Manchester Museum Extensions

Extensions to Manchester Museum, designed in 1911 and 1918 by Paul Waterhouse, and built between 1911 and 1927. Following Paul Waterhouse’s death in 1924, his son, Michael, completed the contract work. The extensions are constructed from sandstone ashlar, with lead and red tile roofs. The plan is linear, comprising three sections, the earliest on the left and the latest to the right. They are in a Gothic Revival style.

The earliest section, reminiscent of the Hotel de Ville style, is two storeys high with five bays and exhibits symmetry. It features buttresses, an embattled parapet over the three centre bays, and slightly higher square parapets at the end bays, each incorporating a gable and pierced with multifoils. The large double-transomed nine-light windows at ground floor are matched by large segmental-pointed three-light windows at the first floor, with arched lights and six-light Perpendicular tracery. The end bays have gablets. A two-storey entrance archway and bridge spanning to Coupland Street is attached to the left end. This features a large two-centred arch and three three-light windows above, the central one beneath a gable. It contains a porter's lodge and curator's room.

The central section is lower, with two storeys and three bays. It has a gabled centre flanked by pilaster buttresses. Ground-floor windows resemble those of the earlier section, while the first-floor features three-light windows with cusped heads. The central window has Perpendicular tracery rising into the gable. To the right is a cross wing with a facing gable. It is four storeys high with an attic in one wide gabled bay, with octagonal tourelles at the corners, finished with arcaded pinnacles. The lower half is dominated by a giant segmental-headed arch with a projecting gabled porch. This porch has a two-centred arched doorway moulded in two orders with shafts and is otherwise filled by a seven-light window with fourteen-light Perpendicular tracery. The upper half features mullioned two, three, and two-light windows on the next two floors, a band of blind arcading between them, and an attic window containing a two-centred arched centre and a blind-arcaded surround. At the rear, this range has mainly flat-headed windows in a grid pattern. A central gable contains a pointed arched traceried window, flanked by hipped dormers.