Renold Building, UMIST Campus

Summary

A block for lecture theatres, originally designed in 1958 for the Manchester College of Technology by W A Gibbon, a partner in the firm of Cruickshank & Seward, with his assistant Gordon Hodkinson, and built in 1960-1962. The structural engineer was S S Heighway of Ove Arup & Partners and the acoustic consultant was Hope Bagenal. The building contains a large abstract mural, also designed in 1958, by Victor Pasmore, executed in 1968.

The institution was renamed the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1966.

Reasons for Designation

The Renold Building of 1958, built 1960-1962, designed by W A Gibbon with Gordon Hodkinson, of Cruickshank and Seward, for the Manchester College of Technology (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) from 1966), is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as the first purpose-built lecture block in an English institution of higher education, which proved particularly influential on buildings at post-war technical universities, such as Brunel University and Leeds;
* its slab-and-podium design, one of the earliest examples in England and a pioneering use in an educational setting.
* its innovative and efficient planning, with nine lecture theatres stacked vertically to save space, enabling large numbers of students to reduce time moving between separate buildings and to be taught in better-equipped theatres;
* its strikingly Modernist and sculptural design notably the zig-zag profile of the east wall, transparent stair tower, and bold concave curve to the rooftop plant.
* for the contrast between white concrete and Portland stone and brick and terracotta, as found in Manchester's 19th century buildings;
* much of the interior layout remains, most notably the lecture theatres, as well as many fixtures and fittings;
* Cruickshank and Seward were an important local practice and W A Gibbon’s Renold Building, designed in consultation with the university's principal, Dr Bowden, was the College of Technology’s statement building, epitomising the distinctive technical character of the campus;
* the survival of a large abstract interior mural, a rare and important work in this medium by Victor Pasmore, a leading British artist of the postwar period.

Historic interest:
* UMIST was one of the most prestigious technical colleges of the post-war era, accorded university status in recognition of its strategic importance in the national development especially of Cold War technology.

Group value:
* the Renold Building and Antony Hollaway’s listed Sculptural Wall (NHLE number 1400857) have group value as integral components of UMIST’s post-war campus.

History

INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
The Manchester College of Technology originated as the Manchester Mechanics Institute, founded in 1824 and becoming Manchester Technical School in 1883. It became the College of Technology after the First World War. After the Second World War, the awarding of university status to a small number of technical colleges, including Manchester, was proposed. In 1953 the college’s strategic importance in the national development of technology was underlined by Manchester’s receipt of the highest proportion of central funding for technical further education of any city outside London, and the appointment of the eminent former radar researcher Dr Bertram Vivian Bowden as the college’s Principal. Bowden wrote that 'the college will perform a vitally important service for the industry of the country as a whole and of this district in particular'. The award of a Royal Charter was announced in 1955, and in 1956 direct national funding (by the University Grants Committee) replaced local authority control.

The Robbins Report of 1963 envisaged a doubling of student numbers, recommending higher education should be available to everyone likely to benefit from it, with an emphasis on science and technical subjects. The college was given special status, in 1964 becoming the only technology college to join an existing university (Victoria University of Manchester), though retaining a separate identity. In 1966, during a period of rapid expansion, the college was renamed the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), keeping its name and autonomy until it fully merged with the former Victoria University to form the University of Manchester in 2004.

Dr Bowden was instrumental in the development of the post-war campus on land previously used by dyers’ factories beside the River Medlock (now culverted), to the south of the 1849 railway viaduct and the main building of the earlier Technical School (now Sackville Street Building) of 1895 to 1912 (NHLE entry 1247609). His carefully-considered proposals, published in 1956, stated that ‘the buildings we erect must be sited with dignity and propriety, and in such a way that the sun and air can penetrate the buildings and the space between them; there must be large courts, trees and lawns allowing vistas of the buildings, so that the environment will bring pride and pleasure both to the occupants and to the passers-by’.

