Manchester Town Hall Extension

Edit links
Coordinates: 53°28′43″N 2°14′39″W / 53.4786°N 2.2443°W / 53.4786; -2.2443
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Town Hall Extension
E. Vincent Harris
Designations
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameManchester Town Hall Extension
Designated2 October 1974
Reference no.1197917

Manchester Town Hall Extension was built between 1934 and 1938 to provide additional accommodation for local government services. It was built between St Peter's Square and Lloyd Street in Manchester city centre, England.[1] English Heritage designated it a grade II* listed building on 2 October 1974.[2] Its eclectic style was designed to be a link between the ornate Gothic Revival Manchester Town Hall and the Classical architecture of the Central Library.

Architecture

The refurbished Rates Hall in 2014

The

E. Vincent Harris who, in the same year, won a competition to build Manchester Central Library on an adjacent site.[1] The building, built by J. Gerrard & Sons Ltd of Swinton, is essentially Gothic in character, with ornately carved tracery and a steeply pitched roof interpreted in a contemporary style. The building was started after the Central Library was completed and originally had a rates hall, gas and electricity showrooms on the ground floor; a cinema was built at basement level and on the first floor is a council chamber. The building cost £750,000 and was opened by King George VI in 1938, the occasion commemorated by a carved inset stone at the Mount Street end.[3]

The building is linked to Manchester Town Hall by two covered bridges at first-floor level over Lloyd Street and has an irregular plan with a concave south side facing the Central Library. Its curved four-storey range with round-headed arches and small windows facing Library Walk is 200 feet (61 m) in length. The eight-storey building has

coats of arms were designed by George Kruger Gray.[3]

Charles Reilly, a contemporary architecture critic, thought the extension was "dull" and "drab" while Nikolaus Pevsner considered it was Harris's "best job".[1]

Refurbishment

Manchester City Council restored and refurbished the Town Hall Extension and the Central Library from 2010–15 to include a public service hub to make its services more accessible. The public entrances on Mount Street and St Peter's Square were restored to their 1930s appearance and staircases to the lower ground floor were reinstated to access the Central Library which was extended into the basement. The rates hall was restored. The project, delivered by Laing O'Rourke, won the Construction News Judges Supreme Award in June 2015. It was described as an almost impossibly complex project completed on schedule and within budget.[4]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manchester Town Hall Extension.
  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-300-09666-8
  2. ^ a b Historic England, "Town Hall Extension Lloyd Street (1197917)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 17 December 2011
  3. ^ a b History of Manchester Town Hall Extension, Manchester Council, retrieved 18 December 2011
  4. ^ "Judges Supreme Award: Winner". Construction News. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manchester_Town_Hall_Extension&oldid=1211440359"