Former Hydraulic Power Station In Grounds Of City College

The former hydraulic power station, built between 1907 and 1909, is now part of the workshops at City College in Manchester. This building features red brick with sandstone dressings, iron reservoirs, and a slate roof. It is located on the east bank of the River Irwell and has an irregular rectangular plan that runs at right angles to the river. Designed in a Baroque style, the structure has two and three stories, resembling a nave with aisles. The aisles are flat-roofed and topped with large rectangular reservoirs near the river, with a tower positioned on the south side.

The east gable end is asymmetrical and consists of four bays, featuring a stone plinth, banded pilasters, and a moulded cornice with a parapet that rises to an open-pedimented gable over the third bay. The tall segmental-headed windows in the second, third, and fourth bays are mullion-and-transomed with arched lights and small-pane glazing in the heads. The first bay has pairs of smaller but similar windows on two levels, all adorned with triple keystones. A narrow triple-light window in the gable has a banded surround and arched lights. The building also includes a glazed clerestory and a rectangular tower set back behind the first bay, which features pilasters.

The west end, overlooking the river, has four oblong four-light windows with similar glazing to that of the east end, and the gabled end of the nave is above the two central bays, with panelled iron reservoirs on the aisles. This power station was one of three built to supply hydraulic power for lifts and hoists in commercial warehouses in the city centre, remaining in use until 1972. It is a very unusual survival of its kind.