Manchester Art Gallery

Manchester Art Gallery, originally the Royal Manchester Institution and later the City Art Gallery, was built between 1824 and 1835 by Sir Charles Barry. It is a building of group value, with significant architectural and historical interest.

The building is constructed of rusticated ashlar, with the roof hidden from view. It is rectangular in plan, runs parallel to the street, and is set back from it. A projecting central portico dominates the facade, which is a symmetrical composition of a 3-bay main range flanked by slightly projecting pavilions. The design is in the Greek Ionic style. The building appears to have two storeys, but includes a central attic. It is raised on a plinth and features a pedimented portico with six giant Ionic columns, three-bay colonnaded side ranges with Ionic columns in antis, plain corner pilasters to the pavilions, a continuous plain entablature, dentilled cornice, and a plain parapet with moulded coping. A rectangular attic sits behind the portico, flanked by set-back parapets over the side ranges. Steps lead to the portico, which contains a large doorway with a moulded architrave and cornice on consoles. The rear walls of the colonnaded side ranges have windows with plain reveals. Each pavilion features three sash windows at ground floor level with simple architraves and cornices, and three small rectangular panels above, designed to accommodate statuary. The attic has small windows with pilaster jambs, a frieze, and a moulded cornice with roundels.

The interior includes a square entrance hall with a stone imperial staircase and a balustraded gallery supported by fluted Doric columns.

The gallery was the site of an attack on artworks by suffragettes on 3 April 1913, when Lillian Forrester and Evelyn Manesta smashed the glass protecting paintings by artists like Millais, Burne-Jones, and Rossetti, causing over £100 in damage. Both women were associated with the Women’s Social and Political Union, founded in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst. They explained their actions as a protest against a recent prison sentence given to Mrs. Pankhurst. Photographs of Forrester and Manesta were covertly taken in prison and circulated to art galleries across Britain to prevent further attacks.

The list entry was amended in 2018 as part of commemorations for the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.