Manchester City Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester: Alterations

 THE MANCHESTER ART GALLERY — The structural alterations, in progress at the Royal institution, in order to adapt the building for the purposes of the new Corporation Art Gallery, are now completed. The fundamental change is the removal of the old lecture-theatre, which occupied the centre of the building, and extended through its entire height. Formerly the floor of the theatre was raised above the level of the rest of the ground-floor. The floor-level has now been made the same as that of the other rooms of the ground-floor. At the same time, the galleries of the upper floor, which were divided into two parts by the lecture-theatre, have now been made continuous. On the ground-floor rooms, on either side of the lecture-theatre were formerly broken up by a number of partitions. All these have been removed, and the rooms on this floor now correspond with those on the floor above. Two fine continuous suites of rooms have thus been obtained on either floor. A large new gallery has been secured on the first floor. The Manchester Courier understands that it is intended to appropriate the first-floor, as in former years, to the autumn exhibition of pictures, which will be opened on the 31st of this month. The objects recently acquired as the nucleus of the permanent art collections will be displayed on the ground-floor. The structural alterations have been carried out under the direction of the City Surveyor (Mr. Allison). [Builder 18 August 1883 page 237]