Summary
A bluecoat school designed 1865 to 1867 and built 1878 to 1880, by Thomas Worthington for Benjamin Nicholls, with a governor’s house of approximately 1900; later a council school and a college of further education, with extensions. Contemporary boundary walls with gate piers and gates, cemetery gate piers of approximately 1837, a monument to John Nicholls of approximately 1859 (relocated in the late-C20), and a monument to John Nicholls of 1860 (relocated in 1904).
Reasons for Designation
The former Nicholls Hospital, including a gymnasium, governor's house, a stone setted and flagged forecourt, boundary walls and gates, stone gate piers on Ford Street and Devonshire Street, and two granite memorials in the forecourt; a bluecoat school of 1878 to 1880, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for its highly-decorative northern European Gothic design with a landmark tower and much enrichment in stone;
* designed by Thomas Worthington, a notable and innovative architect with more numerous listed buildings, many listed in the higher grades;
* as a relatively complete 1870s bluecoat school ensemble comprising school, gymnasium and associated forecourt and boundary treatments, and retaining many original features;
* enhanced by the addition of the governor’s house.
Historic interest:
* for its strong association with John Ashton Nicholls, as his principal memorial which manifests his strong commitment to the improvement of the education of the less fortunate, and the site of his relocated grave memorial and memorial obelisk.
Group value:
* of the school and its subsidiary structures with the memorials and the former cemetery gate piers.
History
Benjamin Nicholls (1790 – 1877) was a Manchester mill-owner and councillor, who was mayor of the city from 1853 to 1855. His son John Ashton Nicholls (1823 – 1859) studied sciences and built an observatory, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society aged just 26. John worked in the family business but devoted considerable efforts to social reform and improving the education and conditions of workers. He organised many lectures and entertainments at the Ancoats Lyceum and the Manchester Athenaeum, and was treasurer for a model half-time school in the former Mather Street Temperance Hall in Ancoats, close to the family mill.
On John’s early death, his father took over as treasurer of the school, and made plans for a purpose-built institution of similar aims, in his son’s memory. To this end he acquired the land adjacent to Ardwick cemetery (established in 1837), where John was buried. It is thought that the memorial now by the entrance steps was originally erected at John’s grave in the cemetery, around 1859. It does not appear in its present position even on the 1:1,250 map of 1976, and was presumably moved here between then and its original listing in 1994. Also, in 1860 public subscription resulted in a granite obelisk being erected in John’s honour on Great Ancoats Street. That was moved to its present position outside the school in 1904, as a result of the electrification of the Great Ancoats Street tram tracks. It was also listed in 1994.
Thomas Worthington was commissioned to design this ‘bluecoat’ boarding school in 1867, although The Building News reported in 1878 that rough sketches had been made around 1865. The building shares similarities with others designed by Worthington in the same period, such as Manchester’s City Police Courts (National Heritage List for England – NHLE – entry 1219894), and the Didsbury house The Towers (NHLE 1270516), although the school’s tower is most like Worthington’s unsuccessful entry to the 1867 Manchester Town Hall competition. The Pevsner Manchester City Guide suggests that much carving on the tower, in the form of heraldic beasts, has been removed. However, a lithograph of the proposed design in The Architect of January 18 1879 suggests otherwise, and the 2010 Pevsner volume for south-east Lancashire does not repeat the claim. Benjamin died in 1877 and work began in November 1878. The building was completed by Christmas of 1880 (wanting only furniture), and the first intake of fifty boys was admitted in 1881. Benjamin’s widow Sarah added a supplementary bequest in her own will, dying in August 1881. Intended statues of the founding family never filled the three niches provided for the purpose.
The initial build included the gymnasium (abutted by a covered play-shed), toilet blocks facing the rear of the school, and the boundary walls and gate piers to Hyde Road, Nicholls Street and Devonshire Street. The school was arranged with servants’ quarters on the third floor at the rear. These were directly accessed by stair from the basement which housed the kitchen, laundry and stores. The basement ceiling was of the patented Dennett fireproof construction, with substantial amounts of concrete in the construction of upper floors also intended to retard fire. The ground floor housed a schoolroom and dining room, with library, lavatories and housekeeper’s apartment to the rear. The first floor housed dormitories with bathrooms, a central boardroom, and masters’ studies and head’s house. The second floor had larger dormitories and a sanatorium.
