Friend's Meeting House
The Society of Friends had been meeting in Manchester
for 200 years before they purchased this site on Mount
Street and built a Meeting House. One of its claims to
fame is the fact that during the Peterloo Massacre, that
occured nearby on St Peter's Field, the "Friends" tended
to the injured who were carried there for safety.
The building had two halls
for the separate use of men and women. Lane
designed a moveable screen that allowed the mens' and
womens' meeting rooms to be connected when required.
Lane went on to build the Corn Exchange near the
Cathedral. Lane's pupil at the time was Alfred
Waterhouse and in 1861 he made some alterations to the
interior of the building. Waterhouse went on to build
Manchester Town Hall and the magnificent Natural History
Museum in South Kensington, London. In addition to Lane and
Waterhouse the congregation at this Meeting House
included John Dalton, the famous chemist and George
Bradshaw who founded the railway guide that Sherlock
Holmes refers to so often when asking Watson to check
train times.
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