Whitworth Hall of the University of Manchester

OWEN’S COLLEGE NEW BUILDINGS —The contract for the foundations of the new buildings of the Victoria University, to be erected under the Whitworth Trust, has been given to Mr. Normanton, of Manchester. The site of the new erection is at the corner of Oxford-road and Burlington- street. To all intents and purposes, says the Manchester Evening News, the elevation of the new building, which will be known as the Whitworth Hall, will be a duplication of the existing buildings on the right of the tower on the Oxford-road front, but the purpose is to provide a hall suitable for large University gatherings, for concerts, public meetings, for examinations, banquets, etc. The main building will occupy the extreme south-east portion of the grounds of the College and will be connected with the existing buildings fronting on Oxford-road and on Burlington-street and will enclose the quadrangle completely. It will continue the existing block in Oxford-street to the end, the new portion being in its exterior appearance very similar to that on the further side of the tower, while it will be connected with the Christie Library (an illustration of which appeared in the Builder of November 14, 1896), by low buildings. The apex line of the roof of the Whitworth Hall is to be practically a continuation of that of the older building, divided from it by the tower, and forming part of the same block. The new building is connected with the tower by an archway which is to form the new carriage entrance. The ground floor will be occupied by small rooms to be utilised for various purposes. Two of them will serve as retiring rooms, when the large hall is used for assemblies, and others will be devoted to the several requirements of university offices, for use in examinations, &c. There is one, too, which is especially intended for use when banquets are held in the large hall. The main hall itself occupies the whole of the first floor, the building having only two floors, while the existing structure on the further side of the tower comprises five stories. As the height of the two portions of the whole building will be practically the same, it follows that the main hall will be the height of the upper three stories of the older portion. The hall is to be entered partly from the grand staircase in the old tower, and by the principal entrances for the public, which will be situated in Burlington-street and Oxford-road. There is a large south window in the end overlooking Burlington-street, and this will be flanked by two towers which contain staircases leading to the hall and to the galleries that are to be erected at this end. There are to be no rooms over the hall, which has a high-pitched open timber roof, and this will be filled with open tracery. Provision is being made for the placing of a large organ at the north end of the hall, and the platform, which is to be arranged to accommodate either orchestra or speakers, is of very large extent. The main hall is 121 ft. long by 50 ft. wide. It measures 56 ft. in height from the floor to the inside of the apex of the roof, and 35 ft. to the wall plate. The seating capacity is calculated at close upon 1,000, including the orchestra. The hall will be lighted on each side by five two-light windows, in addition to the large one at the south end. There are two large entrances to it from the main staircase in the tower and from the College, but the public entrances are at the south end. At this end the floor will slope slightly upwards to give a better view of the platform to those who occupy positions at the further end of the hall. When the scheme is completed, it will have cost, it is estimated, about £42,000. The architects are Messrs. A. Waterhouse & Son. [Builder 2 April 1898 Page 334]

The Whitworth Hall at Owens College, Manchester - Contracts have been entered into for the superstructure of the Whitworth Hall at Owens College, the foundations of which have been completed. Messrs. William Southern & Sons, of Salford, have succeeded in obtaining the contract, and the cost is believed to be about £46,000. The erection of the building will occupy about three years. The building will adjoin the present museum of the college in Oxford-street, close to the Christie Library. The main entrance is to be in Oxford Street, and there will also be an entrance in Burlington- street. The building is from the design of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, the original architect of the college buildings. [Builder 8 October 1898 page 322]