After 1893, but by around 1906, the house to the north-east, now known as the governor’s house, had been built; a first-floor corridor connected it to the ‘ground floor’ of the school across the top of the earlier archway giving access from the east to the rear of the school. Between the wars pupil numbers declined and in the Second World War the school was requisitioned as barracks for Commonwealth troops. By 1952 the dramatic drop in numbers attending led to the trust being merged with that of Chetham’s Hospital and the remaining boys went there. The building was rented, and then in 1953 bought, by the council, for the use of the newly-formed Nicholls Secondary School for Boys (NSSB).
In 1950 Ardwick cemetery was formally closed and transferred to the corporation. From 1963 it was developed as a playing field for the school, formally opening in 1966. The quadrant walls and inner gate piers on Ford Street were demolished along with the mortuary and chapel, but the outer gate piers remain in situ, along with a pair of gate piers on Devonshire Street. In 1967 the school was again merged, to form the co-educational Nicholls Ardwick High School. It was listed in 1974. In 1983 it was renamed Ellen Wilkinson High School (EWHS). In 2000 EWHS merged with Spurley Hey school to become Cedar Mount school, and moved out of the Nicholls building.
Most of the NSSB’s additional requirements were housed in extensions with minimal connection to the old buildings (although the play shed was demolished). These were built between 1960 and 1962, and demolished early in the C21. The interiors of the earlier buildings were altered however, especially the gymnasium and basement, and fire escapes were added to the rear. In the second half of the C20 internal alterations included the removal of the servants’ stair and addition of flights to the main stair, to access the attic and basement, and the installation of a lift. A new sixth-form centre was added to the north-west in 1996 (by city architect R King). In June 2001 during renovation works a serious fire destroyed the attic of the west wing, with additional water damage below; the fabric of the roof was replaced and interior fabric renovated. The sixth-form centre was linked to the old school building in 2013, by when the buildings were part of the Manchester College of Technology, now The Manchester College (TCM).
Thomas Worthington (1826-1909) was a notable and technically-innovative architect. Just three years older than John Nicholls, he attended the same chapel and school. Working chiefly in Manchester and the north, he was especially popular with the non-conformist, liberal middle class to which he belonged. Their patronage, and his own concern for social improvement, led to many commissions for public buildings, despite fierce competition from his contemporary Alfred Waterhouse. The winner in 1846 of the RIBA Silver Medal essay prize, he also won the Iris medal for architectural design, which was presented to him by Prince Albert. Study tours in 1848 and 1858 gave him first-hand knowledge both of Italian Renaissance and northern European Gothic architecture. In 1865 he was a founder member of the Manchester Society of Architects (an influential provincial society) and was an early president. He was vice-president of the RIBA from 1885 to 1889. He is attributed with over twenty listed buildings, including Manchester’s Grade I-listed Albert Memorial, and Grade II*-listed examples of building types including church, house, magistrates’ courts, swimming baths, public hall, school, offices and mausoleum.
Ellen Wilkinson (1891–1947) was born in Chorlton on Medlock and attended Ardwick Higher Grade School, which stood on Devonshire Street just to the south of Hyde Road. It was one of the three schools which amalgamated in 1953 to form Nicholls Ardwick High School, which eventually occupied only the former Nicholls school. She graduated from Manchester University in 1913 and continued her socialist activism before becoming an MP in 1924. In 1935 she became MP for Jarrow, and helped organise and lead the Jarrow Crusade. In 1945 she became the first female Minister for Education.
The complex is prominently sited on Hyde Road, a major route into Manchester from the east, and despite the recent intrusion of skyscrapers behind, still forming a landmark visible from well over 2km along this straight road.
Details
A bluecoat school designed 1865 to 1867 and built 1878 to 1880, by Thomas Worthington for Benjamin Nicholls, with a governor’s house of approximately 1900; later a council school and a college of further education, with extensions. Contemporary boundary walls with gate piers and gates, cemetery gate piers of approximately 1837, a monument to John Nicholls of approximately 1859 (relocated in the late-C20), and a monument to John Nicholls of 1860 (relocated in 1904).
MATERIALS: red brick, buff sandstone from Moor End (Halifax), slate and lead roofs, cast-iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: a linear range aligned east-west, with a central block extending to the front (with tower) and to the rear. A gymnasium is attached at the north-west and the governor’s house is attached at the north-east.
DESCRIPTION:
SCHOOL BUILDING
Exterior
The design is Gothic of a north European style, with flat-headed mullion-and-transom windows and no polychromy. Decoration intensifies with height. The building is of two tall storeys plus a basement and attic. The front faces south and is 11 bays wide and symmetrical, with the central tower breaking forwards, 130 feet high. The brickwork is in Flemish bond.
