MSA History
MSA: A Brief History extract by Cecil Stewart
Three months before the young Victoria was aclaimed Queen of England, the first Architectural Society was founded in Manchester. Its President was Richard Lane, an architect of some distinction but of limited repertoire. He built Salford Town Hall, The Friends Meeting House in Mount Street, Chorlton Town Hall, and the Doric section of Stockport Infirmary. His work is uniformly chaste, Classical and rather dull. In his opening address he expressed his disappointment in the opportunities that Manchester offered. "It affords little scope or encouragement for architectural display". Manchester, he was sure did not lack talent, but did not use it. "If we look back to the departed glories of Grecian magnificance, when Athens possessed her greatest painters, sculptors and poets, we find it was precisely at that period when her architectural splendours were at their zenith". Manchester was still far behind Athens. Cheetham Hill was singularly unlike the Acropolis, and it was very doubtful if Richard Lane was among her greatest artists. The Society which he founded had for its purpose "the diffusing of a general taste for architecture and the fine arts as well as affording to members of the profession opportunities for friendly intercourse and material improvement; and to the younger members facilities for pursuing their studies by the establishment of a Library; periodical meetings for reading papers and discussions, and occasional exhibitions and conversazione".
The rooms of the Society were in Cooper Street and were open every day from 9 to 6. It was affiliated in some way with the RIBA, because "members of this Society visiting the great metropolis have free access to the rooms and meetings of the institute". No records seem to have survived of the activities or membership of the society, except that in 1841 one of its members, Edward hall, won the Institute's Silver Medal for an Essay appropriately devoted to Greek Architecture. The following year marks the end of the Society, and, apart from the erection of the King Street branch of the Bank of England by Cockerell in 1845 the end of the Classical Revival. In that year Richard Lane took into his office as a pupil Alfred Waterhouse, after which nothing could be quite the same. For 20 years there was no Architectural Society in Manchester. These were the free-for-all years, stylistically and commercially. No holds were barred, and competition between architects and builders was keen and often bitter. In 1852, the members of the Liverpool Architectural and Archaelogical Society made a visit to Manchester, but according to the editor of The Builder, Recieved no welcome from there bretheren. "Indeed, they (the Manchester architects) showed not the slightest interest or smallest amount of good feeling towards the visitors".
It was not until 1865 that the Manchester Society of Architects was founded. It was a strictly professional association, limited to practicing principals and excluding assistants, students and others interested in Architecture. The opening words of the Constitution were: "The society shall consist only of gentlemen". The urgent need for such a society became apparent in 1865, when there was a general strike of builders who resented the introduction of mechanical hoists in the erection of the Assize Courts at Strangeways. All the buildings then being erected by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, were affected, and other architects throught the district were seriously concerned.
For a continuation of this article please see MSA: a brief history and MSA Centenary events 1965