THE WHITWORTH HALL - The foundation-stone of the Whitworth Hall at the Owens College was laid on June 22, 1898, by the Duke of Devonshire. The formal opening of the hall by the Prince of Wales will be on March 12. The money for the building of the hall, some £50,000, was given by the late Chancellor R. C. Christie from the funds He had in charge as trustee of the estate of Sir Joseph Whitworth.  ….    The new building stands at the south-east angle of the College site and consequently adjoins Burlington-street and Oxford Road. Considering what is required in the building—a large public hall suitable for various purposes -is extremely convenient that it should be there placed. The means of access and egress are especially commodious. Not Only will there be street entrances for the public in Oxford Road and Burlington-street, but there are means of approach from the Christie Library, which adjoins the hall on the west, and also from the first floor of that part, of the older building which containing the Senate-room. There remains one more entrance—namely, that under the wide and conspicuous archway which serves to link the new buildings to the tower block. On entering at this point a large entrance hall is first reached, from which a wide corridor leads along the whole length of the building to the staircase hall the south end. On either side of this corridor is ranged a group of rooms which occupy the whole of the ground floor of the building. These rooms are intended for various purposes. Their chief use will be in connection with examinations, but some will probably be devoted to more permanent uses. One will, no doubt, serve as a muniment-room. As the rooms are connected with one another they are certain to be of considerable use for large gatherings in the hall above. The staircase hall is a feature of some architectural interest. The stairs themselves, which ascend to right and left, are screened from the hall by an arcade, and there are also arches which cut off the public entrance at the east and west ends of the hall. Ascending the stairs, one comes first to the general level of the floor of the hall, from which a good view is obtained of the proportions of the whole room. It is 50 feet wide and 60 feet high from the floor to the apex. The length is about 130 feet, but the whole of this is not visible, for the north end wall is partly concealed by platform and galleries and by the central and crowning feature—the front of the noble organ. This organ, the gift of an anonymous donor, is one of the masterpieces of Messrs. Willis. The roof of the hall is particularly rich. The visible portions are entirely of oak, and the principals, which are modification of the well-known "hammer beam" construction, are in form of large, pointed arches. Their lower extremities rest at each end upon granite columns which seem, as it were, to carry the roof from the floor. Between the columns come the windows, the hall being lighted on both sides. The side windows, like the great window at the south end, are filled with coloured glass, and in the case of the south window the interest is increased by the insertion of the coats-of-arms of various donors and benefactors. For illumination at night there have been provided pendant electroliers, two of which hang from each of the roof principals. The seating accommodation is not on the floor space alone. There are raised stages at the south end which are accessible from the staircase, and at the higher level the staircase also leads to various galleries. The external material of the building is a stone similar to that which has been used in the greater number of the college buildings. The style, it need hardly be said, in accordance with the rest of the College. Mr. Waterhouse, R.A., has been the architect of all the building on this site, and though new buildings are erected in the name of the firm, Messrs. A. Waterhouse and Son, one traces the influence of the same hand. To give special point to the design, two towers have been introduced at the end, flanking the great gable which contains the traceried window, but in order that these should not vie unpleasantly with the tall tower - so familiar a feature of the College - they have been kept down to a considerably height, being, in fact, only 100 feet high from the pavement. The street front is pleasantly broken up by the buttresses which counteract the thrust of the roof and is further diversified at the south end by the public entrance and the north end by the carriage archway already mentioned. The roof over the archway, being lower than the general roof of the hall, serves to dissociate the new buildings from the old ones and to prevent an undue sense of crowding which might have been produced if the hall had closely adjoined the tower. The foundations of the new building were begun to be laid in February 1898. The general contractors were Messrs. Southern and Sons. who engaged Messrs. Corcoran as sub-contractors for the masonry. The stained glass is the work of Mr. George Wragge, of Manchester. Mr. John Grundy has carried out, the heating and Messrs. Hart, Son, Peard, and Co. the ironwork. The electric wiring has been executed by Mr. Steinthal, the mosaic floors by Mr. Oppenheimer, and the tiling by Mr. Conway, all of this city. Mr. Rutherford, the permanent clerk of works at the College, has had the entire superintendence throughout. [Manchester Guardian 16 January 1902 page 10]         

