Manchester
Evening News Office - Deansgate
The image above is shown with the permission of Eirian Evans from his Geograph collection.
The image above is shown with the permission of Eirian Evans from his Geograph collection.
The Manchester Evening
News Building, which once stood on Deansgate adjacent to
Rylands Library was built at the end of the 1960s.
It was part of the development of the area around the
new Crown Court buildings, by the architectural practice
of Leach Rhodes and Walker. Their Crown Square
project resulted in the pedestrianization of the area
beside Rylands Library, as well as the construction of
Cumberland House (the former Education Office, now
demolished) and this MEN Building.
The MEN started life in 1868 in "a dingy office" in Brown Street. However, by 1879 it had moved into premises on Cross Street across from the Royal Exchange, that were home to the Manchester Guardian (see below). You can just make out the sign on the brownstone building which reads "The Manchester Guardian". Subsequently, the Scott Family, owners of the Guardian, bought the Evening News.
Just as the Deansgate Office was created during the Crown Square Development of the 1960s/70s, it was demolished as part of the Spinningfield Development in the 2000s. The sculpture "Vigilance" went at the same time and its whereabouts appear to be unknown. I don't know the exact date of the building's demolition but since the newspaper's new home on Hardman Street was completed in 2006, I think it is safe to conclude that it was around that time. Below is an image taken in November 2007 by which time the building was gone but there were no obvious signs of the new building rising above the boards around the site.
Below is Number 2 Hardman Street, which became the newspapers new home.
The MEN started life in 1868 in "a dingy office" in Brown Street. However, by 1879 it had moved into premises on Cross Street across from the Royal Exchange, that were home to the Manchester Guardian (see below). You can just make out the sign on the brownstone building which reads "The Manchester Guardian". Subsequently, the Scott Family, owners of the Guardian, bought the Evening News.
After the MEN made the
move to Deansgate, they marked their centenary by
commissioning a sculpture, to be erected on the
pedestrian area between their building and Rylands
Library. The piece was entitled "Vigilance" and
it was created by the sculptor Keith Godwin. The
public sculpture database says this of it,
""Vigilance", the first abstract sculpture to be
installed in the city centre, was commissioned by the
Scott Trust to mark the centenary of the Manchester
Evening News, an anniversary also celebrated by the
planting of trees in Albert Square. ........... In
developing the sculpture, Godwin was concerned with
presenting bold determined shapes. He was also aware
of the possibility of vandalism, and the tall two-part
concrete base was, in part, a response to this
concern. The choice of a red granite aggregate for the
base acknowledged the red sandstone of the
neighbouring John Rylands Library. Godwin did not
provide the sculpture with a title but Laurence Scott,
grandson of C. P. Scott, decided on "Vigilance", an
apt title for a sculpture associated with the press.
The sculpture was unveiled in May 1971 by Sir William
Hayley, the Director- General of the BBC, and former
editor of the Manchester Evening News and The Times.
" If you click on the link below you can see the
sculpture outside the new MEN Office.
Just as the Deansgate Office was created during the Crown Square Development of the 1960s/70s, it was demolished as part of the Spinningfield Development in the 2000s. The sculpture "Vigilance" went at the same time and its whereabouts appear to be unknown. I don't know the exact date of the building's demolition but since the newspaper's new home on Hardman Street was completed in 2006, I think it is safe to conclude that it was around that time. Below is an image taken in November 2007 by which time the building was gone but there were no obvious signs of the new building rising above the boards around the site.
Below is Number 2 Hardman Street, which became the newspapers new home.
Ironically, this seems
to be a story of "going - going - gone!" because, as I
write this in December 2010, the MEN has now moved out
of 2 Hardman Street and relocated to a site in
Oldham. As you can see below, the sign is gone
from the window.
The newspaper has though maintained a presence in the city centre, in Number 1 Piccadilly Gardens.
The newspaper has though maintained a presence in the city centre, in Number 1 Piccadilly Gardens.
**************************
There has been quite
a lot of change on this site over the years.
The drawing below is my interpretation of a map
dated 1886. It shows Rylands Library under
construction. Beside the library is a 4 storey
warehouse block. Between Cumberland Street and
Hardman Street there was a complicated collection of
buildings which included a large number of
dwellings, some of them back-to-backs.
It also accommodated a bank, a pub, a carriage house
and a variety of commercial businesses.
The corner of Hardman
Street and Deansgate was empty but by 1904 the site
became home to the spectacular art deco Northcliffe
House.
In 1953, when the aerial
photograph was taken, Northcliffe House was still there
(D), beside it is a car showroom belonging to Lookers
(C), then the warehouse block (B) and finally Rylands
Library (A).
If you click on the link
below you will see the scene from Deansgate.
Deansgate Buildings 1968
Deansgate Buildings 1968
The MEN office building,
that once sat beside Rylands Library, was built roughly
in a position occupied, in the aerial photograph above,
by the warehouse block and Cumberland Street (I have
used a purple rectangle to mark the approximate
position).
*****************************
Today the site is
occupied by a new retail building owned by Armani,
which was called 2 Spinningfield Square but now
seems to be 1 The Avenue.