In the last half of the nineteenth century in Britain the professional and cultural spheres had slowly migrated from all corners of the country to London leaving the rest of Britain without any form of cultural identity. The effect of the Manchester Plan in 1945 was to break this trend and enrich areas outside of London, which in this case was Manchester. The plans called for the area south of the city centre around the Oxford Road corridor to be the future site of a new cultural hub.
At one time Manchester had been a centre for scientific innovation and the birthplace of new political thought, and had also made considerable contributions to music and the arts. All this achievement and excellence had actually occurred around the south of the city centre and around the Oxford Road district, so was the choice for the new cultural hub’s location a mere logistic choice or was it because of its importance to Manchester’s cultural heritage. That aside, this area idealistically would be a perfect location. It was important because it was here where these achievements had occurred that had made Manchester Great!
The 1945 plan was described by the city’s architect as a “seed of cultural renaissance”. The area around Oxford Road, south of Oxford Road Station and North of the original Victoria University (present day University of Manchester) would be the site of this new cultural hub, which in turn was the central piece of Manchester’s 1945 Plan. The natural association between learning and culture meant that this new cultural hub should be close to a university, or in close proximity to it and other institutions of advanced education and research. The Victoria University of Manchester was already the largest provincial centre for learning in England, and the 1945 Plan came at a time when there were plans already being drawn up for expansion to the University’s Campus, Medical School and adjacent Hospitals. In recent years the then present chancellor Sir John Stopford had foreseen that the demand for higher education was going to increase within subsequent years, meaning that renovation of present buildings and an expansion of the university’s estate was necessary in order for the university to function. The Victoria University of Manchester along with the adjacent Hospitals District was comprised of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, a Tuberculosis Centre, Saint Mary’s Hospital and the Royal Eye Hospital. Altogether these five institutions formed an established nucleus from which the new cultural centre would expand alongside.
The proximity of the Victoria University of Manchester and the Hospitals District to the city centre had its advantages to the general community and also to the student community but also there were more negative issues with the location than positive ones. Expansion was the biggest problem to overcome because not only was there no space in which to expand at that time, but also there would be a lack of space for future expansion if it was required. There were problems with the fact that this district was so close to the city centre that it would be affected by traffic and parking problems. The preferred site of the hospital would have been a more rural setting giving the site ease for subsequent expansion and also a better environment for patients, but the hospital was not just a place for the treatment of the sick, it was also a major centre for teaching and learning so proximity to the university was an important factor
The 1945 Plan called for the widening of Cambridge Street and Upper Brook Street, turning them into major arterial roads which would serve the new district as well as the city centre. This was to draw focus from having to widen Wilmslow Road and Oxford Road, which would have involved demolishing extremely expensive estates and frontages. The Oxford/Wilmslow Road Corridor was and still is one of the most attractive approaches to the city and they wanted to protect it.
The completion of these new arterial roads would enable Oxford Road to be closed off at the northern end therefore allowing the proposed cultural precinct, leaving a straight road from the town hall to the cultural centre, running straight through the entertainment quarter with its theatres and bars. This new layout would leave an area large enough to permit lawns, trees, and places for recreational purposes stretching from Whitworth Park to Saint Peters Square. “The precinct will therefore constitute the tip of the green tongue, set with buildings in open surroundings, which will form an excellent substitute for that unattainable ideal, a wedge of open green space from the green belt to the city centre”. This area was mostly occupied by old housing that was becoming obsolete, and easy to clear because of its undesirable nature. “When the new buildings rise and their setting takes shape, they will give Manchester something that will be the envy of all cities – but something that cannot be achieved without effort and sacrifice on a large scale,”. The plan was to be a formidable and ambitious undertaking, although in the long run it would have amply justified the cost of its realisation. The surrounding area itself would be an attractive setting, industry being moved as far away as possible from the hospital, university and cultural precinct. The plan interestingly called for special care to be taken in screening with suitable buildings the railway viaduct to the north, and the bridge over Oxford Street should be rebuilt in a style that would not interfere with the view of the civic hall along the main approach of Oxford Street from the city centre down to the south.
The cultural centre itself (pictured figure 3) would be set in large gardens, the cultural buildings grouped on either side of an impressively large civic hall. The area bounded by Oxford Road, Cambridge Street and Mancunion Way contains most of the existing university buildings including the original main block, the students union, refectories, art faculty and library. More university buildings were urgently needed as the university was quickly expanding into nearby houses in order to cope with its exploding population and need to house offices and administration. Student halls of residence are distributed around Victoria Park and beyond. Proposed are two large science blocks, extensions to the library and the art faculty, and a new building for the Royal College of Music is proposed to be built near its present site, but in a more modern style. The rest of the area would be grassed and planted to give a more spacious harmonious setting to the new and old buildings of the university and the cultural centre; The new university campus was expected to “emulate the dignity and tranquillity of the older university cities and to challenge comparison with the finest examples of modern university architecture in the world”.
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