Sackville Street (Manchester)

Sackville Street can refer to both a street in central Manchester, England and a large, historic building on that street.

The Street

Sackville Street is a street in Manchester City Centre. It runs in a northwest-southeast direction and is split into two sections by Whitworth Street, which runs in an northeast-southwest direction. At the northern end of the street is a junction with Portland Street. The northern half of the street runs through Manchester's Gay Village. Here the street runs over the Rochdale Canal and there is also a newly restored park - Sackville Gardens. The southern half of the street runs through what was the main campus of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), which is now part of the University of Manchester in its North Campus. Here the street runs under a railway viaduct, which carries the line between Manchester's Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations. At the southern end of the street there is a junction with the Mancunian Way (the A57). An 1801 map 1 shows Sackville Street extending no further than the Rochdale Canal and an 1844 railway plan indicates that the part of the road extending south of the canal was called ¨Zara Street¨ .

The Building

The University of Manchester occupies what is now known as the "Sackville Street building" -- before the merger with UMIST in 2004, it was UMIST's "Main Building". Construction of the building began in 1895 and it was opened in 1902 by the then Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.

Built using Burmantofts terracotta the building is now Grade II listed. It was extended along Whitworth Street, towards London Road, between 1927 and 1957 by the architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope, the delay being due to the depression in the 1930s and the Second World War. Originally a swimming pool was planned for the top floor, but instead this was used as gymnasium and examination hall. The lower floors contain among other departments the Royce Laboratory for mechanical engineering, named after Henry Royce. Floors are denoted by letters, from BA (lowest), then A to L (highest) missing out I.

The building lies between Whitworth Street and Granby Row (with Cobourg Street to the east) and the original main entrance is on Sackville Street and is called the Grand Entrance. Another entrance is on Granby Row and a little used entrance is on Whitworth Street. The historic Godlee Observatory sits on the roof and is still in use. The building is used by the University for a number of functions and departments. Inside is the Joule Library (now an outlying part of the John Rylands University Library) and various offices, laboratories, lecture theatres and exam halls. The Joule Library was given this name in 1989 when it was refurbished.