There are deep stone sill-bands to all floors (bar the basement), stone tourelles to the corners, and gabled stone half-dormers. The tower rises two stages above the eaves, with a machicolated stone parapet and octagonal corner tourelles, and a steep saddle-back roof (with its ridge perpendicular to the front), with gableted three-light windows and ridge cresting. The entrance in the base of the tower, approached by a long flight of steps with stone balustrades, has a pointed-arched doorway with a moulded surround and double doors with studded Gothic panelling, flanked by canopied Gothic niches. The first and second floors have a tiered stone oriel with stepped parapet rising to a canopied niche flanked by lancets on the third floor.
The five-bay side ranges have stone mullion-and-transom windows to all floors, all with quoined surrounds and those at the first floor with straight dripmoulds. The attic dormers are slightly corbelled out and have Gothic enrichment. Rainwater pipes run down between the bays. The gables have stone copings with heraldic-beast finials. The entrance steps span a broad basement area, with a stone retaining wall on a low brick plinth, and square buttresses and corner piers. The wall returns in stone across the ends of the area, at the rear of the building. The gymnasium and governor’s house are partially visible set back at the left and right respectively.
The bands all return across the west end of the main range, which is gabled. At eaves level the matching tourelles are linked by machicolation like the main tower. Above this are a two-light mullion-and-transom window with drip-moulded pointed arch above and, in the tympanum, a roundel in relief inscribed ‘N’. The window is flanked by stone tablets with shields in relief, carved (towards the front of the building) with the school badge of a castle tower, and (towards the rear) the monogram ‘BN’, both with the school motto ‘SEMPER FIDELIS’ (always faithful). Below are stacked three-light, four-light and two-light mullion-and-transom windows. To the left of the two-light basement window is an inserted doorway. Slightly recessed to the left is the side of a single-bay lavatory tower, with narrow sash windows to each floor and the sill bands of the main range continuing in simplified form as paired plat bands. The tower’s gable has stone coping with moulded kneelers and finial. To the left are modern links (of lesser interest) to the gymnasium.
On the north (rear) wall, the rear of the basement is partially obscured at the right by inserted links (of lesser interest) to the gymnasium. The rear is symmetrical, with a wide, three-bay central block of four storeys above the basement, and four-bay rear walls of the main range with the outer of the four bays occupied by the lavatory towers. The valley between the towers and the main roof has a very tall, channelled and corbelled chimney stack with stone coping. Inboard from this are two bays with gabled half-dormers and stone mullion-and-transom windows to each floor (some altered for exits onto modern fire escapes of lesser interest), and then a full-height chimney breast rising to a similar stack. The towers have two sash windows per floor with stone lintels and sills. All the side plat bands return across the towers, one per floor also continuing across the whole width.
The central rear block comprises two gabled, two-window towers flanking a polygonal tower, with two-light mullion-and-transom windows to each face and steep slate roof. The side returns of this block have gabled half-dormers and chimney breasts with tall stacks. There is also a full-height chimney breast in the angles of the polygonal tower with the bays flanking it; at the left this has a tall, channelled stack with stone coping, but at the right the stack is plain and truncated. Above and behind, the main tower details match the front, except the lanceted window is replaced by a very tall chimney stack with polygonal sides, machicolated coping and tall glazed pots. The base of the left-hand lavatory tower is partially obscured by the corridor linking it to the governor’s house.
The east wall matches the west wall except that the basement window is flanked by inserted windows. At the base of the lavatory tower the wall extends rearwards with a low two-centred stone arched gateway (with modern gates of lesser interest) that links it with the governor’s house. Above this is a corridor with pitched slate roof and two windows above the stone coping of the earlier wall below.
Interior
Interior spaces are generally plain but retain some moulded archways and architraves, skirtings and cornices, particularly in circulation areas but also in some rooms. The porch has a dado rail and glazed panelled screen, and coffered ceiling, as well as two short marble columns without the busts they were apparently intended to display. The lobby beyond retains a stone-flagged floor (which extends into the stairwell), radiators and skirting, moulded archways and cornicing. It also retains a marble memorial tablet to old boys who gave their lives in the First World War, and a marble dedication tablet. Below the school badge in relief this reads: THIS HOSPITAL FOR THE MAINTENANCE/ AND EDUCATION OF THE SONS OF POOR PERSONS/ WAS FOUNDED BY BEQUEST OF/ ALDERMAN BENJAMIN NICHOLLS OF MANCHESTER/ AS A MEMORIAL OF HIS SON/ JOHN ASHTON NICHOLLS/ WHO HAD THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE HUMBLER CLASSES DEEPLY AT HEART/ AND LABOURED EARNESTLY TO PROMOTE IT/ AND WHOSE MOTHER TESTIFIED HER INTEREST IN THE OBJECT OF THIS INSTITUTION/ BY A SUPPLEMENTARY BEQUEST./ JOHN ASHTON NICHOLLS DIED 18TH SEPTEMBER 1859/ BENJAMIN NICHOLLS DIED 1ST MARCH 1877/ SARAH NICHOLLS DIED 25TH AUGUST 1881.