WHITWORTH HALL, OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER - The Whitworth Hall building, just completed, occupies the south-east angle of the Owens College site, and, so to speak, completes the College buildings. Adjoining it on the north is the large tower which has for many years been the principal feature of the college, and on the west stands the Christie Library, which is the last part of the college previously completed. The site is peculiarly adapted to the nature and requirements of the new building, for, being bounded as it is by streets on two sides—viz., Oxford-street on the east and Burlington- street on the south—the entrances are very commodious. The Whitworth Hall proper is confined to the upper story, the ground floor being occupied by a number of rooms of relatively small size. These are suitable for various purposes. Most of the rooms are about iS ft. by 17, and others are larger. One of them is intended to serve, if necessary, as a kitchen in connection with any banquets that may be held in the hall above. A wide carriage archway spans the space between the new hall and the older buildings. Out of this archway access can be obtained—northward into the old buildings, southward into the new. Immediately within the entrance of the new building is a hall with columns, out of which a wide corridor leads between the above-mentioned rooms into the staircase hall, which is also approached from the street entrances in Oxford-street and Burlington-street. The staircase, which is screened from the hall by an arcade, divides right and left, and leads in the first instance into the floor of the building. Further flights of the staircase, which are confined within the angle-towers on the south end of the structure, lead not only to the raised seats at the back of the hall, but also to the galleries at the higher level. The width of the hall is 50 ft., and the total length is about 130 ft. Not all of the length, however, is visible, lor the north end is partially blocked by the great stage, which is sur mounted by galleries and by the large organ. The most striking feature of the hall is its roof. This is constructed in oak and is a modification of what known as the hammer-beam roof. Its construction has necessitated the use of buttresses, which pleasantly break up the long length of the building and are in harmony with the buttresses of the earlier museum buildings. The principals, which are in the form of pointed arches, are sustained at either side of the hall by six granite columns. The windows at the sides have two lights each, and are divided in their height by transoms. These windows, as well as the large window at the south end, are filled with coloured glass, but the latter is further enriched by the addition of arms, chiefly those of benefactors of the college. All the visible woodwork is of oak. The hall is not fitted with fixed seats, as the variety of uses to which it will be put would render such an arrangement impracticable. The stone used—Minera stone—is the same as that which has been employed in the rest of the college buildings, and the style of the work is more or less identical with that which has hitherto been executed from the designs of Mr. A. Waterhouse, R.A. The interior height of the hall from the floor to the apex of the roof is 65 ft. The towers at the south end— which have naturally been kept low so as not to unpleasantly rival the main tower of the college rise only to a height of 100 ft. above the pavement. Many firms have been engaged in the construction. The general contractors were Messrs. Southern & Sons, under whom Messrs. Corcoran carried out the masonry. Mr. John Grundy has done the heating, the wrought-iron work was by Messrs. Hart. Son, Peard, & Co., and the stained glass by Mr. George Wragg. Mr. Oppenheimer has executed the mosaic floors, and the whole of the work has been under the supervision of Air. William Rutherford, permanent clerk of the works at the College. Mr. Paul Waterhouse has been mainly instrumental in carrying out his father’s ideas. - Manchester Courier. [Builder 25 January 1902 page 94]

THE WHITWORTH HALL, OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. On Wednesday the Governors, teaching staff, and students of Owens College celebrated (a year too late) the first jubilee of the institution. It was in 1846 that John Owens died, leaving a sum of nearly £100,000 for the foundation of a Manchester college which should be free from the religious tests which were at that time so unhappy a feature of the older universities; but it was not until the spring of 1851 that the work of teaching was begun. The jubilee ought therefore to have been celebrated last year, but at that time the Whitworth Hall, of which the foundation-stone was laid in June, 1898, was not completed, and it was decided to combine the jubilee celebrations and the formal opening of the hall a year later. With the nature of the ceremonies, we have little to do. Suffice it to say that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales delivered a well-written address, in which he regretted the absence of the distinguished architect of the building—a regret which every architect echoes—and finally declared the hall open ; that the Duke of Devonshire, President of the College, presided at the opening ceremony ; that learned men from other universities attended, some to speak and some to listen ; and that Manchester did its best to hide the prevailing grime of its buildings by Venetian masts, bunting, and festoons of evergreens and paper flowers.

