Architecture & Building

# Day12

Today, my research topic is about architecture and building in Manchester. I had do a lot of research regarding the topic, explore the history of Manchester's architecture from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Manchester is one of the England's great cities, outstanding for its combination of Victorian architecture and industrial heritage. It lies on the banks of the River Irwell near the south western foothills of the Pennines, less than forty miles from the west coast. The architecture of Manchester
demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles. The city is a product of the Industrial Revolution and is known as the first modern, industrial city.


# Medieval Manchester

The medieval town grew up around a bluff confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk. This was the site of the manor house f the Grelley Family by the 13th century, and probably also their castle, recorded in 1184.


# Georgian Manchester

At this time the town was still centred around the church and marketplace. The establishment of St Ann's Church in 1709 and laying out of St Ann's Square in 1720 to the S of the old town centre was the first major planned development outside the medieval confines. By the second half of the 18th century Manchester had become a provincial town of the first rank. Trade was burgeoning and rapid expansion towards the end of the 18th century was facilitated by sales of large parcels of land in and around the centre.  Rapid growth in the late 18th century and 19th century was accompanied by seemingly unprecedented levels of poverty, deprivation and squalor, and although the slum housing has almost completely disappeared a range of philanthropic, charitable and municipal buildings survives as witness to the middle class response to the plight of the urban poor.


# Industrial Manchester

By the end of the 18th century Manchester was poised to move on to the world stage as urban and industrial expansion gathered pace. South East Lancashire and Manchester became the first industrial economy and society in the world. The town had by then an important asset in the country's first canal (1759-65) of the industrial era, built by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, with its terminal basin at Castlefield, south of the centre.



# 19th Century Machester

The public buildings, clubs and institutions of the early 19th century town illustrate the ambitions of the town's middle classes. The architecture of the High Victorian decades is dominated by GothicGlossary Term and ItalianateGlossary Term styles. The palazzoGlossary Term style, seen first at the Athenaeum on Princess Street. The 1870s and 1880s saw the virtual rebuilding of several city streets. ItalianateGlossary Term and GothicGlossary Term styles continued. North European RenaissanceGlossary Term styles became more popular from the end of the 1880s.



# 20th century Manchester

At the opening of the 20th century Manchester was reaping the benefits of one of the most ambitious municipal undertakings of the 19th century, the Manchester Ship Canal, which opened in 1894. Its success is reflected in the proliferation of commercial buildings of the early 20th century, amongst the most conspicuous of which are the huge Lloyds Packing Warehouses on Whitworth Street designed by Harry S. Fairhurs. After the First World War the major civic undertaking in the centre was the Central Library and Town Hall extension. New building of the 1970s was less ambitious than in the previous decade, except in terms of scale.