The Abattoir and Carcase Market, Water Street, Manchester

THE NEW ABATTOIR AND CARCASE MARKET - This important addition to the public buildings of Manchester was formally opened yesterday. The new Abattoir and Carcase Market have been erected on a plot of land situate in Water Street and bounded by the river Medlock, Elm-street, Water-street, and some cottage and house property fronting to Dawson-street. The site occupied by the various blocks of buildings and roadways is between two and three acres in extent; the frontage along Water-Street is 533 feet, extending from the Earl of Ellesmere Inn to the corner of Elm-Street, the greatest depth from Water Street to the river being 321 feet and 6 inches. The whole of the works have been carried out from the designs and under the superintendence of the architect, Mr Alfred Darbyshire, FRIBA; Mr. John Glaister acting clerk of the works. The foundations, drainage, and levelling of the site were executed by Mr William Southern, of Salford, and formed the first contract. The main contract for the superstructure has been carried out by Messrs Thomas Bates and Company, of Droylsden. The iron roof over the carcase market was executed and erected by the North of England Railway Carriage and Iron Company, Preston; and the whole of the working machinery and ironwork belonging thereto have been executed by Mr Meiklejon, of Dalkeith, near Edinburgh. The retaining wall along the river front, laying out of streets, and gas and water supply have been executed under the control of the Corporation, not being included in the original scheme submitted by the architect. In projecting a scheme for a public abattoir, the Markets Committee of the Corporation presented to architectural profession a new and original problem for solution; namely the association of a carcase or dead meat market with the buildings to be used for slaughtering of cattle. Thig idea had never before been worked out in this country; and indeed, the whole question of public abattoirs little understood when the Marketa Committee first began to consider the matter.

In arranging the plan of thig large establishment the architect sought to work in direct communication with the market as many slaughterhouses as possible; and with this object in view the market has been placed along the whole of the Water Street frontage, with the exception of a small portion occupied by the lodges and entrance gates. By this arrangement 21 slaughter-houses, with lairs for cattle attached, are placed in rear of the market, with roadway between for ventilation. These houses are to be used by the wholesale carcase butchers whose meat will be sold in the market; each carcase butcher will possess a lair, slaughter-house, and bay in the market. The rest of the site is occupied by the retail butchers, who will possess each a lair and slaughterhouse only, their meat being taken away when dressed to their own shops or shambles for sale. There are 19 retail houses with lairs. Behind these blocks are arranged the pig slaughtering department, the blood-house (where the albumen will be extracted). and condemned meat department, consisting of a lair, slaughter-house, and boiling-house. On each side of the entrance archway are the residences for inspector and custodian; also containing a committee-room, with office, etc. attached. An assembly-room or common room is also provided for drovers and others employed in the establishment; and there is a large general lair for occasional use.

The carcase market is a large and important structure, 418 feet in length by 55 feet 6 inches wide inside, and covering an area of 2,577 square yards. It is roofed in one span by a framed truss composed of wrought and cast iron, ventilated by two rows of louvre ventilators, and lighted by skylights running the whole length of the building. There are four handsome entrance from Water-Street, which will admit the carts of purchasers by a roadway running up the centre; this roadway and the whole of the floor of the market have been laid with asphalt on a brick foundation, by Mr. Atkins, of Liverpool, and will resist any amount of hard treatment. The interior o! the market is faced with red brickwork, with ornamental brick cornice and black brick bands; the lower portion of the walls have a dado of white glazed enamelled bricks, which produces a clean and neat effect. The market is lighted at night by two rows of pendant gas star lights, manufactured by Messrs. Thomason, of Birmingham. The slaughter-houses are capacious and lofty apartments, lighted by skylights; the lower portion of the walls from the floor is lined with enamelled bricks, which enables the occupant to remove all bloodstains by means of a hosepipe attached to a water-cock inside the house.

The system of drainage adopted by the architect is somewhat novel. There are no openings from the drains into the Slaughter-houses, but the floors are laid with flags in such a way that any liquid escaping from the slaughtering is swilled out at the door opening to the roadway into a stone channel running the whole length of the frontage. This channel, at certain distances, is supplied with an iron grid opening into a movable basket or box, which retains any portion of solid matter thatmay by chance find its way from the slaughter-house. Beneath these boxes is an efficient trap, and the boxes are emptied at stated periods by the town scavengers. This system of drainage was to be carried into effect throughout; but unfortunately it has not been adhered to in the lairs, which have openings direct into the drains.

The peculiar principle of planning before alluded to - namely, the working of slaughtering directly with the market - involved an engineering problem by no means easy of solution; it being the object of the architect to economise time and labour, and if possible to obtain the minimum of these two important items. The working out of thig portion of the work in detail has been intrusted to Mr. John Meiklejon, of the Westfield Iron-works, Dalkeith; the result being a complete, simple, and efficient system of machinery henceforth to be known as “Meiklejon's patent system of hoisting and hanging."

