Owens College Manchester

OWEN'S COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. THE design for the first portion of the new buildings for Owen's College is now complete, and the works themselves will shortly commence. The site is about a mile to the south of the centre of Manchester, on the west side of Oxford-road. It is bounded on the north by Coupland-street, and on the south by Burlington street. At its east or Oxford-road end, it is some 120 yards in width. The original idea was to make the buildings surround a large quadrangle; but this idea has been modified, it being found that the cost of the work would exceed the means at the disposal of the committee ; and it was considered by them that the present requirements of the College would be more conveniently met by the erection of a compact range of buildings, with space behind for less sightly, but not less necessary, structures, and in front for others of a more ornamental character, which will, doubt less, soon be required. The design about to be carried out, and which we have now to describe, has been brought to maturity after long and careful consideration on the part of the committee and professors, in conjunction with their architect, Mr. Alfred Waterhouse. The scheme consists of a main block of varying width, and upwards of 300 feet in length, set back about 200 feet from Oxford-road, and running parallel with it. It is intended that this should ultimately form the western side of a quadrangle or court, 200 feet in length, by 100 feet in width. The three other sides will not be enclosed at present; but when the entire scheme is carried out, there will be a natural history museum on the south; a library, examination-hall, and other departments on the east (Oxford-road front), where the chief architectural features would be introduced; while to the north there would be space for additional lecture and class rooms, or for the medical school. At the rear of the main block is a large space of irregular shape, averaging 200 feet in width, on the south of which (Burlington-street side) the chemical laboratories will also be at once erected in a detached building, hereafter described, while on the north ample space will be left for an extension of the laboratories, if needed, for various subsidiary building, and for a gymnasium. The main block, containing as it does the various lecture-rooms, class-rooms, etc., has been planned so as to secure the maximum of the three essentials, — light, quiet, and airiness. Wherever possible the class-rooms turn their back upon Oxford-road, which is always busy and noisy, while a wide corridor of communication runs along the building on that side. On the basement floor this corridor is unbroken; on the upper floor it is cut in twain in the middle by the library, on the first floor, and by a large arts' class-room on the ground-floor. This division of the corridors has been devised, amongst other reasons, to prevent their being used too freely for general traffic. Each half is approached by a separate staircase entered from a porch on the east side. On special occasions, however, or whenever required, the whole of each floor can be thrown en suite. In arranging the accommodation, one important consideration has been kept constantly in view. Inasmuch as the requirements of the college may vary,—one department needing an increase of space, another requiring less,—the rooms have been so arranged as to be put to different uses, if need be, without any structural alteration whatever being involved. As the full development of the scheme is reserved for the future, some ingenuity has had to be exercised to make temporary provision for wants which will be more adequately met when the whole of the buildings contemplated shall have been erected. Thus, one large arts' class-room, not required as such at present, will be used as a temporary library; another large room in the basement will form a temporary dining-hall. The slope of the ground has favoured the arrangement of the basement story as planned. On the western side the floor is above the level of the ground; on the eastern side the rooms will look into areas 26 feet wide, so that the story is practically entirely above ground. On this floor will be placed the engineering work shops and museums, the students' temporary dining-room and common room, the natural philosophy workshops, rooms for students' boxes, lavatories, cloak-rooms, &c. The southern extremity of the building is devoted, on the basement and ground floors, 0i the chemical theatre, —a room 66 feet by 40 feet. The professor's table is at the western end, on the level of the basement floor. The floor of the theatre rises eastwards, until it reaches the level of Oxford-road. This room will be lighted by windows on the south and west sides, all fitted (as well as those of the natural philosophy lecture-room) with iron shutters, to admit of the rooms being darkened at pleasure. The other principal rooms on the ground-floor will be the engineering drawing-room and lecture-room, natural philosophy rooms, a large arts' class-room, with rising floors; the board room, and secretary's office. On the first-floor there are three large arts' class-rooms, professors' rooms (which, for the most part, are common rooms), the temporary natural history museum, temporary library, students' reading-room, and various small arts' class-rooms. There is considerable accommodation in the roof, for which special uses will, no doubt, soon be found. The chemical laboratories, in the separate building already mentioned, will form a block 95 feet square. There are two large laboratories placed side by side, each of them 70 feet by 30 feet and 22 feet in height. There are store-rooms below, and various subsidiary rooms adjoining the laboratories. The professor's private laboratory is so placed as to command both the others, and there will be direct communication, by a covered corridor, between this laboratory and the table in the lecture theatre. The dimensions of a few of the other rooms, and of the floors, may be interest^ g. The stories will be, except in special parts, of the following heights from floor to ceiling: Basement, 15 feet; ground-floor, 17 feet; first-floor, 17 feet 6 inches; room in the roof, 10 feet. The chief exception is the chemical theatre, which averages 28 feet in height, and some of the large arts' class-rooms, which have been made about 22 feet high, by a little scheming in the arrangement of the floors. The four large arts' class-rooms are of the following dimensions: —One of them 40 feet by 45 feet ; two 40 feet by 33 feet ; and one 31 feet by 35 feet ; that devoted temporarily to the library is 40 feet by 45 feet The students' reading-room is 84 feet by 33 feet ; the engineering drawing' room, 52 feet by 31 feet ; the board-room, 37 feet by 30 feet There are in the buildings first to be erected 90 rooms in all, of which the chemical department takes 28; the natural philosophy, 9; arts' class-rooms, 9; engineering, 8. Special care has been bestowed in maturing the scheme for warming and ventilating the buildings. In the sub-basement there will be 1 hot- water boilers and a steam-engine; the latter to drive a fan for forcing fresh air (warmed in winter) into the corridor and lecture theatre. In the ordinary class-rooms there will be openings for ventilation above the doors, and all the windows will be double hung as sashes with a light above, hung on pivots, for summer ventilation, to open diagonally, so as to throw the fresh air upwards towards the ceiling. The whole of the rooms will be warmed by hot-water pipes, but provision is made for the introduction of fire-places hereafter, if found desirable. Fresh air is also brought into the rooms behind the coils of hot-water pipes where ever practicable. A special flue for the extraction of vitiated air will be taken from the ceiling of each room into large shafts in the roofs leading to ventilating turrets, in which steam cones will accelerate the draught. Separate and particular arrangements bare been made for warming and ventilating the chemical laboratories. A tower has been carried up above the roof, with large arcaded openings on each side, behind which a cowl will work, always presenting its month to the wind. This tower will bring a constant and ample supply of fresh air to the warming apparatus in the basement of the laboratory building. The smoke from this apparatus will be utilised for increasing the draught in the flue for the extraction of vitiated air. The warming of the laboratories will be effected like that of the other parts of the building, but from their own separate apparatus. The style of the buildings, as might be presumed, is Gothic, of a collegiate and early type. The walls will be faced throughout with York stone, and the roofs covered with slate. The upper part of the central gable will be devoted to a clock-dial, and over the centre roof will rise a lofty flèche to be used for purposes of ventilation. A similar feature, but lower, will rise over the chemical lecture theatre. Square-headed windows are the rule, except in the corridors and staircases, where they are pointed. Internally, the most interesting architectural features will doubtless be the staircases, which are arranged in large octagonal bays, 33 feet by 14 feet and cut off from the corridors by arcades of double columns. The floors of the buildings throughout will be fireproof on the Dennet-arch principle. [Builder 9 April 1870 page 281]

