Board School for 383 infants, Lyon Street, Ardwick (School No 19)

Designs submitted by Messrs Smith Woodhouse and Willoughby, architects of Manchester and Stockport have been chosen by the Manchester School Board for the new school in Lyon-street, Ardwick. [Manchester Guardian Thursday 27 September 1888 Page 5]

NEW BOARD SCHOOL IN MANCHESTER – The memorial stone of a new Board School was laid yesterday by Mr J H Crosfield in Lyon Street, Ashton Old Road, Ardwick. The school is being built for the accommodation of nearly 400 infants. There is an infants’ department at the adjoining Bank Meadow Board School, and the children there are to be transferred to the new building, while the junior scholars who are at present located in the Temperance Hall will fill the space thus vacated. The cost of the new building, including site, is £4,500. As the site is somewhat limited it has been arranged that the playground for the children shall be on the roof, part of it being covered as a shelter when the weather is inclement. Messrs Smith, Woodhouse and Willoughby are the architects and the builder is Mr William Brown of Salford. The style of the building is Gothic.

In his opening address Herbert Birley noted that the Board were providing a new school for 383 infants from bank Meadow and Chester Street Board schools. In order to meet the difficulty arising from a very small site, the Board had resolved to make a playground for the children on the roof instead of in the basement of the building, a plan which had been adopted with success in London Board schools. [Manchester Guardian 18 May 1889 Page 9]

Listed by Samantha Barnes as a Girls and Junior School

Opened        2 December 1889

Reference    Manchester Guardian Thursday 27 September 1888 Page 5 Column 6
Reference    Manchester Guardian 18 May 1889 Page 9
Reference    Builder volume 55 page 266
Reference    British Architect 28 September 188 page 220
Reference    Samantha F Barnes: Manchester Board Schools 1870-1902; 2009; page 80
Illustration    Original Drawings: Manchester Building Control SBBCM Vol 6 1888-1890
Illustration    Photograph - Manchester City Engineers 1906