Mr. Meiklejon's system is of an entirely novel description, and embraces in its operations and appliances the means of hoisting, dividing, and moving to the market, and hanging and loading the carcases on carts for removal, and that without the necessity of the butcher touching the meat, besides effecting great. saving in manual labour. These sanitary and beneficial results have been effected by an apparatus of the very simplest description, so that any man, even though unacquainted with machinery, can work the whole from first to last. It consists of a neat, light hoist, consistent with strength, mounted with wheels running overhead on a framework of rails, carried up by cast-iron pillars and girders and the walls of the building. This hoist, with its other appliances, performs all the operations, from the hoisting of the animals after being killed, to the loading of them in the marker or at the doors of the retail slaughter-houses. The carcase market is connected with the slaughterhouses by the before-mentioned lines of rails raised overhead twelve feet from the level of the floors; and the hoist, after being used during the hoisting, dressing, and dividing of the carcase in the slaughter-house, carries the carcase into and hangs it up in the market to loops attached to the underside of the rails on either side. The carcase is transferred from the hoist to any one of these loops by a simple movement without being touched, or in any way disturbing any other carcase hanging alongside. The transference of the carcase from the hoist to the loops on the rails, or vice versa, is effected by hook with double horns on the top, or what is called a triple hook. The bottom part of the hook is put through the carcase in the ordinary way, one of the horns at the top is occupied by the chain of the hoist, thus leaving a horn still unoccupied. The carcase is brought opposite to the loop upon which it is to be hung, and the jointed loop is lifted up so as to catch into the unoccupied horn of the triple hook, and as soon as the hoist is lowered the hook grips, and as the lowering is continued the weight of the carcase is transferred to the loop, which comes back to the perpendicular, and causes the chain of the hoist to drop out of its horn, leaving the hanging to the underside of the rail. The taking off again for loading when sold is just the reverse of the hanging process, and is performed with the same simplicity. The butcher may thus single out any carcase in the rows of hanging carcases that his customer may fancy, and pick it off with his hoist, run it forward to the roadway, and lower it into the cart without disturbing any other carcase and without handling it. The jointed loops are fixed to rail beams at set distances about 18 inches apart, which, besides preventing carcases being huddled or crowded together, maintains space between each carcase sufficient to give proper ventilation. The apparatus will lift and hang on the loops the heaviest carcase with the greatest ease, and one man can transport an entire carcase between abattoir and market without touching. The carriage glides smoothly along the rails, and passes the carcase down the centre of the rows of these carcases hanging in the market.

The many advantages which Mr. Meiklejon's system presents both in a sanitary and an economical point of view may be briefly classified as follows: 1 The simplicity of the action of the hoist, the absence of complicated machinery, and the ease with which a man can lift the heaviest carcases. 2. One hoist performs the whole operation, consisting of hoisting, dividing, hanging, and loading. 3. The apparatus is all overhead, leaving the whole floor room below free from obstruction. 4. The butcher is able to hoist, divide, hang in the market, pick off again, and load without disturbing or moving any other carcase. And, lastly, the important sanitary improvement is effected whereby the butcher is enabled to hoist, divide, run into market, hang, pick off, and load a carcase without handling or carrying on men's shoulders, which is not calculated to improve the condition of this portion of human food.

The general character of the buildings is simple and effective in design, without any extravagant attempt at architectural adornment. The style is a modem adaptation of the principles of Gothic architecture and serves to show the elasticity and universal applicability of those principles. The buildings are faced with stock bricks, with heads, sills, etc.  in Yorkshire stone. Black brick bands are also introduced, and ornamental brick cornices. Over the entrance gateway is a large keystone, enriched with a finely modelled bull's head, carved by Mr. T. Gregory, of this city; over which is a panel with the city arms, also carved in stone by the same hand.

Mr Darbyshire said that in erecting the new Abattoirs the architect and the contractors had to deal with a problem which had not before been solved. They had spent two years in very Anxious investigation and thought in the working out of this important sanitary and moral reform. That was not the occasion to go into the question of expenditure, but he thought that if the Committee had spent one farthing less than they had spent the whole thing might possibly have been a gigantic failure. He wished to say one word in favour of the Committee with whom he had had the honour to work. All suggestions as to improvements had been kindly received by the Committee, and though they had had occasionally to spend money unexpectedly, he thought they had succeeded in producing a perfect abattoir.

Won by Alfred Darbyshire in competition  - first prize £150. Estimated cost £16,000. Opened 19 December 1872. Demolished

Reference    Builder XXVIII Page 561
Reference    Builder 17 June 1871 Page 473 - foundation stone
Reference    Manchester Guardian Friday 20 December 1872 page 6