New Gaol for the Hundred of Salford (Strangeways)

The strain on social institutions created by the rapid population explosion in Victorian industrial cities such as Manchester led to a virtual breakdown of the arrangements sufficient for a market town of the eighteenth century. New building types were required for the administration of justice and penal systems.  In Manchester, Alfred Waterhouse was commissioned to build a prison on a steeply sloping site to the rear of his Assize Courts (1859). The plan of the new prison closely followed the design for the model prison at Pentonville built in 1840. Six radial blocks of cells, four storeys high with an octagonal at their hub

The disturbances of 1990 severely damaged the roofs of the cell blocks but the remaining structure was relatively unscathed. The prison was therefore refurbished up to current standards. New roof of lead coloured stainless steel. Toilet facilities integral with the cells. New entrance

Clerk of Works                   Henry Littler

Reference    Manchester Guardian 16 May 1863 Page 2 (Contracts) - check dates
Reference    Builder 22 November 1862 page 843. - bricks to be manufactured on site
Reference    Architects Journal 2 June 1993