Building Name

Extension to Primitive Methodist College. Alexandra Road

Date
1906
Street
Alexandra Road
District/Town
Whalley Range, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Partnership
Client
W P Hartley
Work
New Build

Mr W P Hartley will today open the new part of the Primitive Methodist College in Alexandra Road South, Manchester, which has been built by Mr Hartley, and will, after the opening, be presented by him to the Primitive Methodist Conference. This new portion contains some 120 rooms, and is the largest part of the College. It includes all on the right of the clock tower shown on the drawing. The foundations of the first College buildings were laid in 1878, the buildings being completed in the following year, and consisted of the south block, with accommodation for 30 students. In 1896 and the year following rooms were added for an additional 30 students, together with other accommodation. The entrance to the new extension is immediately beneath the clock tower, by a corridor which extends northward into the new portion, and by joining the old portion of the College forms practically and unbroken corridor 260 feet in length, running parallel with the whole front of the buildings. Branching off to the west from this new corridor at right angles are two secondary corridors, from which are entered the studies. One hundred and seven new studies are provided, each 11 feet by 9 feet, the whole grouped in a three storey building around a rectangular quadrangle. The lecture hall is 50 feet wide and 32 feet deep. The lecturer’s desk faces three sides of a large octagon, around which is a rising gallery containing a separate desk for each student. Along the main corridor at its north end the College Chapel is entered. This beautiful structure provides sitting accommodation for 150 persons. Its length is 44 feet and its width 30 feet. There is a chancel and organ chamber to the west, and a north and south transept. The vestibule is at the east end of the chapel and contains an entrance door from the College grounds. All the windows are filled with stone tracery and clear leaded lights, and the whole of the woodwork is in oak, lightly wax polished. A two manual organ of excellent tone and workmanship has been built by Messrs Hardy and son of Stockport. A new library has been provided on the first floor, and the old library on the ground floor has been converted into a common room for the students. The new dining hall on the west of the corridor, 48 feet long and 30 feet wide is finished in varnished pitch-pine, with panelled wainscoting. The old dining hall has been converted into a second lecture hall. There are, of course, all the necessary offices, and these have been fitted up admirably. The college and grounds cover an area of over 5.5 acres. There are 308 rooms in all, and all the corridors in the building make a consecutive length of 944 lineal yards, or well over half a mile. Messrs Fred W Dixon and Son of Treveleyan Buildings, Manchester, are the architects of the whole of the designs, under whose supervision the work has been carried out. They have been greatly assisted in the arrangement of the interior details by the Rev W Johnson, Principal of the College. [Manchester Guardian 18 June 1906, page 5]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 18 June 1906 page 5 and illustration
Reference    British Architect 22 June 1906 Page 448