 MANCHESTER. - On Monday the foundation stone of the new building for Owens College, Manchester, was laid on the site which has been purchased in Oxford‑street, by the Duke of Devonshire. The building has been designed by Mr Waterhouse, the architect of the Manchester Assize Courts and of the new Town‑hall. The style of the building is Gothic. It will have accommodation for 600 day students, and for a much larger number of evening students. A sum of £102,000 has been placed at the disposal of the building committee, £67,000, of which is at present available for the erection of the college. The cost of the building is ,90,000, so that a sum of from £25,000 to £30,000 is still required for building purposes. When completed the building will form a quadrangle, of which that part of the college which is now in course of erection will form the western side. [Building News 30 September 1870 page 249]

1883                       Additions: Owens College, Oxford Road Manchester

OWENS COLLEGE EXTENSIONS —A perspective drawing, showing the additions to the Owens College, of which a commencement has now been made, has, by the kindness of the Mayor of Manchester, been placed in the Sculpture Gallery of the Town Hall. These new buildings will form the north and a portion of the east sides of the main quadrangle north of the principal entrance from Oxford Road. The portion extending east-ward from the present buildings and fronting to Coupland-street will contain two lecture-rooms, laboratories, and workrooms for the departments of zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, and mining, and rooms for the curator and his assistants. The portion extending from Coupland-street southwards along the Oxford Road will contain large zoological, botanical, geological, and mineralogical museums. At the southern end of the museums will be the entrance tower, containing the principal staircase giving access on the one hand to the museums, and on the other to any future wing which may be built on the south-eastern portion of the site. The tower will also contain a council chamber and adjuncts for museum and other purposes. The museums, whilst furnishing an indispensable requisite for the efficient teaching of the various branches of natural history in the college, will be open without charge on two days in each week for the purpose of study to all persons (whether students of the college or not) under regulations to be made from time to time by the Owens College, and without charge to the public on three days in each week, with occasional evening access Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, ARA, is the architect, and the contract has been let to Messrs W Southern and Sons, Salford, for the sum of £68,375. [Manchester Guardian 16 October 1883 page 5]

Reference    Manchester Guardian Saturday 4 December 1869 Page 4
Reference    Builder 9 April 1870 Page 281
Reference    The Architect 9 April 1870 page 177-178
Reference    The Architect 12 March 1870 page 136 - taken from The Sphinx
Reference    Manchester Guardian Saturday 25 June 1870 Page 1 (Contracts)
Reference    Builder 4 February 1871 Page 85-87 with illustrations
Reference    Manchester Guardian 8 October 1873 page 5
Reference    Builder 18 October 1873 Page 831
Reference    Building News 30 September 1870 page 249 – foundation stone
Reference    Manchester Guardian 16 October 1883 page 5 - additions