Central Board School, Deansgate, Manchester

THE CENTRAL BOARD SCHOOL, DEANSGATE – Yesterday afternoon the memorial stone of the new central Board school, Deansgate, was laid by Mr Herbert Birley, Chairman of the School Board. The new school, which is from the plans of Mr Henry Lord, architect, John Dalton Street, is situated a few yards southwards of Peter Street, in Deansgate, and it is intended for a higher grade school. Mr Lord’s designs were selected in a recent competition, open to all Manchester architects. Owing to the limited extent of the site, the exceptional requirements of the building, and the necessary incumbent on the architect to avoid any encroachment upon the lights of the adjoining property, it will differ materially from the two-storey type of Board school hitherto erected in Manchester. It is designed in the Gothic style, and as it rises to a height of five storeys will form one of the most striking objects in the improved Deansgate. The basement occupies the front portion of the site and comprises a kitchen, a store-room and a large dining room for the use of the scholars. The infants’ department is arranged on the ground floor, and consists of a room 38 feet by 24 feet 6 inches, one classroom, and two cloakrooms, the remainder of the space, with the exception of the offices, being devoted to the gymnasium, which will be entirely covered over. On the first floor will be the mixed school, 46 feet by 31 feet 6 inches, and the girls school, 57 feet by 32 feet, and each department will have two large classrooms. The second floor will be used entirely for the boys’ school. The large rom, 73 feet by32 feet, is surrounded by seven classrooms, all of which are separated from the main room by glazed screens, thus enabling the head master to exercise ready supervision over the various classes in charge of his subordinates. The large number of boys who have to be accommodated has made it necessary to provide, in addition to the above, three large classrooms on the third floor. There will also be provided on the third floor a room 42 feet by 32 feet for the exclusive use of the drawing classes. The fourth floor is devoted entirely to the use of the more advanced students, and contains a chemical laboratory 66 feet by 29 feet 6 inches, a balance room 19 feet by 18 feet, and a lecture room 32 feet by 29 feet. These rooms will be fitted with the most modern appliances for teaching the science and practice of chemistry. Separate staircases and entrances are provided for boys and girls. All the departments are furnished with the requisite cloakrooms, lavatories and teachers’ rooms. All the floors are fireproof, and communicate with each other by stone staircases. Stock brickwork and stone dressings are being used for the external walls. The interior of the schoolrooms will be finished in plaster, and lined up to the level of the window bottoms with glazed tiles. The schools, when completed will accommodate 1,200 children, and there is also accommodation provided for a caretaker. The contract, exclusive of the foundations, amounts to £12,472 10s, and the work is being carried out by Messrs W Southern and Sons, contractors. [Manchester Guardian 3 November 1882, page 7]

