Mechanics' Institute - Princess Street

Mechanics' Institutes are to be found around the UK and as far afield as Australia. The first was established in 1821 in Glasgow. A meeting was convened on April 7, 1824 in the Bridgewater Arms in High Street Manchester to establish the Mechanics' Institute in Manchester. The goal was to provide adult education to working men, especially in the areas of science and technology. Eminent men were at the meeting including John Dalton, the father of atomic theory; Sir Benjamin Heywood, the banker; and William Fairburn, the engineer who worked with Stephenson on the radical Britannia Bridge.

The Institute opened in 1825 in Cooper Street but move to this building in 1854 when the Cooper Street site proved to be too small for their needs. John Edgar Gregan designed this building which fits well with the other palazzo style buildings on Princess Street. It has three tall storeys with a basement and hidden attic storey behind a balustrade. It is built in red brick with stone string courses and semicircular pediments over the first floor windows. Working men, from shopkeepers to labourers, attended evening classes to study English, grammar, writing, reading, arithmetic and Latin, as well as several foreign languages and music.