The new hall, as the foundation-stone declares, has been given to Owens College “by Richard Copley Christie, Esq., in memory of Sir Joseph Whitworth, Bart.” It stands to the left of the principal tower of the group of buildings and completes the Oxford-street front. The extreme end is towards Burlington-street, and a new corridor connects the hall to the Christie Library, which abuts on the same street in the rear of the new building, and which was opened four years ago. The Whitworth Hall, the Christie Library, and the older buildings of the college have been designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., and although the work has been spread over about thirty years, there is a general similarity in the treatment. The style is of the variety commonly known as Domestic Gothic —more domestic, indeed, than that adopted by the same architect in the Manchester Town Hall. The walls are faced with stone, laid (as in the Town Hall) in courses alternately deep and shallow—about 9 in. and 3 in.—and the roofs are covered with red tiles. The new Whitworth Hall is a two-storied building, the hall itself forming the upper story. Externally, the principal frontage is towards Oxford- street, and is a dignified piece of work. The original carriage entrance to the quadrangle is in the ground story of the tower but as it has been proved to be somewhat narrow, a new and wider entrance has been formed between the tower and the new hall but set back a few feet from the mam building line. A wide semi-circular arch on the ground story is surmounted by a steep-pitched gable, containing three lancet windows, and flanked by sturdy octagonal turrets with sunk panels and pinnacles. On each side of this central feature there is a short, recessed portion connecting it to the tower on the right and the hall on the left. This entrance group is one of the happiest bits of the external design.

The angle of the hall nearest to the carnage entrance is cut off at an angle of 45 deg., and a single-light window is placed in a narrow bay between the splayed angle and the first buttress. Then follow five bays, each containing a pair of segmental-headed windows in the ground story, and a pair of lofty pointed windows above, with cinquefoil cusping to the arched heads and to the arches under the transoms. The buttresses are rectangular up to the level of the upper window-heads, and are then splayed to a semi-octagonal plan, and carried 4 or 5 feet above the parapet where they terminate—in a not altogether happy manner, with flat tops. The parapet has a considerable projection, the corbel course being an interesting feature, and containing a band of carving—almost the only stone carving in the whole of the building. A moulded string-course runs under the sills of the first-floor windows, and another at some distance below, both being carried around the buttresses; in the main wall between these I strings is a band of shallow panels with arched | and cusped heads. The seventh bay is marked by a projecting porch, forming on the ground floor the principal entrance to the hall. The arched doorway is surmounted by a panelled gable, behind which a second gable rises flanked by octagonal turrets and pinnacles, the apex of the gable being level with the top of the corbel-course under the parapet of the main building. The story over the porch, we may say in passing, forms the landing from which two small galleries at the south end of the hall are entered; a similar landing, but differently treated externally, is planned on the opposite side facing the Christie Library. The eighth and last bay of the hall on each side is marked by a tower in which the stairs to the hall and galleries are placed. To afford space for the winding stairs in each tower a two-storied oriel of segmental plan is projected from the side wall and terminates below the uppermost square stage of the tower; the parapets of the oriels are disproportionately low. The end of the hall facing Burlington-street is not by any means as satisfactory as the Oxford-street front. The designer has been confronted with the same difficulty which chapel architects have so often to face, and we cannot say that he has been entirely successful in his treatment of it. The wide gable end of the hall has been divided into a large central portion and two smaller side portions by means of two buttresses, square for the first story and semi-octagonal above, and the whole has been flanked by slightly projecting towers, the square portions of which terminate a little above the parapet of the main roof. The central portion of the gable end has a group of four windows with segmental heads on the lower story, and a large six-light traceried window above of ordinary Perpendicular design, and sadly lacking in depth. The apex of the gable is panelled, and the octagonal buttresses are finished with flat tops. The side portions of the gable end are absolutely unrelieved from base to coping, and the regular alternation of 9-in. and 3-in. courses throughout this height gives a rigid, cast-iron appearance which is far from pleasing. The towers are alike, with the exception of the doorway in the lowest stage of that to the left. With this exception, they are of plain masonry (in alternating courses as the rest of the work) up to the middle of the height of the large window in the gable, the only relief being obtained by a pair of stringcourses and a coat of arms. The formal effect is accentuated by the octagonal buttresses at the angles of the towers rising unbroken from the base, and with the faces flush with the faces of the parapets. The uppermost square stage of each tower has three lancet windows on each of the two exposed faces, with detached arcades in front; a single light of similar design might with advantage have been placed in each return towards the gable. This stage is followed by a double corbel course and a parapet with pointed arches simply chamfered. Behind the parapet there rises an octagonal stage—again reminiscent of the Manchester Town Hall—with a pointed arch in each face, and surmounted by an octagonal spire covered with lead, the rolls arranged in zigzag pattern. The shallowness of the windows in the gable end, the cast-iron regularity of the masonry, the straight lines of the octagonal buttresses, and the large unrelieved masses detract very much from the success of this portion of the exterior. The entrance hall and staircase occupy two bays of the ground floor at the Burlington-street end of the building. The style here is Romanesque, round arches carried by unpolished grey granite columns on lofty stilted bases. The ceiling of the hall is flat, and a small plaster cornice is run around it in such a way as to cover the upper parts of the central voussoirs; the effect is one of weakness. A wide flight of four steps rises from the hall to a landing under the ground-story window of the gable end, and from this landing flights of stairs rise (right and left) to the two towers Other flights lead from these to the floor of the hall, and others are continued up the towers to the level of the galleries.