CENTRAL BOARD SCHOOLS, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. This new building, situated near the corner of Peter Street, cannot fail to arrest attention, whether its commanding height is seen from a distance along the line of Deansgate towering above its fellows, or where its picturesque sky outlines rising above the intervening roofs catch the eye of the spectator in Peter Street. On a near approach the loftiness of the various floors is strikingly indicated by the way in the adjacent building, three-storey hotel, is dwarfed into insignificance by its proximity. The two principal frontages to Deansgate and Gregson-street are faced with red stock bricks and dressings of Yorkshire stone. The style of architecture is early Gothic, and the general design and proportions have been carefully studied, but the architect's fancy has not been allowed to revel in any very costly detail. Six carved panels on the memorial stone, at the angle, illustrate some of the various objects for which the building has been erected, and terminal ornament (over the main entrance) displaying the Manchester crest, indicates its public character. Between the windows of the different stories and the gables over the staircases are panels filled in with plain and ornamental terra cotta work. Looking at from the rear one cannot fail to see how materially the design has been affected by the necessity of providing adequate light for the various schoolrooms, and at the same time avoiding all infringement of the ancient lights of the adjoining property. The immense weight of the structure has been securely founded upon a bed of red sandstone which underlies it, and notwithstanding the way in which some portions of it are distributed over a few points of support, a single column in one case carrying nearly 200 tons, not the slightest sign of settlement or displacement discernible any part. Separate entrances are provided for boys and girls, and are connected, each by a stone staircase, with every floor the building. A hoist for raising coal or other heavy articles adjoins the girls' staircase. The floors throughout are of fireproof construction, finished with wood covering. Entering the building the visitor should first view the basement. Here there a large dining-room with kitchen, &c, attached, where the children, who may bring their dinners with them, can have them warmed and enjoy them in comfort. The dining tables are plain and substantial, and so designed that they can be folded together and packed in a very small space, should the room at any time required for other purposes. The larger part the ground floor is occupied by the gymnasium, which fitted with number of aids for physical exercise; it is lighted and protected by a glazed roof, and the floor laid with wood blocks. On this level also are the school and class-rooms for junior girls. The furniture and fittings of these, and of all the other school-rooms, have been specially designed by the architect. The windows of this school, and the one immediately over, are provided with double sashes to deaden, as far as possible, the noise of the traffic in Deansgate. On the first floor are the schools for senior girls and for junior boys, each having two large class-rooms attached. The two main school-rooms are divided a double row of revolving wood shutters which serve as a barrier to sight and sound, and, at the same time, provide means by which they can, for special purposes, be thrown into one large room. The second floor is entirely devoted to the senior boys, and consists of one school-room 73ft. by 32ft., and seven large class rooms, which are approached directly from it, and separated glazed screens. The third floor occupied by the drawing schools. The freehand room is about 43ft. by 32ft., and besides being furnished with the usual benches and doping desks with rails for supporting the students' drawing copies, a special provision is made for model drawing. The table for the model can be raised lowered at pleasure, and around two sides are galleries fitted with benches, having a shelf for pencils and a rail against which the drawing board can be rested at convenient height. The seats, as they retire from the centre, are raised to a higher level, so to give each row of students an unimpeded view of the model. Cupboards and drawers are very ingeniously provided under the galleries for the safe keeping of drawing boards and materials. A very large black board, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, is also placed in this room for illustrative diagrams. The lighting of this, as of all the other rooms, arranged with due consideration for the special purposes of the rooms. The room for mechanical drawing is fitted up with fiat tables and stools to accommodate 68 students; under each table are rests for placing drawing boards and T squares when not in use. Another largo blackboard is placed here, and round the room are fixed glazed cases for containing diagrams and drawings. A third room on this floor is set apart for drawing from the cast and is furnished with two varieties of easels, one called a donkey, to be used in a sitting posture, and the other while standing. Sound the walls of this room and the adjacent passage are brackets for holding casts, and a series of rails in which the framed pictures and drawing copies are elided or fitted. The remainder of this floor consists of three rooms set apart for the caretaker's use, and an electric bell serves to summon to the side entrance door when required. The chemical school is on the fourth floor, and consists of a laboratory, balance room, and lecture room. The laboratory extends along the Deansgate front and is fitted with three rows of tables, providing working space for 80 students. The tables are well fitted up with water taps and bearers, gas taps and elastic tubing, and all the requisite appliances for elementary and advanced chemical study. Under the tables, and along two sides of the room, are convenient cupboards and drawers, in which the students attending the day and night classes can store their chemicals and apparatus, each under the safeguard of a lock and key, arranged that one lock secures both the drawer and the cupboard belonging to it. The tables set apart for the senior students are fitted with fume boxes, with glazed sides, inside which can be conducted any operations giving rise to unpleasant or obnoxious vapours. In various parts of the room are also disposed larger fume chambers, varying in their sizes according to the use which it is proposed to make of them. Each fume case has a gas and water tap, and they are each connected with a ventilating flue, in which a draught is maintained by means of a gas cone, so that all vapours given off are immediately discharged into the open air at the top of the building. Under each fume case is a galvanised iron tray, which serves as a receptacle for the deTyris which accident and necessity give rise to, thus materially helping to maintain the room in a tidy condition. The master's table stands on a raised platform, at one end of the room, and is fitted with drawers and cupboards and everything necessary for conducting experiments the presence of the class. Behind the platform is cupboard with sliding doors, one of which has a slate panel for use as a black board. A large earthenware sink is provided for such purposes as the ordinary basins may prove too small for, and near the centre of the room, on an iron stand is gas furnace, A large glazed instrument cupboard occupies a niche one corner the room, and several rows of shelves are provided at convenient places round the walls. The fitting 3 generally are of varnished pitch pine, and the general effect is materially enhanced by the darker teakwood which is used in the shelving and tops of the various tables. In this, as in all the other rooms throughout the building, the lower part of the windows are sliding sashes, and the upper part is casement opened by lever. In addition to the windows, the laboratory is lighted by skylights in the roof, and a steady overhead light is diffused every corner of the room, immediate connection with this room is the lecture room, which provides accommodation for about 100 students. The seats, fitted with the usual ledge for note taking, are arranged on a gallery rising one tier above another as they retire. The lecturer is provided with a table fitted with gas and water for illustrative experiments, a slate board to slide and down, and a fume case. The balance-room fitted with tables and cupboards and oases for the safe keeping of instruments. These and the lecture-room fittings are also executed in pitch-pine and teakwood. Teachers' rooms, cloakrooms, &c, are provided in the various departments. There is accommodation throughout the building for about 1,300 students. The heating throughout is by means of open fireplaces, but those for the larger rooms have grates which distribute through the room air previously heated in chamber behind the fire. The chimney pieces are executed in Yorkshire stone, and are worthy of notice because of the variety and pleasing character of their designs. The stone staircases cannot fail to attract the attention of visitors. The openings in the walls are guarded wrought-iron grilles of various ornamental designs, and the lead glazing of the windows the architect has succeeded showing how harmonious an effect may be produced by comparatively simple design and the arrangement of a few bright colours. The whole of the works have been carried out from the designs of the architect, Mr. Henry Lord, of Manchester, and great credit due to Messrs. Southern and Sons for the substantial and excellent manner which they have executed the work; they have likewise been ably assisted by the various sub-contractors. Mr. C. Normanton has executed the brickwork, the glazed bricks being furnished by Messrs Cliff and Sons, and the ornamental tiles or bricks by Mr Jabez Thompson; Messrs Cordingley and Stopford were the stonemasons; Mr John Jones, of Walker's Croft, has executed the ornamental ironwork for the doors and staircases in a very creditable manner; while Messrs Dutton and Powers have successfully embodied the architect's intention by the way in which they have carried out the gas fittings ; Mr H. Lightfoot has executed the plumbers' and glaziers' work ; the lead lights for staircases and passages have been well carried out by Messrs Edmundson and Co., of Hardman-street; Mr Barrow has executed the slating and tiling; Mr E. Wood the iron girders and columns, and Messrs Renwick and Ferguson the plastering and decorating. [Manchester Courier 4 July 1884 page 8]

Reference    British Architect 11 August 1882 Page 384 (Tenders)
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 November 1882 page 7 – memorial stone
Reference    Manchester Times 4 November 1882 page 7 – memorial stone
Reference    MF&P, Vol. V.
Reference    Manchester City News 12 July 1884 Page 3- Opening
Reference    Manchester Guardian 8 July 1884 page 8 – opening
Reference    Manchester Courier 4 July 1884 page 8