The Manchester City Colleges Plan
The Education Precinct plan also covered the redevelopment of the area north of the University which housed the City colleges, the present Manchester School of Art and Design and the John Dalton College of Technology, and the new sites of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM,) and the Adult Education College.
The plans called for a completely new building for the RNCM on the crossroads of Booth Street and Oxford Road with a pedestrian bridge linking it to the Precinct Building. The new building would be a conduit linking the street to the new upper level walkway system. The new building was a great opportunity because it would be the first time since the college was founded that it would be contained under one roof in its own purpose built building. The original design was intended to be much larger but the Precinct plan called for the widening of Booth Street and also a height restriction being placed upon the building so as not to obstruct the view from the new Manchester Business School. This led to the new design being much thinner and longer than previously envisaged which worked in favour for the designers because a longer narrower building meant that recital and practice rooms could be housed at one end of the building whist not distracting from classes and lectures going on at the other side of the building. Also the thinner design meant that less of the buildings façade faced onto the busy and noisy Oxford Road.
The Manchester School of Art and Design premises consisted of the original Gothic 1881 building (Grosvenor Building) with its 1918 extension, but the School of Art and Design had just finished a large redevelopment to its estate, with the completion of the Chatham Tower and Undercroft building to the rear of the original Grosvenor Building. The plans for the college were to redevelop the land to the west of the original Grosvenor Building. The Chatham and Undercroft extension had nearly doubled the size of the college, but because of planning issues and the longer than expected construction of the new building, when they became occupied there was still a lack of space within the college. The demand for space was crucial leading to further plans to extend the college again on land adjacent to the existing buildings.
The John Dalton College of Technology, like the School of Art and Design was suffering from shortages in teaching laboratory space considering that in itself it was a very new institution, having been completed in 1965. Similar to the School of Arts extension the new college had suffered planning and building problems as from the moment the building was completed more space was required. The Precinct plan called for a new extension on the land between the original college building and Oxford Road. The building would be U-shaped and raised above the ground so you could walk under it and use the original college entrance. By doing this they created a new courtyard and social space for students to meet and socialise.
The new building for the College of Adult Education was to be built on the south-east corner of All Saints Park, where Cavendish Street and Oxford road meet, next door to the Manchester School of Art. There was an urgent call for the city to provide an Adult education College within the Precinct plan; it would consist of an array of courses and facilities for adults to study and practice Art, Music, Drama, Physical Education, and Science. People with full time jobs wishing to take full or part time courses would be able to take evening classes. It was designed with a larger than required refectory so it could take on the overflow from the School of Art and Design. The building was also designed to be flexible so that it could be used by the surrounding colleges and also to encourage contact between students of different colleges and institutions.
The Formation of Manchester Polytechnic
In terms of the building development at the area of the city colleges the major changes that arose were from the establishment of the Manchester Polytechnic on 1st January 1970. It was formed by the amalgamation of the Manchester School of Art and Design, The John Dalton College of Technology, and the College of Commerce, the first two being within the Precinct and the last situated on Aytoun Street in the city centre.
In retrospect the timing of the Precinct plan had been crucial. It had come too late to influence discussions which led to the building of the new College of Commerce being sited at Aytoun Street, some distance from the other city’s central college district at All Saints. This was a shame because it meant that it had an effect on the location of a complete city college district where all the further education institutions were gathered together. It also had an effect on the site when the city colleges became the Polytechnic.
The Precinct plan for the area around the city colleges was rewritten and new ideas were drawn up for a new Polytechnic development plan. Discussions were held with the City Education Department, the City Planning Officer and the City Architect, and in 1971 a basic proposal was prepared. The proposal was to focus the Polytechnic around Grosvenor Square (All Saints) in order to influence a satisfactory working relationship between the School of Art and Design and The John Dalton College of Technology. It was proposed to eliminate all the plans put forward in the original Precinct masterplan. They terminated plans for a hall of residence south of the Mancunian Way and replaced it with the Polytechnic Central Administration Building (All Saints Building.) Subsequent Polytechnic expansion would centre on Grosvenor Square by allocating sites to the east and west of the square for new development. Subsequent expansion would provide an opportunity for a more cohesive architectural grouping around the centre, the social focal point of the polytechnic would therefore be Grosvenor Square. From the original sixties master plan only a few buildings were actually erected in the City Colleges district, Loxford Tower being one, but it was only a small part of a larger student residence that had been proposed for the site where the Polytechnic Central Administration Building now stands (present day All Saints building and Sir Kenneth Green Library.)
The Polytechnic appointed Messrs, Sheppard and Robson and Robson and Partners, as architects for the whole project. New plans were drawn up by the subsequent architects working within the original guidelines of the sixties master plan; from this they produced the Manchester Polytechnic development plan in 1972. Development of the Polytechnic was expected to take place progressively up until 1980.
A less detailed Development plan is listed below;
Site Number 1: North Side of Square: A Central Building including library, administration, offices, lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, recreational and dining facilities.
Site Number 2: East Side of Square: Faculties of Community Studies and of Management and Business, together with possible dining and communal space and 200 residential units
Site Number 3: Between College of Music and Adult Education: Faculty of Humanities and Department of Law, comprising staff and tutorial rooms, classrooms, lecture theatres and communal space
Site Number 4: West Side of Square: Extension to faculty of Art and Design comprising Studios, workshops and common rooms, together with 200 residential units.
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