Hollings Building | |
---|---|
Alternative names | The Toast Rack |
General information | |
Type | Academic (1960–2013) |
Architectural style | Modernist |
Location | Fallowfield, Manchester, England |
Coordinates | 53°26′51″N2°13′00″W / 53.4473854°N 2.2167121°W |
Construction started | 1957 |
Opened | 1960 |
Renovated | 1994 |
Owner | Estrela Properties Ltd |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | LC Howitt |
Designations | |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Hollings Building at Manchester Metropolitan University |
Designated | 24 April 1998 |
Reference no. | 1119722 |
The Toast Rack, formerly known as the Hollings Building, is a Modernist building in Fallowfield, Manchester, England. The building was completed in 1960 as the Domestic Trades College, became part of Manchester Polytechnic then Manchester Metropolitan University until closure of the "Hollings Campus" in 2013. [2] It was designed by the city architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt and is known as the Toast Rack due to its distinctive form, which reflects its use as a catering college.
The architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as "a perfect piece of pop architecture". [3] It was Grade II listed in April 1998 by English Heritage who describe the structure as, "a distinctive and memorable building which demonstrates this architect's love of structural gymnastics in a dramatic way". [4] To others the building symbolises the ideals of the Festival of Britain and architectural positivity following the Second World War. [5]
The building's structure consists of a concrete frame with a brick infill on the bottom half of each storey. The building is seven storeys high and its hyperbolic paraboloid frame continues on the exterior, hence the toast rack comparison. Although the building's unorthodox form is playful, its tapering shape also helps to divide space into varying sizes for larger and smaller classes. A semi-circular restaurant block is attached to the west and is informally known as the "Poached Egg". [6]
Manchester Metropolitan University left their Hollings campus in 2013 as they consolidated their facilities towards the city centre. [7] The building was then put up for sale, [8] being bought by developers for £4 million in 2014. [9] There are plans to redevelop the building with flats, a leisure centre and a rooftop garden. [10] In 2023, the Toast Rack and its adjacent buildings were put on the market with planning consent for a mixed-use development. [11]
Ordsall Hall is a large former manor house in the historic parish of Ordsall, Lancashire, now part of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It dates back more than 750 years, although the oldest surviving parts of the present hall were built in the 15th century. The most important period of Ordsall Hall's life was as the family seat of the Radclyffe family, who lived in the house for more than 300 years. The hall was the setting for William Harrison Ainsworth's 1842 novel Guy Fawkes, written around the plausible although unsubstantiated local story that the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was planned in the house.
Irlam is a suburb in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, it had a population of 19,933. It lies on flat ground on the south side of the M62 motorway and the north bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, 6.7 miles (10.8 km) southwest of Salford, 7.6 miles (12.2 km) southwest of Manchester and 8.3 miles (13.4 km) northeast of Warrington. Irlam forms a continuous urban area with Cadishead to the southwest, and is divided from Flixton and the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford to the southeast by the Manchester Ship Canal. The main road through Irlam, linking it to Cadishead and Eccles, is the A57. Irlam railway station also serves the district.
Fallowfield is a suburb of Manchester, England, with a population at the 2011 census of 15,211. Historically in Lancashire, it lies 3 miles (5 km) south of Manchester city centre and is bisected east–west by Wilbraham Road and north–south by Wilmslow Road. The former Fallowfield Loop railway line, now a shared use path, follows a route nearly parallel with the east–west main road.
Gorton is an area of Manchester in Greater Manchester, North West England. It is to the southeast of Manchester city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw.
Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 14,771 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Stockport and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury to the north, Gatley to the east, Sale to the west and Wythenshawe to the south.
Sunlight House is a Grade II listed building in the art deco style on Quay Street in Manchester, England. Completed in 1932 for Joseph Sunlight, at 14 storeys it was the tallest building in Manchester, and the top floors of turrets and multiple dormer windows and mansard roofs create a distinctive skyline.
Deansgate is a main road through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile in length.
