Botanical Laboratories University of Manchester

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY, THE NEW BOTANICAL LABORATORIES - The cost of the new building will amount to something between £11,000 and £12,000 … The main portion of the new laboratories, which appear to have been planned with much foresight and attention to detail, faces on Coupland Street, where a north light – requisite for microscopic wok – and an absence of noise and vibration from street traffic will be secured. The building has four floors, and stands at the north-west end of the Arts Building. The lower portion will be used as an extension of the elementary laboratory. Above will be the Research Laboratory and the accommodation needed for post-graduate work. On the third floor will be the Crymtoganic section (the study of non-flowering or non-seeding plants), and the equipment of the research laboratory will include incubators and sterilisers for work done in connection with fungi and bacteria. On the fourth floor, where a south light and a transparent roof are obtainable, the study of plant physiology and experiments on living plants will go forward. There is ample accommodation for chemical work in the testing of various plant substances, and all the apparatus needed for experimental purposes. In direct connection with this portion of the laboratories is a fairly capacious greenhouse. There is also a small shade greenhouse, to be used largely for experimental purposes – the raising of seedlings and the rest. Throughout the building every modern appliance to make the equipment complete and finished is to be noted. [Manchester Guardian 30 October 1911 page 3]

The new Botanical laboratories at Manchester University were formally opened by Dr D H Scott FRS on 3 November 1911. The buildings form an addition to that portion of the older college buildings which abut on the roadway formerly known as Coupland Street. Mr Paul Waterhouse, the architect, had to face the problem of so designing the new block as to be in architectural sympathy with the older work of his father, the late Mr Alfred Waterhouse, RA, and at the same time be in accordance with the exacting requirement of modern scientific buildings which calls for more light and more window space than was customarily provided in the Gothic periods of the nineteenth century. The elevations accordingly exhibit such a modification of the earlier style as will meet modern needs without outraging the spirit of the older design. The north side of the buildings on each floor is occupied by large laboratories or class-rooms intended respectively for elementary and advanced courses, for cryptogamic botany and plant physiology. The last-named room, which is at the top of the building, is perhaps the best of all in the matter of daylight illumination, having not only five windows on the north and west, but also large skylights. Attached to this department, but on the south side of the block, is a specially designed greenhouse suitable for experimental culture, and the difficulties of conveying plants, moulds, and other materials to the top of so high a building have been overcome by the provision of an electric lift. The “elementary” and “advanced” laboratories, which are placed on the two lowest floors, are each of them connected with corresponding departments in the existing buildings. The staircase occupies the centre of the new wing, and around it are grouped at various levels and on mezzanines, several small rooms intended either as private laboratories and studies for the professors, or for preparation rooms, dark rooms, and service rooms. There are four main floors, corresponding roughly with the storeys of the adjoining block. The buildings are all faced with stone externally and the inner wall surfaces are finished with neatly pointed and light-coloured brickwork, except in the private rooms. The Latin inscription over the entrance door of the laboratories is an extract from the Benedicite of the Prayer Book “O all ye green things, praise ye the Lord.” A ceremonial key which was offered to Dr Scott was designed by Mr Paul Waterhouse and represented, in coloured enamel on silver, a flowering plant. [Manchester Guardian 4 November 1911 page 13]

The Department's facilities were significantly improved with the opening of the new botanical laboratories in 1911, based in the Beyer building; these included a physiological laboratory, and remained in use until the 1970s, when the Department transferred to the Williamson building. The department closed in 1986

THE NEW BOTANICAL LABORATORIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER - The new botanical laboratories of the University of Manchester were opened by Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., on Friday last, November 3. The new block of buildings consists of four main floors with two mezzanines, and is planned so as to give adequate accommodation for the various branches of botanical science. For paleo-botany, the study of which is so associated with the name of the late Professor Williamson, the first professor of botany of the Owens College, a room is set apart on the ground floor, close to the entrance on the south side of the building; while on the north is a well-lighted laboratory for thirty junior students, connected directly with the larger elementary laboratory in the main building, which is capable of seating forty more On the first fioor is a large research laboratory, opening into the senior  students laboratory. The second floor is devoted entirely to the Cryptogamic Department, which owes its endowment to the munificent legacy of the late Professor Barker.

In addition the Vice-Chancellor (Sir Alfred Hopkinson) welcomed the facilities for researches of a purely scientific nature, the Barker Laboratory will be available for inquiries connected with agriculture. On the third floor the laboratory for plant physiology growing department, occupies the gable end of the building, being designed so as to possess both north light for microscope work and the architect, Mr. Paul Waterhouse, and, after the door south and west light for experiments requiring direct sunlight. Such experiments can be made either in the laboratory itself or in the greenhouses, which occupy the whole extent of the south front of the top floor. [Nature No. 2193, Volume. 88]

Reference        Manchester Guardian 30 October 1911 page 3
Reference        Manchester Guardian 4 November 1911 page 13 – report of opening
Reference        Nature Volume 88 No 2193 9 November 1911 page 55-56
Reference        The Lancet, Volume 178, Issue 4605, 2 December 1911, Page 1578