Manchester Museum and Art Gallery Queens Park

On Saturday, the mayor of Manchester laid the memorial stone of the Museum and Art Gallery now in course of erection in Queens Park. Mr. Allison (city surveyor) described the general features of the new building. it was being erected by the Corporation for the reception and display of the pictures and other works of art entrusted for public purposes to the Art, Museum Committee. The style of architecture adopted was Gothic, and the structure would be of brick with stone and terra-cotta dressings. The ground floor would have a central hall 46 feet by 28 feet, and three rooms for museum purposes, two of them 60 feet by 28 feet, and one 70 feet by 30 feet. A wide stone staircase would lead to the first floor, on which there were to be the galleries, three in number. In size and shape they would correspond with the museum rooms on the lower floor, and they would be lighted by sky-lights. The basement would have a refreshment room, 34 feet by 20 feet. And a tea-room 30 feet by 27 feet, with a kitchen and other apartments. A shelter, 12 feet wide, would extend along the entire back of the building, which would measure 72 feet. The area covered by the museum and shelter would be about 1,007 yards, and the cost of the building would be about £6,500. The old building which is being replaced had a floor space of 3,000 feet; in the new there would be 12,600 feet. [Manchester Guardian 16 July 1883 page 6]     

THE Right Hon. A. J. Mundella, M.P., opened two buildings of more than ordinary local importance in Manchester, on Saturday and Monday last. The one opened on the 5th inst, was the Queen's Park Museum, a new building erected by the corporation, from the designs of Mr. Allison, the city surveyor, at a cost of some £6,000, and which has already been described in these columns. [British Architect 11 July 1884 page 11]

Reference        Manchester Guardian 16 July 1883 page 6 – foundation stone
Reference        British Architect 27 July 1883 Page 46
Reference        British Architect 11 July 1884 page 11 - opening