Wander through history 

The Queen’s Arch

Our tour begins at the iconic Queen’s Arch, the gateway into the University. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse (who also designed the Natural History Museum in London), this Gothic arch, in warm-coloured sandstone, is the number one place to start our journey.

The Old Quadrangle

Stepping through the arch, you walk into the Old Quadrangle, where you’ll see the original buildings of Owens College, a predecessor of today’s university. John Owens, an unmarried Manchester merchant and industrialist, left most of his fortune to provide "to youths of the age of 14 and upwards instruction in the branches of education taught at English universities, free from religious tests", which is how Owens College started.

The Quad, as it’s affectionately known, is made up of the John Owens Building, the Beyer Building, the Christie Building and Whitworth Hall. It was in this Quad that they trained students who were intending to fight in World War I. 

The John Owens Building was the first part of the Old Quadrangle to be constructed. It housed most of the College’s activities, including the lecture theatres, the library and laboratories.

To its left stands the Beyer Building, which was opened in 1887 and named after Charles Beyer, an accomplished engineer, known worldwide for Beyer-Peacock railway locomotives. Beyer appreciated and supported scientific education in colleges, with the building housing geology, zoology and botany.

Across from the John Owens stands the Christie Building, which housed literature for all subject areas except medicine until the Arts Library was completed in 1937. The old library is now home to Christie’s Bistro – a beautiful setting for coffee or lunch.

Finally, the Whitworth Hall was the grandest part of the Old Quadrangle to be completed. It was designed to be, and still functions as, the University’s ceremonial hall in which generations of students have registered at, and graduated from, Manchester.

Gilbert Square

To the side of the Quad sits Gilbert Square, framed by the Library (one of only five national research libraries), the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (our 24/7 study and learning space) and the Samuel Alexander Building.

The Samuel Alexander Building was opened in 1919 to accommodate what was the Faculty of Arts. The neoclassic architecture, with marble white pillars, now houses most of our School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. Samuel Alexander was a philosopher who supported education for and by women, as well as the inclusion of technical education and the regional role of universities. In 1930 his distinction was recognised by the Order of Merit. 'Sammy's bust' now sits in the foyer of the building and has become a campus landmark.

Coupland Street

To the other side of the Quad is Coupland Street, a street that has changed the modern world. Made up of the Rutherford Building and Coupland Building 1, it is here that some of the greatest achievements in history were made. 

In the towering red-brick Rutherford Building, Ernest Rutherford experimented with nitrogen and became the first person in history to initiate an artificial nuclear reaction, often referred to as ‘splitting the atom’.

In Coupland Building 1, the world’s first stored-program computer was designed and built by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn. Nicknamed ‘the Baby’, it ran its first program on 21 June 1948, laying the foundations for modern computing. It was also in this building that the mathematician and World War II codebreaker Alan Turing began early experiments in artificial intelligence, developing the Turing Test, which asked whether machines could think like humans. 

Then, as you pass the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, you’ll reach Coupland Building 3 – formerly home to a medical school that was a landmark in Manchester’s trailblazing history of medical education.   

Landmarks of recent history

As you start to head towards the North Campus, situated in the city centre, you walk past the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (GEIC). 

These are two of our flagship research centres that lead on developments around graphene, our 2D material that is stronger than steel and thinner than a human hair. Graphene’s properties were first isolated at Manchester by Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, winners of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics. 

The NGI is the home of graphene research and the GEIC partners businesses and academics to work on applications for the 2D material. 

North Campus

The final stop on our history tour is in Manchester’s city and one of the most historic of our North Campus landmarks: the Sackville Street Building, which has been home to the study of science, technology and engineering at Manchester for more than 100 years. 

The building went on to house the historical Godlee Observatory which sits on the roof of the building. The Observatory is still in use by the Manchester Astronomical Society and forms an important part of the Sackville Street Building’s history.