The County Court on
Quay Street in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England, is a
Georgian townhouse that functioned as the Manchester County Court from 1878 to 1990. It was the home of the politician and reformer
Richard Cobden and subsequently the site of
Owens College, the forerunner of the
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
. In origin it is a townhouse of the 1770s, "the best preserved Georgian house in the
itycentre". The house is of "brick with a late nineteenth century doorcase". It was designated a
Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974.
The interior is not original.
History
Richard Cobden lived at the house from 1836 to 1850, and it was his base during the years he acted as the main spokesman for the
Anti-Corn Law League. A statue of him, together with one of his fellow reformers
John Bright, stands in
Albert Square. The house subsequently became the site of
Owens College, which, together with the
Manchester Royal School of Medicine, became the
Victoria University of Manchester
The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
in 1880. When the college moved to its present site on
Oxford Road in 1873, the building was bought for use as Manchester's County Court, which opened in 1878. By the 1970s the building had become badly decayed, and first the courts and then the administrative offices were relocated. The court was closed in 1990. It was subsequently purchased for use as a set of barristers' chambers and has been comprehensively refurbished, with much of its original
Georgian decor restored.
Architecture
The house of three storeys and a basement is a
Georgian townhouse built in the mid-18th century and subsequently extended to the rear and altered. It is constructed on a rectangular plan in red brick in
Flemish bond
Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...
on a
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
plinth. Its
façade
A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face".
In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
has five bays with the centre bay set slightly forward. The central doorway has a late 19th-century
pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
ed doorcase with a
frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
and
cornice which replaced the original raised
pedimented doorway and double flight of steps. Its windows have raised
sills and flat heads, with 12-pane sashes at ground and first floor levels and 9-pane sashes on the second floor, while the basement has segmental-headed windows.
Gallery
File:Cobden plaque, Former County Court, Quay Street, Manchester.JPG, alt=Photograph, Plaque commemorating Richard Cobden and Owens College.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Manchester-M3
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
References
Bibliography
*
{{Manchester B&S
Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester
Grade II* listed houses
Georgian architecture in England