The hall itself is a simple parallelogram about 50 ft. wide and 130 ft. long, and beam evidence of a study of Westminster Hall II has an open timber roof with seven main hammer-beam trusses, and smaller inter- mediate trusses. Each main truss has a pair of curved principal ribs, cutting through the hammer-beams and meeting in the centre the span to form a pointed arch. timbers, springing from the ends of the hammer-beams, are framed vertically between (he trusses to form two series of semi-circular arches from end to end of the hall. The panels of the trusses are filled with vertical bars connected at the top by cusped arches. The ends of the hammer-beams carry carved eagles, and are connected by tie-rods—a wise precaution— and the feet of the trusses rest on heavily moulded, bell-shaped capitals, each of which is supported by an unpolished shaft of grey granite standing clear of the wall At the Burlington-street end the first bay is occupied by six stages rising in steps from the floor of the hall, and the principal entrances are placed in the second bay. Small triangular galleries are carried across the angles at this end, and other small galleries project over the entrance doorways. At the opposite end of the hall are two other entrances, approached (by a corridor over the new quadrangle gateway) from the principal staircase of the older building. These staircases are placed near the side walls of the hall on either side of the platform; passages are formed from the doors to the hall by means of glazed screens, in which folding doors are placed to give access to the platform, and flights of seven steps lead down from the passages to the hall. Above these passages, and above the transverse corridor behind the platform a 1—i-shaped gallery is constructed, and a large organ, occupying about three-fourths of the width of the hall, is placed in the back portion. The platform is thus enclosed on three sides. The gallery and screens are of oak, and appear somewhat flimsy in contrast with the massive roof-timbers. The curfew panelling is too shallow for good effect, and the wood arches at the inner ends of the passages are particularly weak. The hall is lined with oak panelling to the height of above io ft., and above this with ashlar in regular alternating courses similar to the exterior. The acoustic properties of the hall are perfect, both for speech and music, and this is a very valuable quality in a building of this kind. On the ground floor a central corridor about 10 ft. wide runs longitudinally from the principal entrance hall at the Burlington-street end to a smaller hall entered from the new carriage archway. Offices for the college staff’ and other rooms are provided on either side, including a kitchen and pantry for festivals of a less intellectual character than those for which the hall is primarily intended. We have said enough to show that the Whitworth Hall is an important addition to the buildings of Owens College. Although we are no purists, we do not admire the staring incongruities displayed in different parts of the structure, but the Oxford-street frontage is undoubtedly a great improvement on the earlier portion of the college in that street ; and if we except the principal staircase of the older building, we can endorse the eulogium passed on the new hall by one of our Manchester contemporaries, which describes it as "a piece of architecture into which its author has put the happiest invention shown in any of his work for the Owens College.” We must confess, however, to a little sympathy with the " Undistinguished Student,” who, in another Manchester paper, writes: —"The buildings of the college never charmed me. Indeed, I felt them cold and forbidding. And I still feel them so. They are utilitarian Gothic, which is a modern addition to the seven deadly sins.” This is strong language, and the writer of it would probably have been converted to a different opinion if every part of the college.  [Builder 15 March 1902 page 258]

Reference    Builder 2 April 1898 Page 334 - Laying foundation stone of new buildings
Reference    Builder 8 October 1898 page 322 – contractors
Reference    Manchester Guardian 16 January 1902 page 10 *
Reference    Building News 24 January 1902 Page 124-125   
Reference    Builder 25 January 1902 page 94 *
Reference    British Architect 21 February 1902 Page 142 - extensive note
Reference    Manchester Guardian 13 March 1902 - article and illustrations
Reference    Building News 14 March 1902 Page 377
Reference    Builder 15 March 1902 page 258 *