{"id":64436,"date":"2025-08-13T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/64436\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:55:10","slug":"historic-england-lists-pioneering-manchester-60s-lecture-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/64436\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic England lists pioneering Manchester 60s lecture block"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Renold Building in Manchester was designed by W A Gibbon with Gordon Hodkinson, for Cruikshank & Seward, and completed in 1962 for the Manchester College of Technology (later UMIST).<\/p>\n

The 10,200m\u00b2 building, known for its distinctive Modernist appearance, once housed nine 140-to-500-seat lecture theatres, with 70-seat classrooms and small tutorial rooms.<\/p>\n

It now sits within Bruntwood SciTech\u2019s \u00a31.7 billion Sister masterplan project, and was recently overhauled, giving it a new lease of life as a technology and science workspace.<\/p>\n

The decision comes 20 years after the Twentieth Century Society first applied to have the building listed in 2005. Historic England now admits that its initial assessment that the building lacked \u2018high architectural quality\u2019 was \u2018harsh\u2019.<\/p>\n

When the building opened, the railway-side block between Manchester\u2019s Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations had a total seating capacity for 3,000 students.<\/p>\n

Its entrance hall also hosts the large mural Metamorphosis<\/a>, by abstract painter Victor Pasmore.<\/p>\n

Explaining its decision to list the building, Historic England pointed to the influence the Renold Building had on the design of post-war technical universities \u2013 such as Brunel and Leeds \u2013 as well as its \u2018pioneering use\u2019 of slab-and-podium design and \u2018strikingly Modernist and sculptural\u2019 aesthetic.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the modern architecture conservation organisation Docomomo said: \u2018The listing of the Renold Building is long overdue and well deserved, and we hope this will encourage an all-round more considered view of the value of modern heritage in Manchester.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Umist<\/p>\n

Detail view of Renold Building (1962) University of Manchester, by W Arthur Gibbon of Cruickshank & Seward<\/p>\n

The Bruntwood SciTech plans for the wider site, designed by Allies and Morrison, were submitted to the council in May, but have come under fire from conservationist groups, such as the Modernist<\/a>, for the planned demolition of much of the existing campus.<\/p>\n

The proposals involve demolition of the Barnes Wallis and Wright Robinson Building, Manchester Meeting Place, Morton Laboratory, Moffatt Building and the Butterfly Stairs.<\/p>\n

The Modernist described this as a \u2018catastrophic loss of an entire campus ensemble,\u00a0destroying a valuable legacy\u00a0of post-war development and educational infrastructure\u2019.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Sister project said: \u2018We respect the decision to\u00a0list the Renold Building and, as a responsible developer and custodian of the former UMIST campus, we\u2019ll ensure full compliance with the listing order.<\/p>\n

\u2018From the outset of the Sister project, we have worked closely with heritage bodies and stakeholders to ensure that culturally and architecturally significant elements are preserved and integrated sensitively into the vision for the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our priority remains to deliver a regeneration scheme that celebrates the site\u2019s heritage while unlocking its full potential as part of Manchester\u2019s knowledge economy.\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite attempts from Twentieth Century Society to have the whole UMIST campus designated a conservation area, the Sister development plans are likely to involve the demolition of nearly the entire site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Renold Building in Manchester was designed by W A Gibbon with Gordon Hodkinson, for Cruikshank & Seward,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-64436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}