Bowden appointed Sir Hubert Worthington (1886-1963) to undertake a masterplan for the campus. While the layout as built did not entirely follow Worthington’s proposed block plans, Bowden’s commissioning of the practice of Cruickshank & Seward nevertheless led to a coherent, compact complex of confident, Modernist buildings, designed under the supervision of partner W A Gibbon (1921-1994), and one of the most coherent groups of science buildings at any institution in the country. His use of white concrete and Portland stone, glazed staircases and jagged rooflines countered the city’s sooty, industrial image.

BUILDING HISTORY
The Renold Building was the first major scheme to be completed, designed by Gibbon, with Gordon Hodkinson as his assistant, in 1958 and built in 1960 to 1962. The foundation stone was laid on 24 June 1960 by Sir Charles Renold, chairman of the planning and development committee of the College. As constructed it closely follows the original design. It was the first purpose-built lecture theatre block in an English civic educational institution, although the idea already existed in the Netherlands, Germany and United States, and Cambridge had a small Victorian lecture block amongst its science buildings, since demolished. Building individual lecture theatres for each department was uneconomical, since not all were regularly used. The innovation in placing of theatres together was designed to be economical of space and to save students and staff time in moving between buildings, while allowing much larger numbers of students to be taught in larger, better-equipped theatres.

Gibbon’s other work at UMIST included the Barnes Wallis Building (students’ union), Wright Robinson Hall (student residences), a fifteen-storey tower block for Mathematics and Social Sciences and the lower Ferranti Building (Electrical Engineering). The higher budget and novel brief for the Renold Building set it above its peers, evident in the skilled handling of space and concrete finishes, and demonstrating a novel relationship between acoustic and structural problems.

The building took the form of a two-storey podium supporting a six-storey slab block, the latter positioned as far from the adjacent railway viaduct as possible. This was one of the earliest manifestations of this building form in this country (SOM’s Lever Building of 1952 in New York, USA, is generally considered to be the first of its type. The other early examples in England were in London: Thorn House by Basil Spence and Castrol House by Gollins, Melvin & Ward are late 1950s, contemporary with the Renold Building but both altered).

The building contained nine 140- to 500-seat lecture theatres, with 70-seat classrooms and small tutorial rooms, giving a total seating capacity of 3,000 students. The complex circulation needed by so many students in one building was addressed by spacious staircases, corridors and lifts. The three largest lecture theatres were located in the podium for easy access and to enable heavy equipment for demonstration to be brought in.

The acoustic expert Hope Bagenal (1888-1979) was consultant for the building; two of his most important acoustic projects were for the Royal Festival Hall and Manchester Free Trade Hall. The tower floor slabs were of heavy construction to reduce noise transmission, partition walls between rooms were of nine-inch brickwork, and the stacked lecture theatres were back-lit by a saw-toothed east wall, the double-glazed, canted windows reflecting sound down onto the raked seating. The podium lecture theatres had solid external walls with no windows.

Gibbon also thought it important that the students should have a place where they could socialise and it was designed as a place to “see and be seen” and this extended to the fully glazed, projecting stair tower. The latter was deliberately given an interesting view to encourage students to use it rather than the lifts.

The artist Victor Pasmore (1908-1998) designed a large, abstract mural titled Metamorphosis for the lower, entrance hall of the podium making a maquette in 1958, but which was not executed until 1968.

In 1974 a plaque with a painted sundial celebrating 150 years since the Mechanics’ Institute was formed was added to the external south wall.

At an unknown date in the late C20 or early C21 the original, sound-absorbing timber panelling, blackboards and other teaching furniture, and seating in the lecture theatres were removed and replaced. The asbestos cement louvres to the south-facing tower windows have also been removed and the podium’s open staircase has been partly boxed-in.

Following the completion in 2021 of a new engineering campus for the University of Manchester, the UMIST campus became surplus to requirements and the site is presently being considered for redevelopment. The Renold Building has recently been refurbished. On two of the slab block floors the spine corridor walls and some subdividing class room and lecture room walls have been removed to open the floors up; the lecture theatres at the east end remain, that on the second floor now stripped out. The former refreshment rooms and students’ reading and writing room on the east side of the podium have also been refurbished.