The well-winder stair is original (extended to the basement and attic) with stone treads (covered), decorative cast-iron newel and balusters as well as the banister rail and skirting. The first-floor boardroom above the lobby retains skirting, dado rail and cornice, window dado and its fireplace with marble and tiled fire surround and hearth. A study next door has similar woodwork. The tower retains the original bell in a room accessed by an original wooden spiral staircase with lime-plaster soffit. The basement retains features of lesser interest save for the patent ceiling construction. A modern lift has been inserted and the timbers of the west range roof are replacements in the original configuration. Most rooms retain original sash windows (with the meeting rail aligned with the stone transom), with modern internal secondary glazing.
GOVERNOR’S HOUSE
Exterior
The house is of two storeys plus an attic, and two rooms deep. The principal wall faces east onto Devonshire street. At the left is a projecting, three-storey gabled bay with two-storey canted bay window; to the right a two-bay wing with a blind gable at the right, and a flat-roofed porch in the angle. The two gable windows have stone lintels and transoms, and brick tympana to pointed heads. The flat-roofed canted bay has mullioned two-light central windows to each floor, with chequered (yellow and purple) leaded glass in all the upper lights. The gabled bay at the right has a three-light mullion-and-transom window (its lintel breaking the eaves) above two of two-lights. To the left of these is a two-light window above the porch; the upper lights of the first-floor windows also have chequered leaded glass. The porch has a transomed window with patterned leaded glass. There are stone plat bands, kneelers and copings, a brick eaves cornice, and square rainwater goods.
The north wall is gabled with the plat bands returning and a projecting full-height chimney breast with decorative brickwork and corbelled top. Set back at the left is the entrance in the side return of the front porch, with a two-light overlight with chequered leaded glass, and panelled door. To the right in the angle with the west range is a two-storey outshot with canted ground-floor bay window and window above with stone sill and lintel. Set back to the right is the side of the west range, which has a small window lighting the rear entrance lobby, with coloured leaded glass.
The west wall has a set-back gabled bay at the left, and three-window block to the right with a gable over the two right hand windows. The left bay is blind save for a small ground-floor window and blocked basement light, and has a full-height chimney breast similar to the north wall. To the right of this are a rear entrance with four stone steps, chequered overlight and panelled door, and a patterned leaded stair window above. Beneath the gable at the right (which projects by a single brick depth) are two windows to each of three floors, plus small basement lights; these windows are all replacements. A round cast-iron soil-vent stack runs down between these windows. Set back to the right is the west face of the arched link to the school.
The south wall is obscured at the left by the link, and to the right of this has corbelled two-light half-dormers above stacked two-light and three-light windows (all windows mullion-and-transom, some with chequered leaded glass in the upper lights). A tall ridge stack has a corbelled top.
Interior
This retains most architraves, doors and skirting, and some cornicing, as well as its original stair. The attic retains a structural timber roof frame.
GYMNASIUM
Exterior
This is a tall single storey with a hipped slate roof with inserted conservation rooflights, and a tall ridge lantern with replacement windows and its own hipped slate roof with ridge finials. The north wall is obscured at the west end by a modern link to the former sixth-form centre, and the south wall is obscured by infill links and service spaces. The north wall has recessed brick panels and inserted fire doors, the east wall has large windows and a doorway, and the west wall is blind.
Interior
This retains the timber roof structure, and the original floor is thought to survive beneath carpet.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the entrance is approached by a stone-flagged path flanked by low stone retaining walls; cast-iron boot scrapers are embedded in the path at either side, together with gate-catches. There is also an area of stone setts and flags on the eastern approach.
There are substantial boundary walls. To Hyde Road and returning along the sides of the forecourt is a low sandstone ashlar wall with moulded coping. Railings are C20 (and not of interest). At the main entrance are four tall stone piers, square in section, with moulded plinths, beaded corners, brattished cornices and tall pyramidal caps with finials. These carry original cast-iron gates with dog-bars and spear-headed bar railings. The centre pair ramp up towards the centre which is flat-headed and has panels lettered SEMPER/ FIDELIS.
