Burmantofts Burmantofts is an area of 1960s high-rise housing blocks in inner-city east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England adjacent to the city centre and St. James's Hospital. It is a racially diverse area, with sizable Afro-Caribbean and Irish communities, ...

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

, the building is now Grade II listed. It was extended along Whitworth Street, towards London Road, between 1927 and 1957 by the architects

Bradshaw Gass & Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after his death referring to the remaining partners John Bradshaw Gass and Arthur John Ho ...

, the delay being due to the depression in the 1930s and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Originally a swimming pool was planned for the top floor, but after worries the weight of water might cause structural issues it was instead used as a dug in gymnasium and in more recent years as an examination hall. The lower floors contain among other departments the Royce Laboratory for mechanical engineering, named after

Henry Royce Sir Frederick Henry Royce, 1st Baronet, (27 March 1863 – 22 April 1933) was an English engineer famous for his designs of car and aeroplane engines with a reputation for reliability and longevity. With Charles Rolls (1877–1910) and Claude ...

. Floors are denoted by letters, from BA (lowest), then A to L (highest) missing out I. The building is bounded by Whitworth Street to the north, Granby Row to the south, Cobourg Street to the east, and Sackville Street to the west, where the original main entrance (called the Grand Entrance) lies. The entrance on Granby Row is the usual entrance to the eastern part of the building (there is another entrance on Whitworth Street only for the use of the students and staff of the University of Manchester ). The historic Godlee Observatory sits on the roof and is still in use. The building is used by the University for a number of functions and departments. These include administration, teaching and research in science and technology, and examinations. Inside on floors D, E and F are the Joule Library (now part of the

University of Manchester Library The University of Manchester Library is the library system and information service of the University of Manchester. The main library is on the Oxford Road campus of the university, with its entrance on Burlington Street. There are also ten other ...

) and various offices, laboratories, lecture theatres and exam halls. The Joule Library was given this name (commemorating the physicist J. P. Joule) in 1987 when it was refurbished. There are inscriptions at the Grand Entrance and at the Whitworth Street entrance, recording important events in the history of the building. The later part of the building was built on the site of St Augustine's Church, the third Roman Catholic chapel in Manchester. It was replaced by the second St Augustine's Church in York Street, Chorlton on Medlock. There is also a plaque recording the previous existence of Ivan Levinstein's laboratory on the site. In the estates strategy for 2010-2020 for the University of Manchester it is stated that essentially all of the former UMIST campus, described as the "area north of the Mancunian Way," is to be disposed of. The fate of the former UMIST Main Building (Sackville Street Building) is not described. The vice-chancellor of Manchester University, Dame

Nancy Rothwell Dame Nancy Jane Rothwell (born 2 October 1955) is a British physiologist. She has served as president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester since July 2010, having served as Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor until Januar ...

, has stated that a fitting use must be found for this "fine old building." Sackville Street Building currently serves as the home for the University of Manchester's school of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) along with providing a base for textile sciences and nuclear science at the Dalton Institute on site.

References

*UMIST ''Joule Library''. Manchester: the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology, 1987

See also

References

Further reading