The partnership of Herbert William Cruickshank and Henry Thomas Seward was formed in Manchester between 1919 and 1923 and developed during the interwar period when they designed a series of civic and commercial projects. After the Second World War the partners in charge were Seward’s son, John R G Seward, and the young architect (William) Arthur Gibbon, who both trained at the University of Manchester. They were influenced by Modernists such as Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Alva Aalto, who they were to meet at his studio in Helsinki when they visited Denmark and Finland in the 1960s. Gibbon led on the practice’s UMIST buildings.

Details

Lecture theatre block. Designed in 1958, built in 1960-1962, by W A Gibbon, a partner in the firm of Cruickshank & Seward, with his assistant Gordon Hodkinson, for the Manchester College of Technology, renamed in 1966 as the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and fully merged with the main university in 2004. The structural engineer was S S Heighway of Ove Arup & Partners and the acoustic consultant was Hope Bagenal. The building contains a large abstract mural designed in 1958, executed in 1968 by Victor Passmore.

MATERIALS: reinforced concrete frame for slab tower and podium with the tower block carried over the podium halls by pre-stressed beams supported on large columns, with columns on the upper floors at 12 ft centres along the elevations and at 24 ft centres on a central line, with supports from the lift walls and west end wall. Clad in white concrete, Portland stone slabs, and grey-green and terracotta mosaic panels. Aluminium and steel window frames. The partial terrace on the south and east sides is faced in stone blocks with stone steps and concrete flags.


PLAN: Rectangular two-storey podium, on a partial terrace on the south and east sides, supporting a rectangular-plan six-storey tower, aligned east-west, that has a north-west projecting stair tower. At the east end of the floors are 140-seat lecture theatres with other lecture and seminar rooms opening off a wide spine corridor (second-floor lecture theatre stripped out and some subdividing room walls removed on two floors).The floors are accessed by a bank of three lifts, an internal south staircase and the projecting north-west stair tower. The podium contains a 500-seat lecture theatre and two 300-seat lecture theatres, with a large entrance hall, cafeterias, offices, and a first-floor circulation hall (also used for exhibitions). It is entered at ground level on the south and east sides but at first-floor level via a bridge from Altrincham Street on the north side.


EXTERIOR:
The ground floor of the PODIUM is faced on the south and east sides with grey-green mosaic around rectangular window openings. An off-centre entrance on the east front has aluminium, sliding door and side lights and a cantilevered flat steel canopy (painted black) with hardwood strip soffit with circular lights. The entrance on the south side has a smilar flat canopy on stanchions. The first floor on these sides is cantilevered, glazed with large windows between thin mullions below a shorter clerestory. The north side and west ends of the podium, however, are faced in Portland stone panels with recessed joints. The north side is connected by a glazed bridge at first floor to Altrincham Street. This bridge has a steel frame, concrete deck and concrete canopy with faceted end. Above the four doors is the name of the building in original sans serif lettering.


The TOWER is set on the southern part of the podium. Its principal and most distinct feature is the east elevation which has glazing for the full width of the facade of saw-tooth profile with the lower rakes faced in opaque black glass panels and the upper rakes of vertical glass panes with slender aluminium mullions: these light the lecture theatres at the east end of the building. The sides of these theatres are windowless resulting in the north and south sides having all over cladding of Portland Stone which is also used to face the west facade of the slab which has a narrow, recessed vertical strip for windows lighting the central corridor. The rest of the facades on the north and south side are glazed to light the other lecture and seminar rooms but this is differently treated on each side. On the north elevation this has curtain walling flush to the frame divided into bays by thin mullions and thinner transoms and solid spandrel panels. On the south elevation this has a projecting grid of nine bays wide by six bays high composed of thin concrete mullions forming vertical stacks of deeply recessed square window reveals divided by rectangular horizontal panels at each floor. The different pattern of the windows in the second bay from right indicate the position of the stair inside.

The flat-roofed north-west stair tower has the same Portland stone facing to the north face but fully glazed sides of very thin gridded framework to expose the unsupported or cantilevered staircase rising within: this gives the impression of the stair floating without visible means of support.


At roof level, there is a plant room setback into the centre of the slab, disguised by a sculptural, asymmetrical, curved roofline swept upwards at both ends.