At the north end of the west side the wall continues as a tall brick wall in Flemish bond with stone quoins and coping, and bell bollards to a west gateway. To the north of the gateway the wall continues as the west wall of the gymnasium. On the east side the wall to Devonshire Street is almost at pavement level before it too rises as a Flemish bond brick wall with stone quoins, a four-centred arched doorway, and a tall gateway with coped piers and quoined jambs. The gates are replacements of lesser interest. North of the gateway the wall steps down until the coping is only a single course of brick above the pavement. Here it carries replacement railings and gate to the governor’s house. North of the governor’s house it rises again to around ten feet high, still in Flemish bond and with light headers creating a chequer pattern. There is a doorway with flat-arched stone lintel at the south end of this wall. The wall’s inner face has a tall plinth and recessed upper panels. Around 35m north of the governor’s house is a wide gateway with stone bell bollards. These gates are also replacements of lesser interest. Around 25m further north the wall ends at the southern boundary of the playing field (former cemetery).
The boundary wall and fence to the playing field is modern and not included in the listing, but around 40m further north stand two original stone gate piers, square in section with moulded plinths, raised and fielded panels to each face, and corniced square caps. Two similar piers also stand at the north end of Ford Street, where they formed another entrance to the playing field for the school.
At the corner of Hyde Road and Devonshire Street stands a polished grey granite obelisk on a square pedestal with a base of three steps. It is inscribed: ERECTED/ BY THE WORKING MEN/ OF THIS CITY/ IN GRATEFUL/ REMEMBRANCE OF/ JOHN ASHTON NICHOLLS/ F.R.A.S./ WHO FROM AN EARLY AGE/ LABOURED WITH UNTIRING/ ZEAL AND EARNESTNESS/ FOR THE ELEVATION/ OF THEIR CLASS/ INTELLECTUALLY/ POLITICALLY/ SOCIALLY AND MORALLY/ AND BY HIS PURE/ CONSISTENT USEFUL LIFE/ WELL ENTITLED HIMSELF/ TO THE RESPECT AND ESTEEM/ OF ALL HIS FELLOW CITIZENS/ JULY 1860
The plinth is inscribed below: DIED SEP 1859/ AGED 36 YEARS and, on the south side: RE-ERECTED ON THE PRESENT SITE/ BY THE/ CORPORATION OF MANCHESTER/ AT THE SUGGESTION OF/ THE TRUSTEES/ OF/ THE NICHOLLS HOSPITAL/ SEPTEMBER 1904.
Adjacent to the entrance forecourt stands a memorial, also in polished grey granite and square in plan. It comprises a base of two chamfered steps, tapered pedestal with a raised triangular-headed panel to each side, topped with simplified pediments and acroteria surmounted by draped urn. On the west side it is inscribed: IN MEMORY/ OF/ JOHN ASHTON NICHOLLS/ F.R.A.S./ THE DEAR AND ONLY SON OF/ BENJAMIN NICHOLLS/ AND OF SARAH, HIS WIFE./ HE WAS BORN/ ON THE 25TH OF MARCH 1823./ HE DIED/ ON THE 18TH OF SEPTEMBER 1859.
The south side is inscribed: IN MEMORY/ OF/ BENJAMIN NICHOLLS/ MAYOR OF MANCHESTER/ 1853-4 1854-5/ DIED MARCH 1ST 1877/ AGED 86 YEARS.
The north side is inscribed: IN MEMORY/ OF/ SARAH/ WIFE OF/ BENJAMIN NICHOLLS/ DIED AUGUST 25TH 1881/ AGED 82 YEARS.
The east side is inscribed: THE/ NICHOLLS HOSPITAL/ WHICH WAS ERECTED IN 1880/ ON ADJACENT LAND/ WAS FOUNDED AND ENDOWED/ BY/ BENJAMIN NICHOLLS/ AND SARAH HIS WIFE/ FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND EDUCATION/ OF/ POOR BOYS OF MANCHESTER/ AND AS A MEMORIAL OF THEIR ONLY SON/ JOHN ASHTON NICHOLLS F.R.A.S./ WHO DURING HIS COMPARATIVELY/ SHORT LIFE/ DEVOTED HIMSELF/ WITH GREAT EARNESTNESS/ TO/ THE WORK OF EDUCATION/ AMONG THE LABOURING CLASSES/ OF/ HIS NATIVE CITY
