Board School No 1 Junction Street and Vine Street Hulme

THE FIRST BOARD SCHOOL IN MANCHESTER. Mr Herbert Birley, the chairman of the Manchester School Board, laid yesterday the memorial stone of the first school which the Board have built. The site is at the corner of Junction Street and Vine Street, Hulme, on a plot of land of irregular shape and presenting considerable difficulties to the architect. The Board selected the designs of Messrs Medland and Henry Taylor, of this city, and the contract has been taken by Mr G Napier for a sum slightly exceeding ,3,000. On the ground floor is a large room 30 feet wide, with a Ababies@ room opening out of it. Immediately adjacent, under cover, are convenient offices; and just beyond, through a porch, are the respective playgrounds. The entrance for girls is from St Mary’s Street, and for boys on the opposite side, from Junction Street. They respectively reach their Amixed@ schoolroom by spacious stone staircases. This room is 57 feet by 30 feet and adjoining it are two spacious classrooms, one of which is specially arranged to serve as a library also. On both floors are private rooms for the schoolmistresses, and on the upper floor a room for the pupil teachers, and besides the library, a good book store. In the basement is a kitchen, 18 feet by 24 feet, with all appliances for tea parties etc. There are large places for storing fuel, with convenient shoots from the street above, and all the rooms are warmed by open fireplaces and are thoroughly well ventilated. The walls are faced to a certain height with glazed bricks, which can be easily cleaned, and on which writing or other defacement is impossible. Round both school rooms run bands of encaustic tile, bearing Shakespearean mottos. The exterior design is simple scholastic architecture but so treated as to present a handsome appearance. Besides the children’s entrances there is a good porch for the entrance of the members of the School Board or other visitors. A belfry rises to a height of about 70 feet. The unusual irregularity of the site gives occasion for exceptional and picturesque features, particularly in the elevations to Mary Street and Junction Street, and care has been taken that there shall be no "shabby" back view, though of course the best elevations are to the principal streets. [Manchester Guardian 12 June 1874 page 6]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 23 December 1873 page 7 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 12 June 1874 page 6
Reference    Samantha F Barnes: Manchester Board Schools 1870-1902