INTERIOR
PODIUM: the large entrance hall and the first-floor circulation hall have widely-spaced, multi-faceted concrete columns and hardwood strip floors (partly covered during present refurbishment). The first-floor columns support large transverse beams with distinctive split ‘birdsmouth’ ends to encompass clerestory windows. On the west wall of the entrance hall is a long, abstract painted mural by Victor Pasmore (Metamorphosis, 1958, executed 1968).

The two halls are linked by a free-standing staircase of cranked concrete slabs with precast, pale terrazzo stair blocks and landing with swept aluminium handrails on slender metal baluster rods – presently partially boxed-in to separate from the main space.

The first-floor northern entrance hall (off the bridge) has a similar staircase linking to the north stair tower with cranked concrete slabs, the half landing supported by two columns, black terrazzo stair blocks and landing, and swept aluminium handrails.

The large lecture theatre and pair of medium lecture theatres retain their projector rooms, baffle-lobbies, raked seating arrangement, and preparation rooms which can be accessed externally to bring equipment in. The preparation room for the large lecture theatre retains its five-ton crane (used to bring equipment such as aero-engines or machine tools on to the lecture theatre platform).


TOWER: the six lecture theatres are stacked at the east end with a raked seating arrangement (removed from second-floor lecture theatre). Behind the uppermost row of seats are the angled windows with deep, black terrazzo sills, the large upper panes angled down to reflect the sound back into the room. This wall is double-glazed with a considerable distance between the inner windows and external saw-tooth windows. The lecture theatre walls are sound-proofed.

The south internal staircase is located in a stairwell with double doors opening onto each floor. It has cranked cantilevered concrete slabs with precast, pale terrazzo stair blocks and landings, swept aluminium handrails and slender baluster rods. The concrete staircase in the north-west stair tower is similarly detailed, but with black terrazzo stair blocks and landings.

Many original wooden doors remain, those opening off the staircases are glazed with mid rails, others have vertical or horizontal peep-hole glazing strips, or are plain. The original windows remain, those to the tower with black terrazzo sills. Some grey terrazzo stall dividers remain in the WCs.

Partial reconfiguration in 2024 removed some spine corridor walls and walls dividing lecture and seminar rooms in the tower. Some ceilings and the cafeteria areas in the podium were refurbished in 2024. All the lecture theatres have replacement furniture and teaching accessories.


Mapping Note: the terrace walls, steps, in-built planters and the fully-paved areas are mapped. The terrace peters out at the west end of the south elevation and so only the definable front wall is mapped here.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 11 November 2025 to amend the description

Sources

Books and journals
Harwood, E, Space, Hope and Brutalism, English Architecture 1945-79 (2015), 267-269
Harwood, E, Brutalist Britain. Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s (2022), 84-85
Hartwell, C, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Manchester (2001), 122-127
Proposed Educational Buildings, Manchester in The Architects' Journal, ,Vol. 127, number 3295, (April 24, 1958), 602
New Lecture Room Block, Manchester College of Science and Technology in Structural Concrete, ,Vol. 1, number 8, (March-April 1963), 326-350
The successful use of white concrete in the new lecture room block, Manchester College of Science & Technology in Concrete Quarterly, ,Vol. 8, (October- December 1962), 11-13
Lecture Hall Block College of Science and Technology, Manchester: Architects: Cruickshank and Seward in The Architectural Review, ,Vol. 132, number 788, (Oct 1, 1962), 281-283
Technical college lecture rooms in The Architect & Building News, ,Vol. 222, number 15, (10 October 1962), 529-532
Lecture Room Building for Manchester College of Science & Technology in The Builder, ,Vol. 198, number 6108, (June 10, 1960), 1092-1093
Lecture Room Building for the Manchester College of Science & Technology in The Builder, ,Vol. 203, number 6230, (12 October 1962), 721-727

Other
Brook, R, The Renewal of Post-War Manchester: Regionality and the Architecture of Cruickshank & Seward, Chapter Four: Scientific Imperative. The Development of UMIST – The Lecture Room Block (Renold Building), 2017, 219-223. Phd thesis available at https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/the-renewal-of-post-war-manchester-regionality-and-the-architectu

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