Pavilion Firs Athletics Ground Fallowfield

The Firs Athletic Ground was originally laid out for Owens College (now Manchester University) at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1885 a male-only Athletics Union was formed at Owen’s College, renting a ground at  Mabfield. It had no grounds of its own until 1898, when the legatees of Sir Joseph Whitworth and Lady Whitworth donated ten acres of the Firs Estate at Fallowfield. The ground had formed part of Firs Farm and was entered from a lane along which Sir Joseph Whitworth’s rifle gallery formerly stood, at a point a little beyond the existing Manchester Athletics Ground. With some extension into the adjoining fields there would be sufficient space for the Lacrosse, Rugby and Association Football Clubs, without invasion of each other’s ground and without playing over the cricket pitch which was to be railed off during the winter months. A path was to lead due south from the entrance to the pavilion, the Association Football pitch on the left and tennis courts on the right. These grounds and the pavilion were to be at a higher level than the rest of the site, separated by a bank with a drop of three or four feet. Immediately below the bank was the “straight” of the running track which would run round the remainder of the site. Also on the lower level, the lacrosse ground was to occupy the eastern side and the rugby ground the western side, with the cricket pitch between. The work of draining and levelling was entrusted to E Thomas of Aughton, who had made the Aigburth cricket ground at Liverpool while J W Beaumont was preparing plans for the pavilion.

As originally built, the pavilion was of red brick and half-timbering, with a red tiled roof and octagonal clock tower.  A viewing terrace for spectators occupied the ground in front. However, the design was not without its critics.  In December 1900 the Manchester Guardian commented:

RECENT BUILDING IN MANCHESTER The pavilion on the new Owens College Athletic Grounds has a picturesque south front. It can hardly have been designed in perspective, though, and it probably looked better on paper than in execution. Good design should go all round a building. That there should be a combination of red brick and “black and white” is good, but is it in this case quite a happy marriage? The eaves of a building of such a style as this should project well; here they are close cropped, suggesting an effect similar to that produced by the absence of eyebrows. We have also a repetition of the fault of very red roofs upon very red walls. Purple or brown-red tiles would have made a great difference for the better. Walls and roofs should never be of the same tone or the same colour. This sounds like an elementary rule. So it is; yet few keep it. [Manchester Guardian 10 December 1900 page 10]

The building was extended in 1922 to provide additional facilities for women (Professor Archibald Dickie architect).

Reference    Manchester Guardian 25 November 1898 page 10
Reference    Manchester Guardian 10 December 1900 page 10 – Recent Building in Manchester
Reference    Simon Inglis: Played in Manchester page 74