Manchester Victoria Park St John Chrysostoms CoE-1

Victoria Park is a suburban area of

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Victoria Park lies approximately two miles south of Manchester city centre, between

Rusholme Rusholme () is an area of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, two miles south of the Manchester city centre, city centre. The population of the ward at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 13,643. Rusholme is bounded by Chorl ...

and Longsight.

History and description

In 1836, a unique enterprise was undertaken by Richard Lane and Partners, architects. This was to establish a residential area to the east of Wilmslow Road, an "estate" of substantial houses in spacious grounds, where prosperous business and professional families could live. Lane was already noted for his public work in the neo-classical style, for example his town hall building at Chorlton on Medlock. The facade of this building remains on the Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints' Campus and formed part of the Mabel Tylecote Building. The early years of the 'Victoria Park Company' were of mixed fortune. The original plans to develop land in a slightly different area, did not reach complete fruition, largely due to the fraud which led to the Foss v. Harbottle case. A cul-de-sac of villas was built opposite Whitworth Park, and these were later demolished for the construction of the Royal Infirmary. The fraud, or rather a complex connected series of frauds, related to the original development along Moss Lane East. Drainage techniques of the time were insufficient to support the developers' ambitions, and the large tranche of land they owned was not built on until several decades later. Some of the original villas remain on the southern side of Moss Lane East, between Wilmslow Road and Monton Street. The focus of the second, successful phase shifted to the better-quality land now known as Victoria Park. Professional people moved into the large houses, and from the earliest days a wide variety of nationalities was represented, notably a wealthy Prussian and Chinese merchant community. It had its own tollgates, walls and police. By 1850 about 50 houses by various architects had been built. Some villas and the sedate atmosphere of the area began to change at the beginning of the 20th century. After a long period of social disintegration, which began as early as 1920, the area has become more established and is now made up of a mixture of university residences, and rented and private accommodation. In March 1972, Manchester City Council designated a Conservation Area in Victoria Park.

Individual buildings

The area has over 20

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s. Notable examples include * The Grade I listed former First Church of Christ, Scientist building (now the Edgar Wood Centre) on Daisy Bank Road, designed by architect Edgar Wood in 1903; * St Chrysostom's Church, designed by George Tunstal Redmayne and situated on the corner between Oxford Place and Anson Road; and * Dalton-Ellis Hall, a hall of residence 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 ...

, which backs onto St Chrysostom's Church, and which was also designed by Redmayne. The Chinese Consulate-General is also located in a large mansion in Victoria Park, as is that of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Victoria Park Campus of the university comprises several halls of residence. Among these are Hulme Hall (including Burkhardt House), St Anselm Hall with Canterbury Court, Dalton-Ellis Hall, the former St Gabriel's Hall and Opal Gardens Hall. Hulme Hall contains grade II listed buildings designed by Percy Worthington in the

arts and crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

style, and is the oldest hall of residence for the university, having opened in 1887 and moved to Victoria Park in 1907.

Church history

A church was included in the line drawings issued by Lane in 1836. The building was started in the 1840s but was abandoned because the Victoria Park Company went bankrupt. Victoria Park was from 1850 included in the parish of St James, Birch, until 1878, when the new parish of St John Chrysostom was created from parts of the parish of St James and other parishes.

Notable residents

* Ford Madox Brown, artist * Richard Cobden, political activist * Elizabeth Gaskell, novelist * Winston Graham, novelist * George Hadfield, politician * Charles Hallé, musician * Gerald Bernard Kaufman, politician * Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragette * Richard Pankhurst, politician * Genesis P-Orridge, performance artist and occultist * Edward Salomons, architect * Sir Arthur Schuster, physicist

References

External links

St Chrysostom's Church

Manchester City Council: Victoria Park Conservation AreaRusholme & Victoria Park Archive
Bruce Anderson {{coord, 53, 27, 25, N, 2, 13, 01, W, region:GB_type:city, display=title Areas of Manchester Buildings and structures in Manchester