The once-proud University
of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) has been defunct for almost a decade,
but its former sight near Piccadilly hasn’t left us just yet.
UMIST's Main Building (now Sackville Street Building) and the railway viaduct. |
UMIST began in 1824 as
The Mechanics’ Institute and was founded at the historic 103 Princess Street –
the site on which both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Co-Operative
Insurance Society (CIS) were also established. By the late nineteenth-century, the
Mechanics’ Institute had out-grown its home on Princess Street and in 1902 moved to the enormous Main Building (now Sackville Street Building), bringing most of its schools together for the first time. The construction of the building’s extension
began in 1936 but the process was continually beset following the Second World War; the
extension was finally completed in 1957 just as the broader expansion of the
university was getting underway.
The Zig-Zag Renold Building |
The completion of the
Renold Building was closely followed by construction of the Barnes Wallis Building (1964), the Faraday Building (1967), and the legendary Maths and Social Sciences Building (1968). Each of the new
constructions embodied the principles of the modernist movement – all are concrete, angular, functional, and imposing. It may be hard to imagine now, but the M&SS
Building once stood as a proud and triumphant symbol of UMIST's spirit as a world-leading centre for
scientific excellence. The modernist revolution south of the viaduct
gave UMIST a campus to match its forward-thinking and ambitious ethos; as
academics moved into their new soaring tower blocks, the international reputation of the university appreciated enormously – most who were there agree that the campus’ unique
architectural collection played a role in creating UMIST’s
exciting academic culture.
Chandos from behind the Viaduct |
But in 2004 the party
was brought to a close. UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester merged
- though it was really more of an absorption of the former by the latter. Within
three years of the merger it was announced by the new entity – The University
of Manchester (UoM) – that many former UMIST buildings would be sold off, or
even levelled. The university’s 2007 Estates Strategy states clearly that it is
the aim of UoM to “relocate those schools at the north of the campus to land
already owned by the University [on Oxford Road]”. In other words, the UMIST
campus will be closed and sold-off, transforming UoM into a single-site
university by 2018.
The now-shabby M&SS Building |
The future of the
truly-epic Sackville Street Building is really anyone’s guess. The University
seems committed to finding a fitting use for the building but a number of
covenants restrict it to educational use only. The disappointing reality is that it’s
unlikely that an educational provider other than The University of Manchester
could afford to occupy and maintain this enormous structure. That said, it’s
possible that a number of schools could come together to take on this
extraordinary building and transform it into a vibrant centre of learning for
children of all ages. And it’s also possible that the covenants could be
overridden or modified by the courts, but still, it’s difficult to think of a
potential occupier for the site - though if we ever got serious about
devolution in the north of England, Sackville Street would be the perfect place
to house a Greater Manchester Assembly and its administrative offices
(something to keep in mind, maybe?).
The futures of the
Faraday and Renold Buildings, however, look markedly more secure. The
University recently invested £3.4 million into Renold
and it seems that its role as a prime conference venue will ensure that it
continues to remain part of the University’s estates portfolio. And the Faraday
Building, once a world-leading centre for Chemical Engineering, looks set to be
converted into student accommodation. It's crucial that Faraday survives in its present form; it's the most decorative of all the site's '60s buildings and stands as a mischievous challenge to UMIST's modernist orthodoxy.
The
buildings that remain on the old UMIST sight are certainly not to everyone’s
taste. In isolation, many seem archaic, ugly, and even offensive; but when
taken together the tall white concrete blocks that stand south of the viaduct
remain an important and striking architectural collection. If the set cannot be
saved, it’s still comforting to know that at least a couple of these grand
structures will likely survive.
But admirers
of Mancunian architecture should be worried about the fate of the Sackville
Street Building. The structure is much too grand and imposing to sit empty in that part of Manchester – an occupier(s) must be found, and found
quickly. In fact, if I had one architectural wish it would be that we could
move the building brick-by-brick to the University’s Oxford Road campus. But pipe-dreams aside, we must hope that a purpose is found for this magnificent old
building; for me, it was Manchester’s greatest when it was built more than a
century ago, and it will still be one of Manchester’s greatest a century from now.