Beetham Tower is a 47-storey mixed use skyscraper in Manchester, England. Completed in 2006, it is named after its developers, the Beetham Organisation, and was designed by SimpsonHaugh and Partners. The development occupies a sliver of land at the top of Deansgate, hence its elongated plan, and was proposed in July 2003, with construction beginning a year later.
A toast rack or toastrack is a serving piece having vertical partitions connected to a flat base, used for holding slices of toast. It often has a central ring handle for carrying and passing round the table.
The architecture of Manchester demonstrates a rich variety of architectural styles. The city is a product of the Industrial Revolution and is known as the first modern, industrial city. Manchester is noted for its warehouses, railway viaducts, cotton mills and canals – remnants of its past when the city produced and traded goods. Manchester has minimal Georgian or medieval architecture to speak of and consequently has a vast array of 19th and early 20th-century architecture styles; examples include Palazzo, Neo-Gothic, Venetian Gothic, Edwardian baroque, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Neo-Classical.
Fuse FM is a student radio station broadcasting every day during term time from Manchester Students' Union at the University of Manchester.
New Broadcasting House (NBH) was the BBC's North West England headquarters on Oxford Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The studios housed BBC Manchester, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics department. It was known as a Network Production Centre, the others being in Birmingham and Broadcasting House, Bristol.
Giddy-gaddy, also known as cat's pallet, was a children's game played in Manchester, England, almost certainly a variation on tip-cat. It involved "striking one end of a sharpened piece of wood causing it to rise and then driving it some distance with a stick"; the object was to hit it as far as possible. The name "giddy-gaddy" for the game appears only in the court leet records of the manor of Manchester, an indication of the disruption and damage it caused in the streets of industrial areas such as Ardwick.
The Theatre Royal in Manchester, England, opened in 1845. Situated next to the Free Trade Hall, it is the oldest surviving theatre in Manchester. It was commissioned by Mancunian businessman John Knowles who wanted a theatre venue in the city.
The Fallowfield Campus is the main residential campus of the University of Manchester. It is located in Fallowfield, Manchester, 2 miles (3 km) south of the main university site, to which it is connected by Wilmslow Road and the A34.
Leonard Cecil Howitt – often referred to as L. C. Howitt – served in both World Wars and was Manchester City Council's chief architect from 1946 until he retired in 1961.
St John's is a proposed £1 bn development of a 6 hectare plot within central Manchester, England. The site is being developed by Manchester Quays Ltd (MQL), a partnership between Manchester City Council and Allied London.
Sharston Hall was a manor house built in Sharston, an area of Wythenshawe, Manchester, England, in 1701. A three-storey building with Victorian additions, it was purchased by Thomas Worthington, an early umbrella tycoon, and occupied by the Worthington family until 1856, when the last male heir died. The hall was occupied by the Henriques family in the 1920s, but following their death in a motor accident in 1932 the house was converted into flats. Manchester Corporation purchased the hall in 1926. During the Second World War it was leased by the local watch committee for use by the police, civil defence and fire services.
The 2020 University of Manchester protests were a series of student protests and rent strikes at the University of Manchester in England. The protests began on 5 November 2020, and occupations ended on 25 November 2020. The protest was in reaction to perceived mishandling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by university management. The goals of the protests were a removal of fencing erected during the COVID-19 lockdown and a reduction in rents in halls of residence. This later expanded to goals including improvement of living conditions, increased access to support services and the removal of senior university leadership figures, such as Vice-chancellor Nancy Rothwell.
Woolton Hall is a traditional University of Manchester hall of residence situated within the Fallowfield Campus complex. Established in 1959 as a male-only hall it was the last traditional catered hall of residence founded as part of the University of Manchester, during a period of ambitious residential expansion for the university. Along with Hulme Hall, Dalton-Ellis Hall, Ashburne Hall, and St. Anselm Hall, Woolton is one of the five remaining traditional collegiate halls of residence at the University of Manchester. The hall is catered and contains a Junior Common Room.