The Friends’ Institute Mount Street/ Peter Street/Bootle Street Manchester

The structure we illustrate is a picturesque addition to Manchester street architecture recently erected at the corner of Peter Street and Mount Street. It is built on the site of the old Friends Institute and better accommodation is afforded by the new than by the old building including, as it does, lecture hall, dining, drawing and retiring rooms and library. The basement and greater part of the ground floor are let off as restaurant and shops. The internal joinery is of pitch pine. The materials for the facade are Edwards Ruabon bricks and dressings of Halifax stone. The cost is about £5,500. [British Architect 29 January 1892 Page 81]

 A new institute for the Society of Friends is at present in course of erection in Mount Street, Manchester. It occupies the site of a familiar old building which has a history of considerable interest to many. In 1795 the members of the Society of Friends in Manchester decided to provide for their children a “guarded education” in which “religion and learning” were to be united. The school in which this was to be given was open to all who were willing to comply with the rules, whether members of the Society or not. A subscription was raised and a school was commenced under the tuition of John Taylor, who resigned in consequence of ill health in 1812. The school was closed for a time but re-opened in 1815 under the mastership of John Gott. He died in 1816 and was superseded by Charles Cumber of Croydon. The school, which had been held in the Meeting House (at that time in Jackson’s Row) was shortly afterwards removed to a room in Mount Street belonging to the late Thomas Royle. The Meeting then gave up the responsibility of the school, and Charles Cumber took it on his own account, and so continued until his decease. In 1818 the plot of land at the corner of Mount Street and Peter Street (later the site of the Friends’ Institute) was purchased and a school erected thereon in 1819. Many old Manchester men will remember the lectures on scientific and other subjects delivered there by Charles Cumber. This school was then one of the best in Manchester, the sons and daughters not only of the Society of Friends but also those of many of the leading citizens being pupils during Cumber’s mastership. Charles Cumber died in 1853 and was succeeded by James Cook, who retired in 1856. The school was then closed and the premises remained empty until 1857.  At the end of that year, as they were still unoccupied, the Meeting gave permission for them to be used as a reading-room for the convenience of Friends.

As such they continued until recently, when the building was pulled down to make room for a new and more commodious one designed by Mr Charles Heathcote FRIBA. The old Institute, used as a private club for members of the Society of Friends, consisted of dining room, library and reading room, and committee room. Parts of the building not required for the Institute were let for various purposes. The new building covers exactly the ground of the former one, but gives more and better accommodation. The basement is fitted up as a restaurant, and one half of the ground floor space is utilised for shops. The entrance to the institute is in Mount Street. The dining room is upon the ground floor. The first floor is occupied by the library, drawing and committee rooms, and ladies cloakroom. Above these are the lecture hall, with open timbered roof; also the keeper's rooms, etc. The edifice is being substantially erected of stone and Ruabon brick, and the interior will be pleasantly but neatly finished. The style of the building is somewhat free Jacobean. It is being built by Messrs Southern and Sons, builders, of Salford, at a cost of about £5,750 from the designs of Messrs Heathcote and Rawle, architects, Princess Street. [Manchester Guardian 26 November 1891 page 8]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 26 November 1891 page 8
Reference    British Architect 29 January 1892 Page 81 and illustration